WHAT IS ART NOUVEAU?
- A decorative style that thrived for two decades (1890 – 1910).
- More characteristic element: “an organic, plantlike line.”
- Impacted all aspects of design: architecture, painting, commercial art, ceramics, furniture, ornament and book design.
What are some similarities between Art Nouveau and Japanese Ukiyo-e prints?
- Important to modern movements with its rejection of earlier (“historicism”), anachronistic approaches.
- Art was taught in a traditional, academic way, celebrating the approaches of the past.
- Art Nouveau rejected this and opted instead for an international ornamental style inspired by nature.
- Art Nouveau was also more interested in disrupting moral norms, particularly in regards to sex and sensuality.
Natural (particularly organic or plant-like) lines and shapes were seen in Japanese prints and was also embraced by artists of the earlier and overlapping Arts and Crafts movement (1860 - 1920).
- But nature was just a starting point. Lines and ornamentation were invented to create entirely new motifs.
- Ornamentation became more than just ornamentation—it became the focal point.
- Some argue that Art Nouveau was decorative decadence. Others believe it had more spiritual intensions and rejected materialism.
Because of new innovations in printing technology (lithography) and the lifting of a poster ban in Paris in 1881, artists began to make increasingly sophisticated advertisements in the form of posters. Instead of just having rows of words, imagery was introduced by artists who embraced the Nouveau sensibility.
The Father of the Modern Poster was Jules Cheret.
This was the beginning of what was to become modern graphic arts.
We will look at Art Nouveau in three geographic locations: Paris, the United Kingdom (London and Glasgow) and Vienna.
Let's start by watching this video about Art Nouveau in Paris.