Art Nouveau - Blog 3

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is a French term for New art, it is an artistic movement that flourished in Europe during the late 19th century. This movement has other names in different countries, as it was an international style. Like for example in Italy it was referred to as ‘Stil Liberty’ and in Germany ‘Jugendstil’, which means youth style.

          The name Art Nouveau is an abbreviation of   La Maison del’ Art Nouveau. This cultural movement was about decorative and applied arts, architecture and also painting. Photography at that time was already succeeding and photos of painting, prints and architecture were being published in magazines, one of them being Art nouveau magazine. These were circulated around Europe due to advances in printing.

These printed magazines of Art Nouveau are important for the movement. They depict   different colours chosen, a simple composition and use of curved lines.  This shows the new style.

They aimed to modernize design, to escape the previous styles and start doing something completely new. Artist used both organic and geometric forms to evolve their designs. Art Nouveau was influenced by many styles especially by Japanese prints. In fact while the west was changing to lines and shapes, Japan was changing to a more three dimensional art. Japanese prints had characteristics like flatness, pattern, use of bright colours and tactile value. Art nouveau was making use of these characteristics.

As this style was being used for magazines, printing etc, typography started being integrated with the images. The female figure was important; in fact we see the female figure being used in almost all of their posters.

Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau  painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, posters, and designs. His designs are very stylized and very decorative. They are influenced by the Greek and Roman art. The face is realistic but the rest is stylized.

The Art Nouveau fashion was all about graceful lines and elongated strokes ending in curves. Also the use of flowers and leafs for decoration.

In England, there was Aubrey Beardsley together with Louis Comfort tiffany and Francois Eugene Rousseau.  They influenced the Art Nouveau movement through the use of abstracted Japanese forms, especially the use of the peacock skirt as shown below. The design is very clean, minimal and graphical. When Beardsley dies, Will Bradley follows Beardsley’s work in America.

In the 1900s, electricity developed and it was an attraction for all.

Hector Guimard used these ideas and style for the Art Nouveau movement to create functional items that are affordable and also beautiful. His style was intended to unify decoration and function. An example is his street furniture.

This style evolved, and Graphic Designers were being encouraged to produce items good for the industry. The style went out of fashion for a while after it gave way to Art Deco in the 1920s, but it become popular again in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an important predecessor of modernism.

Bibliography

ArtHistory.net, 2013. Art History.net. [Online]
Available at: http://www.arthistory.net/artstyles/artnouveau/artnouveau1.html
[Accessed 20 10 2014].

Britannica, E. o. E., 2014. Britannica. [Online]
Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36571/Art-Nouveau
[Accessed 20 10 2014].