Jugendstil

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Staircase of the Maison & Atelier of Victor Horta. This building is one of four Horta-designed town houses in Brussels that are together recognised by UNESCO as "representing the highest expression of the influential Art Nouveau style in art and architecture."^[1]

Art Nouveau (French pronunciation: [a? nuvo], anglicised to /??rt nu??vou/) is an international movement^[2] and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century (1890–1905).^[3] The name 'Art nouveau' is French for 'new art'. It is also known as Jugendstil, German for 'youth style', named after the magazine Jugend, which promoted it, and in Italy, Stile Liberty from the department store in London, Liberty & Co., which popularized the style. A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it is characterized by organic, especially floral and other plant-inspired motifs, as well as highly-stylized, flowing curvilinear forms.^[4] Art Nouveau is an approach to design according to which artists should work on everything from architecture to furniture, making art part of everyday life.^[5]

The movement was strongly influenced by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, when Mucha produced a lithographed poster, which appeared on 1 January 1895 in the streets of Paris as an advertisment for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou, starring Sarah Bernhardt.^[6] It was an overnight sensation, and announced the new artistic style and its creator to the citizens of Paris. Initially called the Style Mucha, (Mucha Style), this soon became known as Art Nouveau.^[7]

Art Nouveau's fifteen-year peak was most strongly felt throughout Europe—from Glasgow to Moscow to Madrid — but its influence was global. Hence, it is known in various guises with frequent localized tendencies.^[8] In France, Hector Guimard's metro entrances shaped the landscape of Paris and Emile Gallé was at the center of the school of thought in Nancy. Victor Horta had a decisive impact on architecture in Belgium.^[9] Magazines like Jugend helped spread the style in Germany, especially as a graphic artform, while the Vienna Secessionists influenced art and architecture throughout Austria-Hungary. Art Nouveau was also a movement of distinct individuals such as Gustav Klimt, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alphonse Mucha, René Lalique, Antoni Gaudí and Louis Comfort Tiffany, each of whom interpreted it in their own individual manner.^[10][11]

Although Art Nouveau fell out of favor with the arrival of 20th-century modernist styles,^[12] it is seen today as an important bridge between the historicism of Neoclassicism and modernism.^[11] Furthermore, Art Nouveau monuments are now recognized by UNESCO on their World Heritage List as significant contributions to cultural heritage.^[13] The historic center of Riga, Latvia, with "the finest collection of art nouveau buildings in Europe", was inscribed on the list in 1997 in part because of the "quality and the quantity of its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture",^[14] and four Brussels town houses by Victor Horta were included in 2000 as "works of human creative genius" that are "outstanding examples of Art Nouveau architecture brilliantly illustrating the transition from the 19th to the 20th century in art, thought, and society."^[1] It later influenced psychedelic art that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s^{[citation needed]}.

Naming the style

At its beginning, neither Art Nouveau nor Jugendstil was the common name of the style, and the style adopted different labels as it spread between artistic centers.^[15] Those two names came from, respectively, Samuel Bing's gallery Maison de l'Art Nouveau in Paris and the magazine Jugend in Munich,^[11] both of which promoted and popularized the style.^[15]

Bing's Maison de l'Art Nouveau

Maison de l'Art Nouveau (House of New Art) was the name of the gallery opened in 1895 by the German art dealer Samuel Bing in Paris that marked his exclusive focus on modern art.^[16][17] 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.^[17] These fully-realized 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: Art Nouveau.^[17]

This front cover of an 1896 edition of the German magazine Jugend is decorated in Art Nouveau motifs. Jugend was strongly associated with the style and the magazine's name inspired the German term for the movement, Jugendstil ("Jugend"-style).

Jugend and Jugendstil

Jugendstil typography, applied to a brewery sign

Jugend: MĂźnchner illustrierte Wochenschrift fĂźr Kunst und Leben (English: Youth: the illustrated weekly magazine of art and lifestyle of Munich) was a magazine founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth.^[18] At the height of Art Nouveau, the magazine was instrumental in promoting the style in Germany. As a result, the magazine's name was adopted as the most common German-language term for the movement: Jugendstil ("Jugend-style"), although, in the early 20th century, the word was applied to only two-dimensional examples of the graphic arts,^[19] especially the forms of organic typography and graphic design found in and influenced by German-magazines like Jugend, Pan, and Simplicissimus. It is now broadly applied to the broader manifestations of Art Nouveau visual arts in Germany, the Netherlands, the Baltic states, and Nordic countries.^[11][20]

Other names

Other local names were associated with the characteristics of its forms, its practitioners and their works, and schools of thought or study where it was popular. Moreover, many terms approximate the idea of "newness." Before the term "Art Nouveau" became de rigueur in France, le style moderne ("the modern style") was the more frequent designation.^[15] Arte joven ("young art) in Spain, Arte nuova ("new art") in Italy, and Nieuwe kunst ("new art") in the Netherlands, ?????? ("new", "contemporary") in Russia - all continue this theme.^[11] In similar manner, its modern characteristics gave way to the label of Catalan Modernisme in Barcelona. Many names refer specifically to the organic forms that were popular with the Art Nouveau artists: Stile Floreal ("floral style"), Lilienstil ("lily style"), Style Nouille ("noodle style"), Stile Vermicelli ("vermicelli", or "little worm noodle" style), Bandwurmstil ("tapeworm style"), Paling Stijl ("eel style"), and Wellenstil ("wave style").^[15]

In other cases, important examples, well-known artists, and associated locations influenced the names. Hector Guimard's Paris MĂŠtro entrances, for example, provided the term Style MĂŠtro, the popularity in Italy of Art Nouveau designs from London's Liberty & Co department store resulted in its being known as the Stile Liberty ("Liberty style"), and, in the United States, it became known as the "Tiffany style" due to its connection to Louis Comfort Tiffany.^[11][15] In Austria, a localized form of Art Nouveau was practiced by artists of the Vienna Secession, and it is, therefore, known as the Sezessionstil ("Secession style").^[21] In the United Kingdom, it is associated with the activities of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, and is often known as the "Glasgow" style.

Art Nouveau tendencies were also absorbed into larger local movements. In Denmark, for example, it was one aspect of Skønvirke ("aesthetic activity"), which itself more closely relates to the Arts and Crafts Movement.^[22][23] Likewise, artists adopted many of the floral and organic motifs of Art Nouveau into the M?oda Polska ("Young Poland") movement in Poland.^[24] M?oda Polska, however, was also inclusive of other artistic styles and encompassed a broader approach to art, literature and lifestyle.^[25]

The book-cover by Arthur Mackmurdo for Wren's City Churches (1883) is often cited as the first realization of Art Nouveau

Origins

The origins of Art Nouveau are found in the resistance of William Morris to the cluttered compositions and the revival tendencies of the Victorian era and his theoretical approaches that helped initiate the Arts and crafts movement.^[26] However, Arthur Mackmurdo's book-cover for Wren's City Churches (1883), with its rhythmic floral patterns, is often considered the first realization of Art Nouveau.^[26] Around the same time, the flat-perspective and strong colors of Japanese woodcuts, especially those of Katsushika Hokusai, had a strong effect on the formulation of Art Nouveau's formal language.^[27] The wave of Japonisme that swept through Europe in the 1880s and 1890s was particularly influential on many artists with its organic forms, references to the natural world, and clear designs that contrasted strongly with the reigning taste.^[27] Besides being adopted by artists like Emile GallĂŠ and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Japanese-inspired art and design was championed by the businessmen Siegfried Bing and Arthur Lasenby Liberty at their stores^[28] in Paris and London, respectively.^[27]

Character of Art Nouveau

Although Art Nouveau took on distinctly localized tendencies as its geographic spread increased—discussed below—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.^[29] 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.^[29] 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.

Philosophy and geography of Art Nouveau

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Art Nouveau is now considered a 'total' style, meaning that it encompasses a hierarchy of scales in design â€” architecture; interior design; decorative arts including jewelry, furniture, textiles, household silver and other utensils, and lighting; and the range of visual arts. (See Hierarchy of genres.)

Art Nouveau was a movement that was very broad in its scope. To many Europeans, it encompassed a whole way of life. It was possible to live in an art nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware, crockery, jewellery, cigarette cases, etc. The Art Nouveau movement wanted to make art part of everyday life, thought to break all connections to classical times, and bring down the barriers between the fine arts and applied arts. Art Nouveau was underlined by a particular way of thinking about modern society and new production methods, attempting to redefine the meaning and nature of the work of art, so that art would not overlook any everyday object, no matter how utilitarian. Hence the name Art Nouveau - "New Art".^[5]

International expos

A high point in the evolution of Art Nouveau was the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, which 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.

Belgium, Switzerland and France

Interior of a dome in the Grand Palais, Paris

In Paris, France, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, at the time run by Siegfried Bing, showcased objects that followed this approach to design. Artists such as Louis Majorelle and Victor Prouvé in Nancy, France, founded the Ecole de Nancy, giving Art Nouveau a new influence. In Brussels, Belgium the style was actively developed with the help of the architects Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde.^[30] Other Art Nouveau designers in Belgium, Switzerland and France include Theophile Alexandre Steinlen, Alphonse Mucha, Hector Guimard and Émile Gallé.^[5]

Germany

The villa Schutzenberger in Strasbourg, now seat of the European Audiovisual Observatory, was built 1897-1900 by Berninger & Krafft and is considered a superb example of Jugendstil style.^[31]

German Art Nouveau is commonly known by its German name, Jugendstil. Drawing from traditional German printmaking, the style uses precise and hard edges, an element that was rather different from the naturalistic style of the time. The movement was centered in Hamburg and was an essential element of the German movement. Within the field of Jugendstil art, there is a variety of different methods, applied by the various individual artists. Methods range from classic to romantic. One feature that sets Jugendstil apart is the typography used, whose letter and image combination is unmistakable. The combination was used for covers of novels, advertisements, and exhibition posters. Designers often used unique display typefaces that worked harmoniously with the image.

Henry Van de Velde, who worked most of his career in Germany, was a Belgian theorist who influenced many others to continue in this style of graphic art including Peter Behrens, Hermann Obrist, and Richard Riemerschmid. August Endell is another notable Art Nouveau designer.^[5]

Magazines were important in spreading the visual idiom of Jugendstil, especially the graphical qualities. Besides Jugend, other important ones were the satirical Simplicissimus and Pan.

Austria

The secession building in Vienna was built in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich for exhibitions of the secession group

A localized approach to Art Nouveau is represented by the artists of the Vienna Secession, a secession that was initiated on 3 April 1897 by Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Otto Wagner, and others. They objected to the conservative orientation toward historicism expressed by the Vienna KĂźnstlerhaus.

Britain

The Edward Everard building in Bristol, England

In the United Kingdom, Art Nouveau developed out of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The first stirrings of an Art Nouveau "movement" can be recognized in the 1880s, in a handful of progressive designs such as the architect-designer Arthur Mackmurdo's book cover 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 patterns of High Victorian design. The most important center in Britain eventually became Glasgow, with the creations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle.

Other notable British Art Nouveau designers include Walter Crane, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, Charles Ashbee and Aubrey Beardsley.^[5]

The Edward Everard building in Bristol, built in 1900-1 to house the printing works of Edward Everard, features an Art Nouveau façade. The figures depicted are of Johannes Gutenberg, and William Morris, both eminent in the field of printing. A winged figure symbolises the Spirit of Light, while a figure holding a lamp and mirror symbolises light and truth.

Hungary

Budapest, Museum of Applied Arts

The buildings display two noticeable styles, those of Historicism and Art Nouveau, or rather several variants of Art Nouveau. In contrast to Historicism, Hungarian Art Nouveau is based on the national architectural characteristics. Taking the eastern origins of the Hungarians into account, Ödön Lechner (1845–1914), the most important figure in Hungarian Art Nouveau, was initially inspired by Indian and Syrian architecture, and later by traditional Hungarian decorative designs. In this way, he created an original synthesis of architectural styles. By applying them to three-dimensional architectural elements, he produced a version of Art Nouveau that was specific to Hungary. Turning away from the style of Lechner, yet taking inspiration from his approach, the group of 'Young People' (Fiatalok), which included Károly Kós and Dezsö Zrumeczky, were to use the characteristic structures and forms of traditional Hungarian architecture to achieve the same end. Besides the two principal styles, the town also displays local versions of trends originating from other European countries. The Sezession from Vienna, the German Jugendstil, Art Nouveau from Belgium and France, and the influence of English and Finnish architecture are all reflected in the buildings constructed at the turn of the century. Béla Lajta initially adopted Lechner's style, subsequently drawing his inspiration from English and Finnish trends; after developing an interest in the Egyptian style, he finally arrived at modern architecture. Aladár Árkay took almost the same route. István Medgyaszay developed his own style, which differed from Lechner's, using stylised traditional motifs to create decorative designs in concrete. In the sphere of applied arts, those chiefly responsible for promoting the spread of Art Nouveau were the School and Museum of Decorative Arts, which opened in 1896.

Spain

The Casa Batlló, already built in 1877, was remodeled in the locally Barcelona manifestation of Art Nouveau, modernisme, by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol in 1904–1906

In Spain, the movement was centered in Barcelona and was an essential element of the Catalan movement Modernisme. Architect Antoni Gaudí, whose decorative architectural style is so highly personal that he is sometimes seen as practising an artistic language separate from Art Nouveau, is nonetheless united with the movement by his use of floral and organic forms.^[32] His designs from around 1903, the Casa Batlló (1904–1906) and Casa Milà (1906–1908), are most closely related to the stylistic elements of Art Nouveau.^[33] However, famous structures such as the Sagrada Familia characteristically contrast the modernizing Art Nouveau tendencies with revivalist Neo-Gothic.^[33] Besides the dominating presence of Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner also explored the Art Nouveau language in Barcelona in buildings such as the Casa Lleó Morera (1905).^[33]

Church of St. Elisabeth in Bratislava, by Ödön Lechner.

Prague and the Czech lands

The influence of Alphonse Mucha was felt in Prague and Moravia (part of the modern Czech Republic), whose style of Art Nouveau became associated with the Czech National Revival. Fin de siecle sections of Prague reveal modest buildings encrusted with leaves and ladies that curve and swirl across the facades.^[34] Examples of Art Nouveau in the city, along with the exteriors of any number of private apartment and commercial buildings, are the Hotel Pariz, SmĂ­chov Market Hall, Hotel Central, the windows in the St. Wenceslas Chapel at St. Vitus Cathedral, the main railway station, Grand Hotel and the Jubilee Synagogue. The Olsany Cemetery and the New Jewish Cemetery are also important examples of Art Nouveau.^[34]

Central and Eastern Europe

Under Latvian Romanticism Riga, the capital of Latvia, became home to over 800 Art Nouveau buildings. In Russia, the movement revolved around the art magazine Mir iskusstva ('World of Art'), which spawned the revolutionary Ballets Russes. The Polish Art Nouveau movement centered in Krakow and was part of the Mloda Polska movement. Stanis?aw Wyspia?ski was the leading Art Nouveau artist in Poland, his paintings, theatrical designs, stained glass, and building interiors are widely admired and celebrated in the National Museum in KrakĂłw. Art Nouveau buildings survive in most Polish cities, with the exception of Warsaw, where Communist authorities destroyed the few Art Nouveau buildings that survived the Nazi razing of Warsaw on the grounds that the buildings were decadent. The Slovene Lands was another area influenced by Art Nouveau. At its beginning, Slovenian Art Nouveau was strongly influenced by the Viennese Secession, but it later developed an individual style. Important Slovenian Art Nouveau architects include Max Fabiani, Ciril Metod Koch, JoĹže Ple?nik and Ivan Vurnik. The vast majority of Slovenian art nouveau architecture is centred in Ljubljana.

Croatia has been an adequate area of secessionist architecture as well. Architects like Vjekoslav Bastl and Baranyai developed a mixture between modernism and classical Art Nouveau.

House Feller , 1906. in Zagreb.

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Other areas

Italy's Stile Liberty reflected the modern design emanating from the Liberty & Co store, a sign both of the Art Nouveau's commercial aspect and the 'imported' character that it always retained in Italy. The spread of Art Nouveau in Portugal suffered a delay due to slowly developing industry, although the movement flourished. Especially in cities like Oporto and Aveiro, in which can be found numerous buildings influenced by European models mainly by French architecture. Art Nouveau was also popular in the Nordic countries, where it became integrated with the National Romantic Style. Good examples are the neighbourhoods of Katajanokka and Ullanlinna, located in Helsinki, Finland, as well as the Helsinki Central railway station, designed by the architect Eliel Saarinen. As in Germany, Jugendstil is the prevailing term used for the style. The Norwegian coastal town of Ålesund burned to the ground in 1904, and was rebuilt in a uniform Jugendstil architecture, kept more or less intact up to today. Although no significant artists in Australia are linked to the Art Nouveau movement, many buildings throughout Australia were designed in the Art Nouveau style. In Melbourne, the Victorian Arts Society, Milton House, Melbourne Sports Depot, Melbourne City Baths, Conservatorium of Music and Melba Hall, Paston Building, and Empire Works Building all reflect the Art Nouveau style. Montevideo, in South America's Rio de la Plata, offer a striking example of the influence of the Art Nouveau movement across the Atlantic. The presence of the style in architecture both of downtown and periphery of the city is very apparent. Montevideo maintained intense communication with Paris, London and Barcelona, during Art Nouveau's heyday, when the city was also receiving massive immigration, especially from Italy and Spain. Those were also the years Montevideo developed the key structure of its urban spaces, which help explains the widespread presence of Art Nouveau there.^{[citation needed]}

Application

The Art Nouveau style and approach has been applied in painting, architecture, furniture, glassware, graphic design, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and textiles and sculpture. This is in line with the Art Nouveau philosophy that art should become part of everyday life.^[5]

Architecture

In architecture, hyperbolas and parabolas in windows, arches, and doors are common, and decorative moldings 'grow' into plant-derived forms. Like most design styles, Art Nouveau sought to harmonize its forms. The text above the Paris Metro entrance follows the qualities of the rest of the iron work in the structure.^[35]

Art Nouveau in architecture and interior design eschewed the eclectic revival styles of the

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