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Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was an artistic style that emerged in the late 19th century taking inspiration from natural forms rather than historical styles. It influenced architecture, furniture, graphics and other decorative arts between 1880-1910. The style aimed to abolish hierarchies between fine and applied arts, using flowing organic designs and new materials. Art Nouveau was prominent at international expositions and featured asymmetrical shapes, curved glass, plant-like motifs and hand craftsmanship before being replaced by streamlined Art Deco after World War I.

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111 views11 pages

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was an artistic style that emerged in the late 19th century taking inspiration from natural forms rather than historical styles. It influenced architecture, furniture, graphics and other decorative arts between 1880-1910. The style aimed to abolish hierarchies between fine and applied arts, using flowing organic designs and new materials. Art Nouveau was prominent at international expositions and featured asymmetrical shapes, curved glass, plant-like motifs and hand craftsmanship before being replaced by streamlined Art Deco after World War I.

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Art Nouveau

(c.1880 to 1910)
Art nouveau (c.1880 to 1910) Art nouveau could be said to be
the first 20th century modern style. It was the first style to
stop looking backwards in history for ideas, taking inspiration
instead from what it saw around it, in particular the natural
world.

Art Nouveau influenced:

• Architecture
• Furniture
• Glassware
• Graphic Design
• Jewellery
• Painting
• Textile
• Pottery and
• Metal work
The academic system, which dominated art education from
It distinguished a sharp contrast to the Traditional separation
the 17th to the 19th century, underpinned the widespread
of art into distinct categories of:
belief that media such as painting and sculpture were
superior to crafts such as furniture design and ironwork.
Fine Art (Painting and sculpture)
The consequence, many believed, was the neglect of good
Applied Art (Ceramics, Furniture and practical objects)
craftsmanship.
Generating enthusiasts in the decorative and graphic arts and
architecture throughout Europe and beyond, Art Nouveau appeared in a
wide variety of strands, and, consequently, it is known by various
names, such as:

Germany- the Glasgow Style, or, Jugendstil.

Netherlands – Nieuwe Kunst

Spain – Arte Joven

Austria – Sucession

Italy – Stile Liberty

France – Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously been
popular. Artists drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant designs that united flowing,
natural forms resembling the stems and blossoms of plants.
It all comes down to "flowery" vs. "streamlined." Art
Nouveau is the decorative one. Art Deco is sleeker. The
Explanation: Both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements
emerged as reactions to major world events; the Industrial
Revolution and World War I, respectively.

The movement was committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of


the arts, which viewed the so-called liberal arts, such as painting and
sculpture, as superior to craft-based decorative arts. The style went out of
fashion for the most part long before the First World War, paving the way
for the development of Art Deco in the 1920s, but it experienced a
popular revival in the 1960s.
Art Nouveau artists sought to overturn that belief, aspiring
instead to "total works of the arts," the
famous Gesamtkunstwerks, that inspired buildings and
interiors in which every element worked harmoniously
within a related visual vocabulary. In the process, Art
Nouveau helped to narrow the gap between the fine and the
applied arts.
Many Art Nouveau practitioners felt that earlier design had
been excessively ornamental, and in wishing to avoid what
they perceived as frivolous decoration, they evolved a
belief that the function of an object should dictate its form.
Art Nouveau was often most conspicuous at international expositions during its heyday. It enjoyed center stage at five
particular fairs: the 1889 and 1900 Expositions Universelles in Paris; the 1897 Tervueren Exposition in Brussels (where
Art Nouveau was largely employed to show off the possibilities of craftsmanship with the exotic woods of the Belgian
Congo); the 1902 Turin International Exposition of Modern Decorative Arts; and the 1909 Exposition International de
l'Est de la France in Nancy. At each of these fairs, the style was dominant in terms of the decorative arts and architecture
on display, and in Turin in 1902, Art Nouveau was truly the style of choice of virtually every designer and every nation
represented, to the exclusion of any other.
Hall marks of Art Nouveau Style:

• Flat decorative patterns


• Inter-wined organic forms such as stems and flowers
• Emphasis on hand crafting as opposed to machine
manufacturing
• Use of new materials
• Rejection of earlier styles
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
Art Nouveau did not eschew the use of machines, as the Arts and Crafts Movement did. For sculpture, the principal materials
employed were glass and wrought iron, resulting in sculptural qualities even in architecture. Ceramics were also employed in
creating editions of sculptures by artists such as Auguste Rodin.Art Nouveau architecture made use of
many technological innovations of the late 19th century, especially the use of exposed iron and large, irregularly shaped pieces
of glass for architecture. By the start of World War I, however, the stylised nature of Art Nouveau design began to be disused
in favour of more streamlined, rectilinear modernism—thought to be more faithful to the plainer industrial aesthetic that
became Art Deco.
Thank-you

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