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Week 6: Art Nouveau

Updated: Aug 1, 2020


Art Nouvea

"New Art"


Unveiled during the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, Art Nouveau emerged as a new style in architecture and design. Known for its sensuality and rejection of historicism at the turn of the century, its primary source of inspiration would come from nature, resulting in curvilinear lines. The ideology from the publications of both Charles Darwin's, 'The Origin of Species' in 1859 that "Man is no longer above nature, but inexplicably apart of it." and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 'Entretiens sur l'architecture' would inspire and largely influence this movement. Although Art Nouveau lasted from 1890-1914, this style allowed the decorative arts to think beyond anything that was done before.


Belgium

France Rococo Revival also took place at this time in France

similarities - asymmetry, playful colors

differences - Rococo embellishes classical

proportions, whereas Art

Nouveau rejects historicism

Germany ~ Jugendstill "Youth Style"

Italy ~ Stile Liberty

Spain ~ Modernista/Modernisme

Vienna~ The Secessionist Movement

Britain never really found favor in the

movement; criticized by leading designers

for its exoticism and femininity, as shared by

views of the Glasglow School of Art


But it had begun years earlier. From the 1880s until World War I, artworks, design objects, and architecture in Western Europe and the United States sprouted with sinuous, unruly lines. Taking cues from Rococo curves, Celtic graphic motifs, Japanese masters Andō Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, and William Blake’s Songs of Innocence (1789), Art Nouveau artists took the plant forms they saw in nature and then flattened and abstracted them into elegant, organic motifs.

This blog highlights two adored Art Nouveau architects, interesting interiors and furnishings...Enjoy!


Belgium

Hôtel Tassel

Brussels

Architect, Victor Horta 1861-1947



center left photo, https://www.alamy.com/brussels-belgium-hotel-tassel-victor-horta-1898-art-nouveau-6-rue-image150348974.html

right photo, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/art-nouveau-art-deco-biennale-brussels


Victor Horta designed the Hôtel Tassel for Belgian scientist Emile Tassel between 1893 and 1894. The Tassel House, often cited as the first Art Nouveau building. In this townhouse, Victor Horta fuses the twin themes of nature and industry almost seamlessly. As with many of Horta's famed Art Nouveau residences, the heart of the building is the central stair hall. Here, the emphasis is on structure, which Horta makes frankly clear in the dull green iron columns that anchor the space. The thin posts blossom into a tangle of tendrils and vine-like twists at their crown, which then blend with the vines evident in the mosaic floor and the stenciled whiplash curves of the plants on the wall surfaces.



Victor Horta is one of my favorite architects. I wanted to conduct research on his furniture pieces. Upon my research, I found this interesting bronze pendule that boldly speaks to Art Nouveau upon first sight.

3 things that make this beautiful piece "very" Art Nouvea as follows,


  • combining intertwined curves and double curves that can be found in flower stems

  • everything seems to grow, as if its sprouting from the same root

  • joinery of the bronze work made of scrolls and arabesques

Spain

Hôtel Tassel (Remodeling Project of a Pre-Existing Space)

Barcelona

Architect, Antoni Gaudí 1852-1926



top left photo, https://www.dosde.com/en/casa-batllo-original-gaudi-deluxe.html

top middle, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/225813368800019952/

top right, #casabatllo

bottom right, https://www.dosde.com/en/casa-batllo-original-gaudi-deluxe.html

right, https://www.barcelonacheckin.com/en/r/barcelona_tourism_guide/articles/casa-batllo-gaudi-inside-facade-roof


Casa Batlló is one of the most original artistic creations of Antoni Gaudí, who converted a simple refurbishment project into a universal work of art packed with fantasy and movement. Casa Batló's original structure was originally built in 1887. It was remodeled in 1904 by Antoni Gaudí. It is a classical building with remarkable characteristics within the eclecticism formed in an irregular floor plan. The building has a basement, a ground floor, four floors and a garden. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, it is only identifiable as ‘Modernisme’ in the broadest sense. The ground floor (bottom left photo), in particular, has unusual tracery, irregular oval window and blowing sculpted stonework. Among other elements, the huge oak doors are particularly noteworthy, with organic shapes into which Antoni Gaudí incorporated stained glass panes and a totally wavy ceiling, which evokes the strength of the sea. The Noble Floor (bottom right photo) is at the very heart of the house, with a unique hall that represents the maximum expression of modernism, explaining how the bourgeoisie of the time lived.

Antoni Gaudí Inspired Furniture Piece


The creator of this wonder was Salvador Valeri Pupurull (Barcelona, 1873-1954). He studied at the Polytechnic School of Madrid and the School of Architecture of Barcelona, where he earned his architect in 1899. He was one of the participants in the modernist movement heavily influenced by Antoni Gaudí.





https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/55169164162083587/

Door Knobs


Antoni Gaudí Gaudí Door Knobs Solid cast brass with polished finish On loan

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/antoni-gaudi-gaudi-door-knobs

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