Art Nouveau History
New art that emerges in any time period is generally seen to break away from older and more classical traditions of artistic practice. Art Nouveau, which literally means new art, is one of the most revolutionary art movements in the history of art.
Unlike most movements, Art Nouveau was an international movement that included breakthroughs in styles of art, architecture, and especially the applied arts such as decorative arts all over the world. A key element of Art Nouveau has been to push artists to incorporate this style in any project to bring art into the public realm and have it be part of daily life. This is what most revolutionary movements strive to accomplish in response to more academic art forms that are structured around an elite culture.
The name Art Nouveau originated from a gallery in Paris called L’Art Nouveau. In Germany, this style was called Jugendstil, meaning “youth style,” which was inspired by the magazine titled Jugend. Clearly, Art Nouveau was flexible in its categorizing as it mapped out various parts of the world.
The formal characteristics of Art Nouveau, which can still be found in today’s designs, are two dimensional organic and curvilinear forms. The use of undulating lines in the designs creates movement and dynamism in the overall concepts. Much of the designs have been inspired by Japanese woodcuts as a result of Europe being introduced to Japonisme.
Reoccurring motifs in Art Nouveau include flowers and plants that are elaborate and stylized. Art Nouveau covered most of Europe during its heyday including Russia, Austria, France and Spain but it did have an impact on other parts on a global scale, including the United States.
A significant element of Art Nouveau has been its embrace of technology and the machine while most other art forms rejected it. With the emergence of iron and glass in Europe during the late 19th Century, sculptors began to use these materials to create art in the Art Nouveau style. Art Nouveau projects were expensive because of the use of the materials and machines. By the time World War I began, the decorative and stylized nature of Art Nouveau began to lose popularity and the world of art began exploring the other forms of modernism such as Art Deco. Some famous artists associated with this movement who created their own styles have been Gustav Klimt, Antoni Gaudi, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and so on.
What these artists and other Art Nouveau artists have tried to accomplish has been the idea of “total work of art” where the movement or style takes over all aspects of artistic, crafty and design-related disciplines such as architecture, interior design, jewelry, furniture, lighting, and visual arts. People who gravitated towards Art Nouveau were able to construct and decorate their entire house in this style while hanging Art Nouveau paintings on the walls.
Clearly, the movement sought to imbed art in people’s everyday lives. This plan was highly centered on a specific way of thinking about modern society and its break from rules and tradition. This resulted in incorporating everyday objects from life into the world of art. Contemporary artistic production and design fields still remain inspired by the Art Nouveau style.