Bring Back Art Nouveau
THEME: ART NOUVEAU
THIRTY YEAR PERIOD: 1875-1905
1875- New constitutional laws instituted
establishing parliamentary supremacy and a stable reign for France, the Third Republic of French
government from 1870 to 1940.
1876 – Patent for the first
telephone was lodged by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell-America
1877- Invention of the Phonograph by Thomas Edison –
sound recording and playback.
1878- Thomas Edison in America & Joseph Swan in
Britain invented the Light bulb.
1878- Photographic advance with Gelatin Coated Dry
Plates advertised for sale by Wratten & Wainwright & Peter Mawdsley
Liverpool Dry Plate Company.
1880 – First
Newspaper Photograph.
1881- A new branch of the British Museum (Natural
History) opened in South Kensington
1882- Art workers guild created by Walter Crane
and Lewis Day.
1882- Pearl Street Power station in New York City
opened by Thomas Edison.
1884- Century Guild formed by Arthur Mackmurdo which produced the
magazine The Hobby Horse.
1884- Formation of the first
Kindergarden Association inspired by Frederich Froebel claiming that childhood
play is essential to proper human development.
1885 – Karl
Benz a German Engineer manufactured the first automobile for sale to the
public.
1886- Hotel
Tassel in Brussels designed by Victor Horta- displaying first use of structural
iron frame in a house Art Nouveau style.
1887- George Eastman produces the first
paper roll-film camera.
1888- Arts
and crafts exhibition society created by William Morris.
1889- Paris International Exhibition – where
Emil Galle acknowledged as an innovator with his furniture designs.
1890- Freud the psychoanalysist publishes
The Interpretation of Dreams
1891-Oscar Wilde publishes the Picture of
Dorian Gray.
1892- August
Weismann publishes findings detailing how important DNA is to heredity, along
with germ cell theory.
1893-
Women given the right to vote in New Zealand.
1893-
Aubrey Beardsley illustrator of Morte d’Arthur causes outrage with his personal
version of Art Nouveau style.
1895- German
entrepreneur Siegfried Bing (1838–1905) expands and reopens his Oriental crafts
shop in Paris as the Maison de l'Art Nouveau.
1895-
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine
1895-
Radio telegraphy invented by Gugliemo Marconi.
1895-
First film projected publicly in Paris at 44 rue de Rennes by the Lumiere
brothers.
1895-
Oscar Wilde put on trial for Homosexuality.
1896- Mary
Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Frances E.W. Harper among others
found the National Association of Coloured Women’s Clubs.
1897-
Viennese Secession group of artists and architects formed.
1900-
Scottish Architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs buildings, furnishings
& interiors classed as Art Nouveau
1901- Queen
Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward, Prince of Wales (1841–1910). This era
is described as “Edwardian”.
1903-
First successful flight of petrol powered aeroplane.
1904-
The London Symphony Orchestra is formed.
1904-
Patent of the first photographic one-shot commercial colour plate by the
Lumiere Brothers in France.
1905-
Albert Einstein publishes the Theory of Relativity,
he predicts time dilation.
OVERVIEW:
The turn of the
century saw a development of an altruistic art form called Art Nouveau. The undulating lines and sensuous forms were
typical to signify a unique style marking a leap into modernity as opposed to mimicking
fashions of the past such as Gothic, Classical, Renaissance, Louise XV or
Baroque. Although it can be said that Art Nouveau derives its stylistic
inspiration from the orient and the past whilst also firmly embedding itself in
its own era by defining the cultural repertoire of this time period. This was a time of technological advancements,
political peace, new ideologies and increased wealth of the working class. The
advent of mass communication with print media, motion pictures and photography
conveying these new ideas and modern style became the inevitable reason for its
world-wide spread.
Precursors to
this movement involved the establishment of an Arts & Craft movement in England
with noble idealists as forefathers such as William Morris and John Ruskin. They claimed that art should be made
practical and accessible to everyone and with improved working conditions with
the onset of the industrial revolution, mass produced ugliness was not on the
agenda. With such ideals that factories can cater to employ artisans producing
decorative arts and revitalizing society as a whole by bringing pleasure from
these beautiful objects. These ideals
were polarized into socialism and the rise of a wealthy middle class able to
afford and pay for such craftsmanship yet equality for women, children and the
uneducated were still yet to happen.
Medieval and
gothic flavours tempered this move toward this sensual decorative style
reflecting the new sexual liberation from tight religious moral values with the
advent of Freud’s theories and various literatures with authors such
as Oscar Wilde. Taking its qualities from an influx of Japanese art and
abstracted forms from nature assisted to inspire artists such as Eugene Grasset
and Alophonse Mucha who made poster art and graphic design a viable profession.
The graphic arts are where Art Nouveau found its most competent expression
within the scope of modernity. The
advance of printing techniques and mass publication of specialized art magazines
such as Scribners, Jugend (Youth) & Pan in Germany allowed the style to
travel originally from England to Europe and Internationally sharing new flowing
active typography and illustrations of stylized pretty long haired women.
The establishment
of the Art Nouveau period saw artists such as Emil Galle to draw inspiration
from the natural world rejecting straight lines with a curving flowing graphic
style of decoration that transfers onto a variety of solid objects with metal
work, architecture, glassware, ceramics, jewellery and interior decoration.
The mixture of
commerce and art provoked the formation of international trade fairs and became
the flavor of the day enabling a sharing of ideas and technology between
countries and feeding a burgeoning consumer society to posses the latest and
greatest trend of the moment.
Art Nouveau as
it was by its very name the definition of modern yet it unfortunately became
associated with exorbitance and excess opulence which clashed with the utopian
ideals of Socialism and Marxism to end the divide between the rich and poor. Art Nouveau objects were also used as the
means to express self styled decadence by the dandy, flaneur and bourgeois
elite of society which undermined the principals intended by Ruskin and Morris
to beautify existence in general not just for the selected few yet these ideals
to develop beauty and improve as designers continue to influence modern artists
today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Hardy, William.
A guide to Art Nouveau Style. London:
Apple Press, 1986.
Davies, Paul. How to build a time machine. London:
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Harris, Melvin.
ITN Book of Firsts. London: Michael O’Mara
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“Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History,” The Metropolitan Museum
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West, Richard. Modernism.
New York: Phaidon Press, 2001.
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