"Joy Of Work"

Art Nouveau! my second assignment that need me to relate this into modern thinking..hurmm..

Lets checked it out!

Art Nouveau 

(1880-1914)

   Art Nouveau mean a style of fine and applied art current in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized chiefly by curvilinear motifs often derived from natural forms. 

This movement walked under the flag of an art that would break all connections to classical times, and bring down the barriers between the fine arts and applied arts. 

  

   Seemingly a response to the clutter of the Victorian era and the Industrial Revolution, which introduced mass production of standard everyday objects, Art Nouveau embraced a high standard of craftsmanship to decor. Like the Arts and Crafts movement, it not only showed in applied art, but heavily in architecture, sculpture and many forms of functional decor. A very uniform art style; a strong belief was that all arts should work in harmony to create a "total work of art", or Gesamtkunstwerk:, where all things conformed to the principles of Art Nouveau. 

Stairway at Hôtel Tassel, by Victor Horta

Tiffany Lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany

   An artist should work on everything from architecture to furniture design so that art would become a part of everyday life. By making beauty and harmony a part of everyday life, artists make people's lives better. This approach has been represented in painting, architecture, furniture, glassware, graphic design, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and textiles and sculpture. Advertising posters were welcomed into art, and fence has been proclaimed a suitable exhibition place for this new art. This was a sharp contrast to the traditional separation of art into the distinct categories of fine art (painting and sculpture) and applied arts (ceramics, furniture, and other practical objects).    

    

   The primary thematic visual elements of Art Nouveau are flowers, roots and buds, as well as spider webs, peacock feathers and locusts, featured on everything from wallpaper to fabrics and furniture. Serpentine curving lines and complex patterns, taken from nature, were to be seen on painted and carved surfaces. Art Nouveau artifacts are beautiful objects of art, but not necessarily very functional.

Conclusion from this, today...Art Nouveau is seen primarily as the bridge from stuffy classicism to modernism. But it is much more than a link between two design eras. Especially in it’s emphasis on the potential beauty of even the most mundane object, Art Nouveau elevates the work of the decorative artist, celebrating the art in the artisan. 

The design is still can be used untill today for me as a designer! Awesome!