"And now" as Paul Harvey used to say "the rest of the story" on Art Nouveau that is.
As promised I am posting the second bit on Art Nouveau by my friend Keith Leaman and then a bit on my latest creation which can first be seen (unless your a very close friend or relative) at the Cody High Style Show.
You may recall there was a tension between the two practitioners, curvacious and the geometric and the geometric won out.
A synopsis on the New Art 1900 Period Part Il of II.
Keith writes:
EARLY BACKGROUND
A new century around the corner, new industries, particularly steel with rolling mills, reinforcement combined with concrete making the product strong in tension, the new wealthy from industry, and new ideas beginning to percolate through the art world. Such teachers as Violet-de Duc in Europe who published a thesis he called ' ENTRETIENS ' in 1858 in which he suggested a functionalist approach demanding:- " Alliance of form with need , truth that stone should appear as stone, iron as iron." He went on to say that "to-day we possess immense resources provided by industry and ease of transportation ---architects must cease to be interested only whether their facades should be Gothic , Roman ,or Renaissance from that attitude nothing new or living can come" With comments such as these he rocked the establishment and inspired a new generation of up and coming artists and architects. In England we have Ruskin reacting to the machine age and attempting to influence aesthetic thought by alerting artists and craftsmen for the need to re-establish the' middle ages' code as he saw it of daily labour sweetened by the daily creation of art.
Ruskins teachings were important to Morris who picked up on the Ruskin theme of art and craft but widened the debate by refuting the historicism bit as "masquerading in other peoples cast off clothes." England never really took to the flamboyant Art Nouveau movement, but created its own style we now know as ARTS AND CRAFTS. Nevertheless Ruskin and Morris, the architects Voysey , Letherby etc were very important to the development of the continental style 1900 particularly via their publications which were soaked up far and wide. Art publications were very influential as they could be distributed to all continents, and therefore new ideas were easily available. With these three, Viollet -le- Duc, Ruskin and Morris one more important writer/ architect /teacher should be added-- H.Van de Velde-- based in Brussels, he, later in life, started the for-runner acadamy to the Bauhaus school.
A few more ingredients to add to the pot--- Iron and steel I have already mentioned, the great exhibitions in London and Paris which acted as a showcase for the new work. We can also add A.H. Macmurdo's contribution --a wealthy London architect, who started the CENTURY GUILD in 1882, which was similar in aspiration to William Morris's workshop. Macmurdo designed furniture , book covers, textiles, and furniture . In fact the Macmurdo title page for’’ Wrens city churches' was probably amongst the first true art Nouveau forms known with its stretched peacocks and curvaceous stylised flower arrangements (1883).Macmurdo would have been very aware of the Pre Raphaelites , probably knew William Blake the painter, he certainly knew Whistler ,see the famous peacock room influences. To continue the ingredients we also have on the continent Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gough, a little slice of Otto Wagner in Vienna, potters, glassmakers such as Emile Galle in Nancy, Lalique and you have a heady mix ready for Architects to exploit! There are a number of centres, which are particularly associated as 'new art' hubs: - Brussels, Paris, Nancy, Barcelona, Munich, Berlin, Glasgow, Vienna, Helsinki, Milan, and Chicago. FRANCE-----------------E Viollet-le-Duc . Hector Guimard . Gustave Eifflel . BRUSSELS------------- H. Van -de- Velde . Victor Horta . .Paul Hankar . U.S.A.--------------------- H.H. Richardson . Louis Sullivan . Frank Lloyd Wright. Tiffany. GLASGOW ---------------- C.R. Mackintosh . Margaret Macdonald . Frances Macdonald . Herbert McNair VIENNA-----------------Josef Hoffman . Adolf Loos . Josef Olbrick . Josef Plecnik . Otto Wagner . Gustav Klimpt GERMANY------------- H. Van-de-Velde (moved to Germany from Brussels) . August Endell . Peter Behrens . Walter Gropius . H .Muthesius. HELSINKI--------------- Elial Saarinen . Herman Gesellius . Armas Lindgren. SPAIN----------------------Antoni Gaudi.
INFLUENCES----------magazines---Van-de-Velde---John Ruskin---- William Morris---E. Viollet-le-Duc---- A. Macmurdo----New materials------craftsmen---painters-- ( Klimpt , pre-Raphaelites , Toulous Lautrec, Van Gogh)---- communication( post and rail)----Arts and Crafts movement.--- Exhibitions, and many other influences, but I will finish here!
So this hopefully gives you the tip of the iceberg. Keith"
And just "The Tip" it is I say. I would have to say I wouldn't put Frank Lloyd Wright in the art Nouveau catagory but more in the Arts and Crafts which overlapped as it seems. Tiffany for sure is Art Nouveau and the others on the USA line, admittedly, I do not know. But, I intend to.
As to my latest creation. Here are a couple of teaser photos to mull over.
"Oyster" raw material; Cutting the oysters; and The work of creating an original.
ANB5V2FR6WST
