Art Nouveau

   

Art Nouveau 

  

Before the 1890's, to be considered as superior artists, one had to attend one of the an art's academies that were available at the time. In these academies an artist had to base their studies on line, shape, form and texture in order to fit the standards and produce realistic art work of figures and landscapes. On the other hand, their were some artists who criticised academic art as they believed art isn't meant to be realistic, for them art flowed from the soul, twists through the consciousness and decorates life with its beauty. These artists went on with their philosophy and were the pioneers of the very short but highly influential movement known as Art Nouveau. Due to this new style, artists moved away from imitating real subjects and moved to the twisting flowing forms and lines that nature owned. Overall the style is very organic due to the highly used whiplash curves most designs have.

Above we can see a typical interior designed by Alphonse Mucha, nature was his main inspiration as the room is full pf organic forms, Visiting these art nouveau interior is like visiting a small garden, it is also quite evident how these artists were in harmony whit nature.

Above is a chair maid by Hector Guimard in 1912, Its design can be easily linked to the praying mantis due to its thin legs and arms, it head rest also resembles the insects head due to the wholes he applied. Overall it is highly decorative and its ornamental piece which highly distinguish the movement. Natural materials such as wood were often used making the design even more organic. Craftsmanship was also highly emphasized during this movement as principles from the arts and crafts movement were still being observed by art nouveau artists.    

Art nouveau delivers its beauty till this very day as Paris is full of these metro entrances. In the image above I am showing the entrance to the Porte Dauphine metro station, one of the most famous entrances Hector Guimard designed to enlighten the streets of Paris. Inspired by nature and Japanese art due to its delicate leaf form, that serves as shelter. Hector also applied earth colours in order to create unity with the park that is situated around it.

In art nouveau designs the Japanese influence is quite evident. It was highly effective for the artist as Japan opened its doors for commerce during this period, these events exposed Japanese art such as the famous wood block prints. Due to this exposure European artists became highly influenced by the flowing designs that Japanese artists used in their art.  

Bibliography



Gaudi, A. (2016) Art nouveau movement, artists and Major Works. Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm (Accessed: 30 May 2016).


visual-arts-cork (no date) Art nouveau design: Characteristics, history, artists. Available at: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/art-nouveau.htm (Accessed: 30 May 2016).

Architecture of the Paris Métro (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_the_Paris_M%C3%A9tro (Accessed: 30 May 2016).
Philinthecircle (2014) Art nouveau - overview - goodbye-art academy. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4luPnObQYo (Accessed: 30 May 2016).