Career of Art Nouveau
Posted on:4/8/2006
| Though Art Nouveau climaxed in the years 1892 to 1902, the first stirrings of an Art Nouveau can be recognized in the 1880s, in a handful of progressive designs influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, such as the architect-designer Arthur Mackmurdo's often-illustrated bookcover design for his essay on the city churches of Sir Christopher Wren, published in 1883. |
Though Art Nouveau climaxed in the years 1892 to 1902, the first stirrings of an Art Nouveau can be recognized in the 1880s, in a handful of progressive designs influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, such as the architect-designer Arthur Mackmurdo's often-illustrated bookcover design for his essay on the city churches of Sir Christopher Wren, published in 1883. Some free-flowing wrought iron from the 1880s could also be adduced, or some flat floral textile designs, most of which owed some impetus to vegetal-derived patterns of High Victorian design.
The name "Art Nouveau" derived from the name of a shop in Paris, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, at the time run by Samuel Bing, that showcased objects that followed this approach to design.
A high point in the evolution of Art Nouveau was the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris, in which the "modern style" triumphed in every medium. It probably reached its apogee, however, at the 1902 Turin Exposition in Italy, where designers exhibited from almost every European country where Art Nouveau flourished. Ironically, Art Nouveau made use of many technological innovations of the late 19th century, especially the broad use of exposed iron and large, irregularly-shaped pieces of glass in architecture, but by the start of the First World War the highly stylized nature of Art Nouveau design — which itself was expensive to produce — began to be dropped in favor of more streamlined, simply rectilinear modernism that was cheaper and thought to be more faithful to the rough, plain industrial aesthetic.
The entrances to the Paris Metro designed by Hector Guimard in 1899 and 1900 are notable and famous examples of Art Nouveau.
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