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Art Nouveau
in the 1900s
Lecturer Name : Ndaa Gopee
Student name : Benjamin Cedric
Sookahet
Student ID : 16323476
Unit Name : Visual Comunication 371
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Table of Contents
Executive summary
Introduction
Discussion:
The Origins of Art Nouveau
Art movement in Europe
Art movement outside Europe
Major artists
Conclusion
Bibliography
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Executive
Summary
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This study was to analyze and criticize a given eras art movement.
It was requested by our lecturer; Nidaa Gopee.
It was requested on 18th March 2014.
The investigation and research was done by Cedric Sookahet
The main findings were that the Art Nouveau art movement greatly contributed in the
creation of a new style of art practice using several methods such as applied arts,
furnishing and architecture namely.
It was conluded that the Art Nouveau movement was an avant-garde movement and
is still has an impact on todays art.
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Introduction
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This report has been written as an assignment for the visual communication
371 module of Curtin University. It was requested by our lecturer, Nidaa
Gopee, and is due on 18th march 2014. The objectives of this report are
to be able to critically analyze an art movement and be able to use all the
information gathered to apply those movements technique to actual design
briefs. This report will therefore examine the art nouveau art movement,
its history, some of the most known artists and artworks found within the
movement and how it still affects our lives nowadays. It does not examine
in depth researches about each and every technique found within the
movement.
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Discussion
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Art Nouveau is an international art movement featuring several
styles of art like architecture, paintings, jewelry, decorative arts, furniture
and textiles mainly. By having so many art styles within the movement,
art nouveau is considered as being a total art style. Created since the
1880s, the art movements artists inspired themselves from natural forms
and structures like trees or flowers but also of rare animal forms and curved
lines, referred as whiplashes.
As in France, the new art was called by different names in the various
style centers where it developed throughout Europe. In Belgium, it was
called Style nouille or Style coup de fouet. In Germany, it was Jugendstil
or young style, after the popular journal Die Jugend (1991.182.2). Part of
the broader Modernista movement in Barcelona, its chief exponent was the
architect and redesigner of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) cathedral
(Barcelona, begun 1882), Antoni Gaud (18521926). In Italy, it was named
Arte nuova, Stile floreale, or La Stile Liberty after the London firm of Liberty
& Co., which supplied Oriental ceramics and textiles to aesthetically aware
Londoners in the 1870s and produced English Art Nouveau objects such
as the Celtic Revival Cymric and Tudric ranges of silver by Archibald Knox
(18641933). Other style centers included Austria and Hungary, where Art
Nouveau was called the Sezessionstil. In Russia, Saint Petersburg and
Moscow were the two centers of production for Stil modern. Tiffany Style
in the United States was named for the legendary Favrile glass designs of
Louis Comfort Tiffany. (Gondar, 2006)

Origins of Art Nouveau
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The term art nouveau first appeared in the 1880s in the Belgian
journal LArt Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters
and sculptors seeking reform through art. Les Vingt, like much of the
artistic community throughout Europe and America, responded to leading
nineteenth-century theoreticians such as French Gothic Revival architect
Eugne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (18141879) and British art critic John
Ruskin (18191900), who advocated the unity of all the arts, arguing
against segregation between the fine arts of painting and sculpture and the
so-called lesser decorative arts. Deeply influenced by the socially aware
teachings of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau
designers endeavored to achieve the synthesis of art and craft, and further,
the creation of the spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk(total work of art)
encompassing a variety of media. The successful unification of the fine and
applied arts was achieved in many such complete designed environments
as Victor Horta and Henry van de Veldes Hotel Tassel and Van Eetvelde
House (Brussels, 189395), Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret
Macdonalds design of the Hill House (Helensburgh, near Glasgow, 1903
4), and Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Klimts Palais Stocklet dining room
(Brussels, 190511)
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Art nouveau first appeared in Western Europe in 1892, but its
birth didnt just happen. Much change occurred within the decorative
and furniture creation as from about 1815 until 1889, when the Universal
Exposition in Paris celebrated the French revolution. Some artists during
that period decided to change from an old decoration perception and
wanted to distinguish themselves from their predecessors. The designers
finally asserted the art of their own time as their own. (Lahor 2012, 7)
As we could read above, the art nouveau began from the revolution of
artists towards decorations and furniture creation and then spread out to
affect many other forms of art.
Furthermore, what changed the aspect of furniture during the art
nouveau period were the materials being used.
In 1892 Hector Guimard, French architect, got selected to design the
nowadays famous Metro stations of Paris. The materials and design
created reflected the art nouveau lifestyle, with lots of curves and having
the cast iron denuded. This idea was such an avant-gardes one that the
jury in charge of the project had it cancelled and prevented Guimard from
completing all the stations.
History has selected England, Belgium and France as the undisputed
primary sources of Art Nouveaus development in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, but contemporaries were unaware of this
supremacy. In its section devoted to the decorative arts, the 1900 Universal
Exposition in Paris, which called for the construction of both the Grand
and Petit Palais, among other buildings, offered a sampling that gave a
taste of the real flavor of the period. For example, Gaud, now inseparable
from Spanish Art Nouveau and a major architect who gave us the image of
Barcelona we know today, was the Expositions major no-show: he failed to
Art movement in Europe
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participate in the construction of the pavilions and none of his plans were
shown. At the same time, countries such as Russia, Hungary and Romania,
long since forgotten in the history of Art Nouveau, were well represented
alongside other countries that history wrongly seems to barely remember.
(Lahor 2012, 39)
Each of those countries had what we could call specialties towards
the art movement and they will be described below.
France could be said to be the European country which had more
passion for Art Nouveau and therefore applied this new kind of art in many
ways. They were said to be specialized in all kind of jewelry, ceramics and
glassware. They excelled in all the magical arts of fire as well as in
sculpture and medallions (Lahor 2012, 39).
The England pavilion amazingly represented the art nouveau
movement since 1878 and was known for their furniture mainly. There were
not as much artifacts present in the English art nouveau community than
in the French one and most of them were defined as having non attractive
colors, simple design and not really functional.

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Belgium was one of the pioneers of the art nouveau movement in Europe
and their artists always had a great influence on the world of art nouveau.
They specialized in paintings and sculpture mainly. The painting styles like
post-impressionism and symbolism were adapted to create art nouveau
artworks. Belgium even had a well known school of art known as the
Belgian school of sculpture.
There were several other European countries that influenced art
nouveau in a way but did not form part of the primary sources, as cited
above.

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The art nouveau movement expanded outside Europe to other continents
and it was mainly America and Russia that adopted the new emerging style
of art to design and create new types of artworks.
As art nouveau reached America, the city of New York was in a
great economic condition and art in general was also promoted through
museums, libraries and mansions. American artists were encouraged
to create their own type of new art and thats how they became masters
in glass technologies, being inspired by roman and medieval glass
techniques. Moreover, in the city of Chicago, all the building s had to be
rebuilt after the Chicago fire which took place in 1871 and the new buildings
and skyscrapers where a reflection of art nouveau movement. With the use
of steel frames and floral ornaments we could clearly see the influence of
art nouveau in this new type of architecture.
On the left picture we can see the steel ornaments used in the new chicago
buildngs and skycrapers.
On right hand side picture,
we can see the glass art
designed and created in
New York.

Art movement outside Europe
The image of a copper
plated cast-iron frame
(National Gallery of Art,
Washington,2014 )
The image of a glass lamp(National
Gallery of Art, Washington,2014 )
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Russia and art nouveau happened when the Russians were searching
for a new kind of art when they discovered how the French created a
sculpture that stood out of anything they saw before. It inspired them to
create a new architectural style that could be represented as having been
inspired by the French art nouveau.
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In this part of the report we will be focusing on the main artists group that,
we could say, created the art nouveau movement; les vingts.
The term art nouveau first appeared in the 1880s in the Belgian journal
LArt Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters and
sculptors seeking reform through art(Gondar, 2006). Les Vingt were a
being led by the French architect Eugne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814
1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (18191900)(Gondar, 2006) who
wanted to unite all kinds of arts into a single movement. Therefore, each
artist being part of Les Vingts practiced various kinds of art method, mainly
applied arts, interior design, architecture, patterns and furnishings.
Below is a list of the main artist of art nouveau during the whole era and
worldwide.
Painting
Fernand Khnopff (Grembergen-lez-Termonde, 1858 - Brussels, 1921)
Jan Toorop (Purworedjo, 1858 - The Hague, 1928)
Aubrey Beardsley (Brighton, 1872 - Menton, 1898)
Eugne Grasset (Lausanne, 1845 - Sceaux, 1917)
Georges de Feure (Paris, 1868 - 1943)
Alphonse Mucha (Ivancice, 1860 - Prague, 1939)
Gustav Klimt (Vienna, 1862 - 1918)
Koloman Moser (Vienna, 1868 - 1918)
Major Artists
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Architecture
Victor Horta (Gand, 1861 - Brussels, 1947)
Henry Van de Velde (Anvers, 1863 - Zurich, 1957)
Hector Guimard (Lyon, 1867 - New York, 1942)
Antoni Gaud (Riudoms, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926)
Decorative Arts
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (Lige, 1858 - Anvers, 1910)
Louis Majorelle (Toul, 1859 - Nancy, 1926)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Glasgow, 1868 - London, 1928)
Louis Comfort Tiffany (New York, 1848 - 1933)
Emile Gall (Nancy, 1846 - 1904)
The Daum brothers: Auguste (Bitche, 1853 - Nancy, 1909)and Antonin
(Bitche, 1864 - Nancy, 1930)
Ren Jules Lalique (Ay, 1860 - Paris, 1945) (Lahor, 2012)
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Art nouveau as we read earlier was a very strong art movement that
still have a great impact on art and design nowadays. Some key words that
we can remember are the following
Modern
International
Variety
Technique
For that time, art nouveau was an avant-garde style of art that was
modern, as is still actual. It was also the first biggest movement having an
international impact on art, using a variety or art practices and different
techniques.
The main findings about this given era and movement are that art and
design are always looking for something more, something to improve so as
to create art anew. Art nouveau movement could be the ultimate example
for this and reading about it to write the report was a great experience.
Conclusion
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14
Lahor, Jean and Rebecca Brimacombe. Art nouveau. [New York]:
Parkstone International, 2012.
Metmuseum.org. Art Nouveau | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art
History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2006.
Nga.gov. Art Nouveau. n.d..
Bibliography
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