A Guide to Art Nouveau

Introduction

The period starting with the end of the nineteenth century has offered a fertile field of study for the art historian . It is still surprising that the Art Nouveau movement has been considered in the beginning as one of the failed stylistic phenomenons, it was considered as shallow and decorative. This is why on the facade of a house built in the art nouveau style it was written: De esta fachada no es responsable el actual proprietario, The current owner is not responsible of this facade. Today's technical development gives us the right to be amazed and fearful and it is easy to identify yourself with the idealist artists from the art nouveau era who, through their aesthetic refinement, were in opposition towards a similar development. The first big expositions of the style appeared only after the war: in the Museum of Applied Art from Zurich Hans Curjel's exposition and in the Victoria and Albert museum from London, Peter Floud's exposition (1952). Among the most renowned are the exposition from the modern art museum from New York (1958) and the one from Paris (1960).

The style definition

The conception of the form: the asymmetrical line which ends in a whip movement, filled with energy is the principal ornamental characteristic of the art nouveau style. Always alive, always in ornamental motion, it appears in equilibrium. The most important aspect of the decoration is the capacity of underlining the form, structure and of combining the object and the ornament into a single organic entity: the purpose becomes the unity and synthesis. There are more art nouveau styles. The abstract and the structural symbolic style which finds itself in the French-Belgian cultural sphere (the decoration executed by Guimard for the Metro). The floral and organic style is found at Nancy. The linear bi dimensional and symbolic conception has reached its peak through the Glasgow school

The art nouveau style in Architecture