In the department store, we will always see the items with different kind of designs, including interior decoration and daily necessities. Some of these designs are classically decorative yet concise and lively. These different styles of design are not fanciful, but have an aesthetic reference for their art history and Art Nouveau movement is the source of these modern styles.
Art Nouveau, an international art style that was popular in the late nineteenth century, is the most most versatile genre in all fields, including painting, sculpture, architecture, furniture, products, fashion, graphic design, etc. The decorative artistic effect is expressed as an important feature of the Art Nouveau movement. In the visual arts, the representative is Alfons Maria Mucha, and Antonio Gaudi is a representative of the architectural field.
The important source of the Art Nouveau movement dates back to the Arts and Craft Movement. This art genre, which originated in the UK in the second half of the 19th century, emphasizes the combination of art and craftsmanship, trying to use natural organic forms as a way of modeling to resist the roughness and ugliness of mechanical products after the Industrial Revolution. The art and craft movement is an art movement with a retro and biased design. As the founder of Art Nouveau movement, William Morris used organic plants such as floral patterns applied on fabric prints.
France is the birthplace of the Art Nouveau movement. In 1895, the publisher Samuel Bing opened a store in Paris called "La Maison Art Nouveau", which mainly showcased Nouveau-style products and also took design cases with Art Nouveau style, and that is the source of the nomination of the Art Nouveau. Before it becoming a big trend in Europe, the Art Nouveau movement was only be treated and called the ‘modern style’, but after the small groups began to gather gradually and tried to improve the pretentious popular style of the time, it successfully opened the way for the development of modernism in the twentieth century.
The Art Nouveau movement advocates organic creation as the basis for its creation, emphasizing that there is no straight line in nature and no complete plane as well. Unlike the art and craft movements that value the medieval Gothic style, the Art Nouveau does not have any traditional decorative style, nor deny the mechanical role. On the contrary, the Art Nouveau movement advocates the use of mechanical strengths, extension of the use of the concept of making new styling and new materials. The Art Nouveau style is deeply influenced by the decorative arts and ukiyo-e paintings of the Edo period in Japan. It has decadent and decorative aesthetics of fin de siècle, with a focus on decorative effects. Artists of the Art Nouveau movement introduced feeling into the shape so that their works have a distinct emotional image.
The Art Nouveau movement spread and developed branches in several countries, and the branches also developed into different artistic tendencies. For example, the Vienna Secession, although a branch of the Art Nouveau movement in Austria, hold a different claim from the decorative and organic styling advocated by the Art Nouveau movement.
The peak period of the Art Nouveau movement was within 1890 to 1910. After the First World War, people were deeply immersed in the abyss of poverty and lack of supplies. They no longer needed extra decorations, that caused the Art Nouveau movement declined. The art world was therefore quiet for some time until 1905 that new art genres such as Fauvism and Expressionism emerged, bringing the form and concept of art towards an avant-garde direction. However, it is undeniable that the development of the Art Nouveau for more than ten years is an important formalist movement in the history of design, and also an important reference for the reform and development of design style.
Representative of Art and Craft Movement
William Morris, 1834-1996
William Morris is an outstanding British designer in the field of furniture design, wallpaper design and textile design. He lamented that the industrial products exhibited in the Great Exhibition (the first World’s Fairs in the history) in1851 were too rough, therefore he established the Art and Craft Movements with friends, aiming to inject a new atmosphere into the design community by suggested a new artistic style in order to replace the kitsch Victorian style that was popular for a long time. Born into a wealthy family, Morris entered the Oxford University to study theology and inspired by Ruskin's design ideas at that time. He involved in the art and interior design fields, and later formed the partnership company MMF, started his journey in design and produced furniture and furnishings. Morris is dedicated to advocating the exquisite aesthetics of traditional craftsmanship. He promoted Goethe and medieval style in the beginning, and later involved in developing organic plant design. His theory had a certain influence on the new art movement that was widely launched in Europe, and it was the starting point of modernism. The German Industrial Alliance and Bauhaus were inherited from his ideas and developed modernism.
Representative of the Art Nouveau Movement
Antonio Gaudí, 1852-1926
Anthony Gaudí's architectural design is known around the world for its complex, innovative design and strong personal style. In his childhood observation of nature, he discovered that nature does not have a pure straight line, so he strives to pursue the natural form in the design, using the curve and organic form to implement his architectural design concept. "The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God" is his famous quotes, and his architectural concept and style have always influenced the architectural concept nowaday. Gaudí is the practitioner of Catalan Modernism. Being the child of a blacksmith family, Gaudí had the good talent on judging on the spatial structure and shape with his architectural background. His architectural design combed a new vein for the architectural style with chaotic architectural style at that time, and injected rich vitality into the road of modern architectural reform, becoming a special beautiful landscape in the history of architecture. His architectural features include the wavy line structure in Casa Milà and Casa Batllo, as well as the mosaic collage with natural terrain in Parc Güell. La Sagrada Família, the Catholic church in Barcelona, is a great work that he devoted his life and energy to after he took over the design and architecture at the age of 31. Unfortunately, the church has not been completed yet, and he suffered an accidental death in 1926. The architects of later generations spend more than 100 years studying the mystery of the church structure built in his heart, in order to help him to continue this masterpiece. Moreover, the construction of the Sagrada Familia faces various challenges, it has been illegally constructed without a construction permit. Until October of this year, after 136 years and 7 months of construction, Sagrada Familia finally reached an agreement with the Barcelona city government to obtain permission for construction, but the relatively must pay €36 million to the government in the next 10 years. The Sagrada Familia is expected to be completed in 2026, which is the 100th anniversary of the death of God.
Alfons Maria Mucha, 1860-1939
The works of Czech painter and ornament artist Alfons Mucha not only showed clear Art Nouveau style, also contained a very strong personal style. Beautiful woman dressed in bohemian style gown, surrounded by flowers, the aura around the head, constitutes the classic image of Mucha's works. Mucha had created a large number of paintings, posters, advertisements and illustrations, as well as jewellery, carpets, wallpapers, and theater designs. He also designed stamps and banknotes for the independent Czech Republic. Mucha was engaged in theater landscape painting and mural work in the early days, and later entered the Munich Academy of Fine Arts to receive formal art education. In 1887, Mucha came to Paris, under the circumstance, he became famous for the design of the musical starring the most popular female star in Paris at that time. Since then, he future was boundless. In addition to being awarded the title by the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor, his outstanding achievements were also awarded the Knight Medal of Honor by the French government. In order to be a historical documentary of the Slavic nation, Mucha spent 15 years creating 20 large-scale paintings, The Slav Epic. In 1939, Mucha was arrested by the Gestapo due to his Jewish lineage and the Fanslavism complex. He passed away from pneumonia during the trial.
Figure 1: Antonio Gaudí, La Sagrada Família, 1882-present © The Art Story
Figure 2: William Morris, Praising angel, 1902, Stained, painted, leaded glass © William Morris Gallery
