Art Nouveau Movement

Art Nouveau Movement

Art Nouveau Movement ,  even after the revolution in style caused by the Aesthetic and Art and Crafts Movements, designers continued to search for ways to reflect the changing world of the late 19th century. In the last quarter of the century, international trade was more important than it had ever been.









At the same time, there was a consciousness, particularly among artists and designers, that this was a new, modern age that should be reflected in their work - they needed a 'new art'. This was not a purely British movement but was seen worldwide in Europe, Australia, the USA, Canada and Japan.

So what are the characteristics of Art Nouveau Movement . It was a conscious attempt at modernism and a departure from traditional Victorian forms of design, most of which looked back to the past for inspiration. Designers rejected the inspiration of classical European art and instead looked to Japanese, Celtic and other folk art as a basis for their work. Typical motifs come from   nature: flowers, insects and birds. Lines curve and wind; straight lines were scorned.

Art Nouveau Movement

Symbolism is important in the designs. For example, a leaf may be just a leaf or perhaps might represent part of the female body. Designers used forms from the natural world in ways that suggested they might represent human limbs. They used traditional materials like wood, glass, and pewter.

It is only comparatively recently that Art Nouveau was accepted as a style and accorded any real recognition. It had been    seen as a collection of different styles with little in common except, perhaps, a taste for excess and flamboyant decoration. Not only is there no consensus on exactly what is Art Nouveau, there is even some argument over the period it covered, although generally it is thought to be from the 1890s to about 1910.

Art Nouveau was not universally acclaimed, particularly in England. Many critics of the period saw it as decadent and self indulgent. For example, the sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert, who created Eros in Piccadilly Circus, said: "LArt Nouveau, forsooth! Absolute nonsense! It bpi^ngs to the young lady's seminary and the duffer's paradise..." This was not untypical of the feelings of the time.

Art Nouveau Movement

In London, Liberty's had been instrumental in encouraging and promoting Arts and Crafts. Arthur Lasenby Liberty, its proprietor, knew many of the designers and promoted Art Nouveau in both the London and Paris stores during the 1890s. Indeed, in Italy, Art Nouveau was known as Stile Liberty, so synonymous was Liberty & Co with the style.

Liberty sold work by designers such as Lindsay P Butterfield, who produced textiles and wallpaper, and Archibald Knox, who designed across a wide range from pewter and jewellery to carpets and clocks.

Many gifted designers embraced Art Nouveau, such as Rene Lalique, who produced glass and jewellery. Much of the jewellery is exquisitely delicate and depicts natural forms like flowers, leaves and seed pods. Unusually for a jewellery designer of the time, Lalique's pieces often had relatively little intrinsic value because he did not often use large gemstones in his work. 

He refined the use of glass in jewellery, not as imitation diamonds or other precious stones, but as a painter uses paint. This technique continued into vases, statuettes, car mascots and glass panels.

Art Nouveau Movement

Louis Comfort Tiffany is another of the period's great designers. Like Lalique, he designed using both glass and jewellery, and is perhaps best known for his lamps and smaller glass objects. Some of his most stunning work in glass, however, was on a much bigger scale.

 Examples can be seen in the Tiffany Chapel, reassembled at the Morse Museum of American Art in Florida. Constructed using Favrile glass (Tiffany's own invention), the reredos - or altar wall - shows a bunch of grapes between two peacocks over which hovers an enormous crown. The chapel also contains Tiffany's leaded windows.

Antoni Gaudi in Spain might be one of the most controversial Art Nouveau designers. The keynotes of his architecture were fluid lines and extravagant exterior decoration, much of it done by using a mixture of applied materials to the outside walls.

Art Nouveau Movement

 His best-known building is probably the cathedral, Temple de la Sagrada Familia, still incomplete, and from which the outside seems to have seeped and flowed in places while in others it is moulded into organic shapes.

There were many gifted designers who emerged during the Art Nouveau Movement  period, many of whose work is now highly valued and very collectible. 

When comparing and contrasting the work of these designers,it is easy to see why the style is so hard to categorise and why there has been such a prolonged debate about what is about what isn't Art Nouveau.