Art Nouveau was an international style that developed in Europe and North America between 1890-1914. It emphasized organic, flowing forms and integrated design across art forms including architecture, furniture and decorative arts. The style emerged at the 1900 Paris World's Fair and was inspired by both historical styles and new industrial technologies. While some artists embraced modern materials and machines, others emphasized craftsmanship and rejected mass production. Art Nouveau aimed to bring artistic beauty to everyday objects through harmonious design and high quality workmanship. It had a significant influence on later design movements like De Stijl and Bauhaus.
Art Nouveau was an international style that developed in Europe and North America between 1890-1914. It emphasized organic, flowing forms and integrated design across art forms including architecture, furniture and decorative arts. The style emerged at the 1900 Paris World's Fair and was inspired by both historical styles and new industrial technologies. While some artists embraced modern materials and machines, others emphasized craftsmanship and rejected mass production. Art Nouveau aimed to bring artistic beauty to everyday objects through harmonious design and high quality workmanship. It had a significant influence on later design movements like De Stijl and Bauhaus.
Art Nouveau was an international style that developed in Europe and North America between 1890-1914. It emphasized organic, flowing forms and integrated design across art forms including architecture, furniture and decorative arts. The style emerged at the 1900 Paris World's Fair and was inspired by both historical styles and new industrial technologies. While some artists embraced modern materials and machines, others emphasized craftsmanship and rejected mass production. Art Nouveau aimed to bring artistic beauty to everyday objects through harmonious design and high quality workmanship. It had a significant influence on later design movements like De Stijl and Bauhaus.
visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth century.
The exhibition is divided into
three sections: the first focuses on the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, where Art Nouveau was established as the first new decorative style of the twentieth century; the second examines the sources that influenced the style; and the third looks at its development and fruition in major cities in
Art Nouveau was a concerted
attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and designers, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the modern age. During this extraordinary time, urban life as we now understand it was
Old customs, habits, and
artistic styles sat alongside new, combining a wide range of contradictory images and ideas. Many artists, designers, and architects were excited by new technologies and lifestyles, while others retreated into the past, embracing the spirit world, fantasy, and myth.
Art Nouveau was in many
ways a response to the Industrial Revolution. Some artists welcomed technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of new materials such as cast iron.
Others deplored the
shoddiness of massproduced machine-made goods and aimed to elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of craftsmanship and design to everyday objects
. Art Nouveau designers
also believed that all the arts should work in harmony to create a "total work of art,buildings, furniture, textiles, clothes, and jewelry all conformed to the principles of Art Nouveau.
This movement walked under
the flag of an art that would break all connections to classical times, and bring down the barriers between the fine arts and applied arts. Art Nouveau was more than a mere style. It was a way of thinking about modern society and new production methods
It was an attempt to redefine
the meaning and nature of the work of art. From that time on, it was the duty of art not to overlook any everyday object, no matter how utilitarian it might be. This approach was considered completely new and revolutionary, thus the New Art Art Nouveau name.
Because of typical flat,
decorative patterns used in all art forms, Art Nouveau obtained a nickname 'the noodle style' in French, 'Le style nouilles'. Visual standards of the Art Nouveau style are flat, decorative patterns, intertwined organic forms of
Art Nouveau emphasized
handcrafting as opposed to machine manufacturing, the use of new materials. Although curving lines characterize Art Nouveau, right-angled forms are also typical, especially as the style was practiced in Scotland and in Austria.
Typical for this style was
artistic application of modern industrial techniques and modern materials (unmasked iron in architecture for example). Principal subjects are lavish birds and flowers, insects and polyformic femme fatale.
Abstract lines and shapes
are used widely as a filling for recognizable subject matter. Purposeful elimination of threedimensions is often applied through reduced shading. Art Nouveau artifacts are beautiful objects of art, but not necessarily very functional.
Art Nouveau had its deepest
influence on a variety of art and design movements that continued to explore integrated design, including De Stijl, a Dutch design movement in the 1920s, and the German Bauhaus school in the 1920s and 193
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Art Nouveau District of R
iga, Latvia These are stunning examples of art nouveau in architecture from Riga, Latvia. They represent their amazing Art Nouveau district.
and Palais - France
This prime example of Art Nouveau in architecture is found in Paris in the Grand Palais. It is currently the largest existing glass and ironwork structure in the world. The palace features 9,400 tons of steel framework with 15,000 square meters of glass work and 5,000 square meters of
Advertizing art reached a
zenith in the Art Nouveau paintings of Alphonse Mucha. Mucha was born in 1860 in Moravia, the modern Czech Republic. He moved to Paris in 1887 where he studied at the Academie Julian.
After seven years as a
struggling artist in Paris, he created a sensational poster for the world-famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt. She signed him to a six year contract to design posters, sets, and costumes for her plays. Success had arrived, and within a few years his fame had spread around the globe.