Art Nouveau in United States of America

Art Nouveau (French pronunciation: [aʁ nuvo], Anglicised to /ˈɑːrt nuːˈvoʊ/; at.

Sezession, cz Secese, eng. Modern Style, germ. Jugendstil, sk. Secesia) or Jugendstil is an

international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art – especially the

decorative arts – that was most popular during 1890–1910. English uses the French name Art

Nouveau ("new art"), but the style has many different names in other countries. A reaction to

academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in

flowers and plants, but also in curved lines. Architects tried to harmonize with the natural

environment.

Art Nouveau is considered a "total" art style, embracing architecture, graphic art,

interior design, and most of the decorative arts including jewellery, furniture, textiles,

household silver and other utensils and lighting, as well as the fine arts. According to the

philosophy of the style, art should be a way of life. For many well-off Europeans, it was

possible to live in an art nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware,

fabrics, ceramics including tableware, jewellery, cigarette cases, etc. Artists desired to

combine the fine arts and applied arts, even for utilitarian objects.

Although Art Nouveau was replaced by 20th-century Modernist styles, it is now

considered as an important transition between the eclectic historic revival styles of the 19th-

century and Modernism.

At its beginning, neither Art Nouveau nor Jugendstil was the common name of the

style but was known as this in some locations, and the style had different names as it was

spread. Those two names came from, respectively, Siegfried Bing's gallery Maison de l'Art

Nouveau in Paris and the magazine Jugend in Munich, both of which promoted and

popularised the style.

Maison de l'Art Nouveau (House of New Art) was the name of the gallery initiated in

1895 by the German art dealer Siegfried Bing in Paris that featured exclusively modern art.

The fame of his gallery was increased at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, where he presented

coordinated—in design and color—installations of modern furniture, tapestries and objets

d'art. These decorative displays became so strongly associated with the style that the name of

his gallery subsequently provided a commonly used term for the entire style. Thus the term

"Art Nouveau" was created.

Part of the evolution of Art Nouveau were several international fairs which presented

buildings and products designed in the new style. So, the 1888 Barcelona Universal

Exposition marks the beginning of the Modernisme, with some buildings of Lluís Domènech i

Montaner. The Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, presented an overview of the 'modern

style' in every medium. It achieved further recognition at the Esposizione Internazionale

d'Arte Decorativa Moderna of 1902 in Turin, Italy, where designers exhibited from almost

every European country where Art Nouveau was practiced.

Although Art Nouveau acquired distinctly localised tendencies as its geographic

spread increased, some general characteristics are indicative of the form. A description

published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall hanging Cyclamen (1894) described it as

"sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip", which became well known during

the early spread of Art Nouveau. Subsequently, not only did the work itself become better

known as The Whiplash but the term "whiplash" is frequently applied to the characteristic

curves employed by Art Nouveau artists. Such decorative "whiplash" motifs, formed by

dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm, are found throughout the

architecture, painting, sculpture, and other forms of Art Nouveau design.

America does count two important architects who influenced and were influenced by

Art Nouveau.

Louis Sullivan is credited with building the first modern skyscraper. The Wainwright

building went up 10 stories high. The key word here is modern. He jettisoned the classical

look and went for something completely different. For ornamentation he used a combination

of organic, flowing designs superimposed against strong geometric shapes. The building went

up in 1891, three years before Horta finished the Hotel Tassel and four years before Mucha’s

Gismonda poster. Some people point to the decoration on the Wainwright and classify it as

Art Nouveau architecture. I don’t think that is correct. The strong geometric forms and

symmetry gives a different look than you usually find in Art Nouveau, but he was breathing

the same air as the other Art Nouveau instigators and was headed in the same general

direction.

Most importantly he was trying to find a decorative theme appropriate for soaring

architecture and he struck upon something that wasn’t far from either Art Nouveau or the Art

Deco that would take its place. His pupil and protégé was a man called Frank Lloyd Wright,

who would take his teachers ideas on architectural decoration and build upon them.

In some ways, while very much a proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement,

Wright was at odds with Art Nouveau. You won’t find much in the way of long flowing

curves in his architecture or his art after he found his own voice. His early work contains a lot

of decoration similar to Sullivan’s, but after a few years he abandoned that style, dropping the

organic forms and focusing on the geometric designs. In doing so he really bypassed Art

Nouveau and went straight to the next step. If you look at the windows on his 1901 Bradley

house you find yourself looking at an Art Deco window, a style that really wouldn’t come into

its own until twenty years later. So with that I will wrap up my series on Art Nouveau

architectue and segue into my articles on Art Deco.