AND: Art Nouveau Part 2

An art nouveau exterior I shot in Paris, Yes, it's an apartment building

Art Nouveau: 1880s until about 1912

Disclaimer: This 3 part series is simply an effort to help those who want to know the difference between three of the major art movements of the  late 19th and early 20^th century, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, in a nutshell. Lots of reading available out there for those want to know more. To Keep them straight A N D, Arts and  Crafts, Art NOUVEAU, and Art DECO.

A romantic Nouveau interior

Art Nouveau rose out of, and in some instances, at the same time the Arts and Crafts movement. Designers, architects, artists and artisans resonated to the free and extravagant movements of nature found in sinuous leaves, “whiplash curves”, birds, flower and feathers.

Vican deco jewelry

Art Nouveau artists and designers were looking for a new way to join art and design in a new vocabulary of making. Art Nouveau was romantic, and looked to different inspirations in different countries. For the Russians, old folk tales, the French, their Golden Age of design. All seem to have found their primary inspiration in nature’s vitality and cycles of life and death. They embraced the fact that nature was a force unto itself and used the newfangled psychology of Freud and company, lots of symbolism and the supernatural, e.g. fairies, mermaids, gods and goddesses.

Rene Lalique design

Nouveau is different from Arts and Crafts, which it grew from in many ways. Arts and Crafts highlighted natural materials, simple and linear construction, lots of natural wood and clean lined artisanal objects . Art Deco, far curvier,

rich and opulent takes advantage of machine made materials as well as natural ones.

A Paris Metro Station, which took advantage of the extreme curves the new material cast iron was capable of.

 Designers were enthralled by ‘modern’ materials such as cast iron, to construct a true and exuberant marriage between art and materials. If you have ever seen the fantastical metro entrances in Paris, France from this period, you will start to understand how Art Nouveau fused material and design in a total work of art. The romance of Art Nouveau disappeared with the reality of war in 1910, the softness gave way to the hard lines of Art Deco and was pretty much ignored and discarded as frivolous for many years. It has seen a comeback since the 1960s as we are looking for beauty in a technological world.

An Alphonse Mucha poster set

Graphic arts such as posters exploded in this era of easy mechanical reproduction and are still reproduced and collected today.  Artists heavily influenced and active in the art nouveau movement included Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, Henri Toulouse Lautrec and Antonio Gaudi. 

Lalique's Spirit of the Wind

 Rene Lalique will be forever known as the most exquisite designer in glass and precious metals and stones. Interestingly, his glass perfume bottles were one of the few things besides graphic images such as posters, which could be mass produced. Lalique bottles are extremely collectible and pricey but still to be found. https://rlalique.com/rene-lalique-perfume-bottles

This Rene Lalique Eucalyptus for Bouchon will set you back about $6000

Although the movement is past these artists are all known to us by name and their work is still instantly recognizable.

 The shop of M. Fouquet, Parisian Jeweler in the age of Art Nouveau. There are still fabulous pieces out there, both copies and real for anyone who loves the romance of the New Art, Art Nouveau.

https://pixel77.com/art-history-modern-design-art-nouveau/