Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Jack's post about Art Nouveau





ART NOUVEAU

Art Nouveau is an international movement and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century 1890–1905. Art Nouveau's fifteen-year peak was most strongly felt throughout Europe—from Glasgow to Moscow to Spain—but its influence was global.

                                                                                     

Embracing all forms of art and design: architecture, furniture, glassware, graphic design, jewellery, painting, pottery, metalwork, and textiles. This was a sharp contrast to the traditional separation of art into the distinct categories of fine art (painting and sculpture) and applied arts (ceramics, furniture, and other practical objects) it was also a movement of distinct individuals such as Gustav Klimt, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alfons Mucha, René Lalique, Antoni Gaudí and Louis Comfort Tiffany, each of whom interpreted it in their own individual manner.  Although Art Nouveau fell out of flavour with the arrival of 20th-century modernist styles, it is seen today as an important bridge between the historicism of Neoclassicism and modernism.

There's also something about Art Nouveau that is perhaps an antidote to the irony that permeates contemporary practice. Art Nouveau is based on very positivist principles. It's not critique and irony. It is celebratory art; it can be shocking, but it's celebratory.

Art Nouveau is an important part of art history because it not only bridge between Neoclassicism and Modernism but also arefreshing punch that can still be scene in art today. 
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1 comment:

  1. nice work but what are the characteristic markings of this style?

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