Art Nouveau Movement.

Art nouveau was a movement in art that aimed at modernizing design. This movement issued a wide variety of styles and due to this, art nouveau is known by various names across the world. There are two different styles of art nouveau. There is the organic style and the geometric style. However the geometric was not so popular and is mainly found in Glasgow and in Austria.

                Art nouveau possesses various and important characteristics. These characteristics help a person identify a work of art that was produced during the art nouveau movement. In any work that was produced in the art nouveau movement one may find: Whiplash curves, the absence of any straight line or right angle and also the elements of living organisms that artist integrated with symbolic meaning (animals, insects and birds especially dragonflies, peacocks and swallows). The art nouveau movement was influenced by a lot of things. The main influences were: Nature, Arts and Crafts movement, Rococo, Celtic Art, Japanese Art and prints, Egyptian Art and the gothic revival which was an architectural movement which originated in the mid 18^th century in England.

 

    

 

 

 

As said earlier Art nouveau is known by various names across the world, however every country had their own artist who wanted the movement to succeed in the country.

In Britain we had Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Morris. William Morris was writer and a lecturer and without William Morris there wouldn’t have been the important change in design history. Morris’ main concern was to produce beautiful objects. Morris was a perfectionist and he was disgusted by modern civilization.  He was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites paintings and his aim was to produce harmony in his works. Morris also encouraged the merging of design by instructing manufacturers to simplify their designs.

In France we had Guimard and Lalique. Lalique was very famous for his jewellery. Rene Lalique produced and designed a lot of organic shaped jewellery. He used to blend insects or nature into his works by giving them a twist. His most notable piece of work is his dragonfly brooch.

 

Spain possessed one of the greatest designers of all time. Anton Gaudi, famous for his works in Barcelona like the ‘Sagrada Famiglia’ church and ‘Park Gwell’ used a lot of organic shapes in his work due to the fact that he was inspired mainly from nature for example seaweed. Art Nouveau was known as the Modernista in Spain.

In Italy, Art Nouveau was known as ‘Stile Liberty’, in Germany it was known as the ‘Jugendstil’ and possessed designers like Van De Velde, and august Endell. In Vienna It was known as ‘sezessional’ and the likes of Gustav Klimt and Olbrich were the designers found in Austria.

The Art nouveau movement was the new art form for the new century and the name Art Nouveau derived from La Maison De L’art Nouveau.

The main idea of the Art Nouveau movement was to get rid of the historical styles of the 19^th century and replace it with modernism. Industrial production was at a high; however the production of the decorative arts were dominated by badly made objects. The Art nouveau practitioners wanted to revive good workmanship and produce good modern design. The movement and style went out of fashion and gave way to Art Deco in the 1920s however it experienced a revival in the 1960s.

References:

The Art Story.. 2012. Art Nouveau. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm. [Accessed 17 October 14].

Antique Marks. 2014. The Art Nouveau Period. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.antique-marks.com/art-nouveau.html. [Accessed 17 October 14].

Art Nouveau ~ Blog about getting to know Art Nouveau . 2012. Art Nouveau from a historical perspective. [ONLINE] Available at: http://aboutartnouveau.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/art-nouveau-in-history/. [Accessed 17 October 14].

Life 123. 2014. Characteristics of Art Nouveau Style. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/architecture-2/art-nouveau/art-nouveau-style.shtml. [Accessed 17 October 14].

Pre Raphaelite Art . 2013. The Flowers of William Morris . [ONLINE] Available at: http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-flowers-of-william-morris.html. [Accessed 17 October 14].

La Audacia de Aquiles. 2008. Antoni Gaudí: “Parc Güell”.-. [ONLINE] Available at: http://aquileana.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/antoni-gaudi-parc-guell/. [Accessed 17 October 14].

Fauxology. 2012. Art Deco or Art Nouveau?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.fauxology.com/2012/01/art-deco-or-art-nouveau/. [Accessed 17 October 14].