Fellow deviants, it is my great honor and extreme pleasure to write about a style several of you may have heard of but few may actually know much about. I speak of Art Nouveau, popularly used in concert lithographs these days, but a style of so much more significance! This movement embodied beauty in utility; art with practicality, and practically anything could be art! We have formed a new Art Nouveau club here in dA, and so that you may understand what sort of work we're looking for, I submit the following for your reading pleasure:

Art Nouveau (new art) was a decorative style that was considered avant-guarde in its time, its beginnings held to be in the late 19th century and the early 20th. Its influence was mainly felt in Europe and the USA, mostly in architecture and decorative and graphic arts. Focusing on flowing, asymmetrical lines basic on organic forms, its geometric and abstract forms were a reaction to classical forms of art. Influenced by Japanese art (particularly the simple lines and asymmetry,) Gothic architecture and Celtic art, its decorative range mostly comes from the observation and imitation of nature, specifically exotic flowers and plants. But more than that, Art Nouveau itself was the idea that there was a community in art, and that all visual art was equal. It was attempt to make elitism a thing of the past, rejecting the academic tradition and forms of ornament based on Classical and Renaissance styles, stemming in part from the ideas held similarly by its style predecessor, the Arts and Crafts movement of Britain. This style was unique in that it wasn't just about paintings and sculptures, but architecture, jewelry, furniture, household items; they could all be done in the Art Nouveau style. In other words, you could live in an entirely Art Nouveau house, from the façade to the clothing you wore to the bed you slept in!

The Art Nouveau movement spread from England (as opposed to the similar style Symbolism, which came from France), but the origin of the name is usually attributed to S. Bing, who opened a gallery in Paris called L'Art Nouveau in 1895, and the first continental exposition of Art Nouveau was in Brussels, through the progressive group known as Les Vignt (The Twenty). "In 1881 the lawyer Octave Maus co-founded the magazine Art Moderne, the chief aim of which was to introduce art into every aspect of everyday life. The editors called themselves ‘the Art Nouveau faithful', stating 'We believe in the Art Nouveau'."¹ Some of the earliest examples of the Art Nouveau style was actually found in book illustrations by A.H. Mackmurdo, Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Crane, the title page of Mackmurdo's Wren’s City Churches(1883) in particular. Mackmurdo, C.R. Ashbee, C.F.A. Voysey and M.H. Baillie Scott, all accomplished designers and architects, provided the link between the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau in Britain, though Voysey later despised the continental flavor derived from his influence. Formed in 1884 in Belgium, Les XX (later dissolved by their General Secretary Maus in 1893, replaced by Libre Esthétique) was a group of artists who sought to have their work shown outside the official Salon. Among those invited to exhibit their work in the first year of the group's existence were Toulouse-Lautrec and Seurat. Claude DeBussy himself played his music at the opening of the exhibit, and the fact that Morris’s and Beardsley’s book illustrations and objects designed by Ashbee were all given equal prominence served to demonstrate an attempt to show a relationship between ALL arts.

As varied as the artists who created and proliferated the Art Nouveau were the names for the derivative styles that sprang up in Western Europe, such as: Sezessionstil (Austria); Modern style, Style nouille, Style coup de fouet (Belgium); Modernisme (Catalonia); Style Jules Verne, Style Métro, Style 1900, Art fin de siècle, Art belle éoque (France)(please ignore the smiley, I can't eliminate it from that word!); Jugendstil (Germany and Austria); Arte nuova, Stile floreale, Stile Liberty (Italy);Stil’ modern (Russia); Glasgow style (Scotland); Arte joven (Spain); Nieuwe kunst (the Netherlands); and Tiffany style (USA). Each branch development (no pun intended) of the original Art Nouveau style came from artists who put their own stamp on what would become a short lived but singularly beautiful homage to nature, abstract forms and asymmetry. Britain, Belgium, France, Germany and Austria were the main countries where Art Nouveau left its mark, but the hybrid developments of the other countries listed above should not be discounted. For example, the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany from the USA is considered top notch in design and interior decor, and the artists from countries other than the main five, while not in total keeping with the specific Art Nouveau style are quite noteworthy, and merit exploration on their own.

Possibly surprising to us in this modern age, the style and its hybrid versions met with great opposition far prior to its end, which came during World War I. Criticized as "extravagance" and a "strange decorative disease," several publications and even some of its own progenitors thought little of it, as evidenced by the editors of Art et Décoration, who opined that the Glasgow style ‘does not appear to be in harmony with our artistic aspirations or our everyday needs’.² Dismissed by many in the '20's and 30's as a frivolous transition phase between historicism of the 19th century and Functionalism of the 20th, it was referred to in France as Style branche de persil (stick of parsley style) or the Style guimauve (marshmallow style). Actually having led to both Art Deco and Modernism (in architecture), its reputation wasn't really reestablished until the 1960's, which is the time with which most young Art Nouveau admirers are more familiar. The true beauty of the style lay in idea of the attempt to abolish the distinction between major and minor arts, and going back to nature for inspiration.

This is but a snippet of information about Art Nouveau! For the full scoop on this wonderful style, we invite you to visit ~dArtNouveau, dA's newest Art Nouveau club. Unlike other Art Nouveau clubs in dA, we are interested specifically in the original styles, from its bold beginnings to the decline after the First World War, its revival at the hands of the Surrealists in the 1930's and its reappraisal of value in the eyes of artists and scholars of the 1960's. While we admire the new forms of Art Nouveau created by the artists of today, we wish to adhere to the historical and stylistic framework of Art Nouveau, such as the decorative repertory mentioned in the description above. in You may say this is not in keeping with the original themes of the style, "breaking away from classical style and elitism," but do not mistake our particularity for snobbery. We enjoy and admire all forms of the Art Nouveau, but will be displaying only that which cleaves to the original themes in our gallery. We will favorite many lovely works in the Art Nouveau style which aren't "strictly ballroom," and encourage both members and non-members to avail themselves of the stock images we will provide for any style they please. Come see us for yourselves, and immerse yourselves in L'Art fin de siècle.



Webliography

¹Michèle Lavallée, "Art Nouveau: Britain," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 1/20/08, [link]
²Michèle Lavallée, "Art Nouveau: Conclusion," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 1/20/08, [link]
Michèle Lavallée, "Art Nouveau: Belgium," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 1/20/08, [link]
Michèle Lavallée, "Art Nouveau: Introduction," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 1/20/08, [link]

Justine Hopkins, "Art Nouveau [from OCWA]," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 1/20/08, [link]