Art Noveau

Vaanathi
Tharini
 Introduction
 Art Nouveau was a design style that became popular in Europe and the United States in the late 1880s and
early 1890s. The term 'Art Nouveau' is French and means 'new art.' Art Nouveau was a reaction against 19th-
century academic styles and an expression of desire on the part of artists and architects to create a new
style for the coming turn of the century. In other words, new art for a new age.

 Art Nouveau involved a philosophy that beautiful things could benefit the people who saw them. The end
of the 19th-century was a time of increasing industrialization and mass production of cheap, poorly-made
goods. Artists, designers, and architects reacted against this trend and advocated a return to craftsmanship
and a belief that art should be incorporated back into everyday life.

 Art Nouveau was an expression of an idea known as Gesamtkunstwerk, the thought that all of the arts
should be reintegrated. The Art Nouveau movement included fine artists and illustrators, textile and
wallpaper designers, and glass and jewelry designers. It also included interior designers, furniture designers,
and architects. Beauty and design were just as important to functional objects like buildings as they were in
fine art, and architects became some of the most prominent practitioners of Art Nouveau.
 Origin
 The roots of Art Nouveau can be traced back to the Arts and Crafts Movement in
England during the second half of the 19th century. Arts and Crafts is often seen as a
response to growing industrialisation in Europe and the rise of factory mass
production at the perceived expense of traditional craftsmanship.The English writer,
designer, architect and socialist William Morris (1834-1896) was its defining figure.
Art Nouveau was ubiquitous in Europe’s train stations, tea rooms and department
stores: it belonged equally to the public and private realms.

It was influenced by the Symbolists most obviously in their shared preference for exotic detail, as well
as by Celtic and Japanese art. Art Nouveau flourished in Britain with its progressive Arts and Crafts
movement, but was highly successful all around the world.
The term Art Nouveau first appeared in the Belgian journal L’Art Moderne in 1884, referring to a group
of reform-minded sculptors, designers and painters called Les XX (or Les Vingts), whose founder
members included James Ensor (1860-1949) and Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926).
 Art noveau architecture
 In architecture, art nouveau is more of an architectural detail than it is a style. In
the history of graphic design, the movement ushered in a new modernism. During the late
1800s, many European artists, graphic designers, and architects rebelled against formal,
classical approaches to design.

 Between 1890 and 1914, when new building methods flourished, designers tried to
humanize the unnaturally tall box-shaped structures with decorative motifs that
suggested the natural world; they believed that the greatest beauty could be found in
nature.

 As it moved through Europe, the art nouveau movement went through several phases
and took on a variety of names: in France it was called Style Moderne and Style Nouille
(Noodle Style); it was called Jugendstil (Youth Style) in Germany; Sezessionsstil (Secession
Style) in Austria; in Italy it was Stile Liberty; in Spain it was Arte Noven or Modernismo;
and in Scotland it was the Glasgow Style.
 Rapid industrialisation during the 19th century generated a

construction boom in many European cities. Art Nouveau

architecture was a statement of national modernity and aesthetic

taste, enabled by the materials - steel, iron and glass - and

techniques of industrialisation. Fluid wrought-iron designs and

architectural stoneware brought a distinctive and luxurious presence

to building facades and bridges.

 Art Nouveau architects and designers sought to create works which

had a consistent visual vocabulary. It was desired that every element

of the built environment, inside and out, should be designed in

consideration of the whole. The organic contours of the outside of

buildings were matched by equally compelling interiors.

 The use of vegetal forms in metalwork, often seen in architecture,

soon also appeared in silverware, lamps, and decorative items such

as the elegant jug and the pewter tableware.

What, where and who?

 Art nouveau (French for "New Style") was popularized by the famous Maison
de l'Art Nouveau, a Paris art gallery operated by Siegfried Bing.
 Nouveau art and architecture flourished in major European cities between
1890 and 1914. For example, in 1904, the town of Alesund, Norway was nearly
burned to the ground, with over 800 homes destroyed. Alesund is now
characterized as the "Art nouveau town" as it was rebuilt during the time
period of this movement.
 In the United States, art nouveau ideas were expressed in the work of Louis
Comfort Tiffany, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Louis Sullivan
promoted the use of exterior decoration to give "style" to the new skyscraper
form. In Sullivan's 1896 essay, "The Tall Office Building Artistically
Considered," he suggests that form follows function.
Art Nouveau Buildings Have Many of These
Features

 Asymmetrical shapes
 Extensive use of arches and curved forms
 Curved glass
 Curving, plant-like embellishments
 Mosaics
 Stained glass
 Japanese motifs
First

 The first Art Nouveau houses, the Hôtel Tassel by Victor Horta and
the Bloemenwerf house by Henry Van de Velde, were built in Brussels in 1893–
1895. Both Horta and Van de Velde designed not only the houses, but also all
of the interior decoration, furniture, carpets, and architectural details.
 Horta, an architect with classical training, designed the residence of a
prominent Belgian chemist, Émile Tassel, on a very narrow and deep site. The
central element became the stairway, beneath a high skylight. The floors
were supported by slender iron columns like the trunks of trees. The mosaic
floors and walls were decorated with delicate arabesques in floral and vegetal
forms, which became the most popular signature of Art Nouveau.
Hôtel Tassel
Bloemenwerf

 Van de Velde was by training a

designer, not an architect, and
collaborated with an architect
on the plan of
the Bloemenwerf, the house
that he built for himself. He
was inspired by the British Arts
and Crafts Movement,
particularly William Morris's Red
House, and like them he
designed all aspects of the
building, including the
furniture, wallpaper and
carpets.
 The Paris 1900 Exposition universelle marked the high point of Art Nouveau.
Between April and November 1900, it attracted nearly fifty million visitors
from around the world, and showcased the architecture, design, glassware,
furniture and decorative objects of the style. The architecture of the
Exposition was often a mixture of Art Nouveau and Beaux-Arts architecture: