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Art Deco

Art Deco belongs to a world of luxury and decadence, the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s. The very term conjures up a multitude of romantic images; huge ocean liners gliding effortlessly across moonlit seas; the sound of clinking cocktail glasses and the sound of a raucous jazz band emanating from a sumptuously decorated ballroom.
Despite this Utopian emphasis on luxury; Art Deco emerged in an era of economic slumps and depressions, social strife, hunger marches and the political battle between Communism and Fascism. It was against this troubled and traumatic background that Art Deco forged it`s own identity. Art Deco was essentially an eclectic style; it`s artists and designers plundering a diversity of historic sources. Simultaneously, however, it emphasised modernity, employing the latest industrial materials and techniques. It was this fusion of history and modernity that gave Art Deco its unique character. Ultimately, this world of exuberance, vitality and beauty was a world of fantasy, a world as escapist as any of the Hollywood musicals of the same era. It`s legacy, however, is one of great beauty, craft and imagination. It was a style used primarily in the design of buildings, furniture,lamp jewellery, and interior decor.

Art deco is characterized by sleek, streamlined forms; geometric patterns; and experiments with industrial materials such as metals, plastics, and glass. The term art deco is a shortening of the title of a major Paris design exhibition held in 1925, Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts), where the style first became evident. Art deco quickly gained hold in the United States, where it reached the height of its achievement in architecture, especially in New York City`s soaring skyscrapers of the late 1920s and early 1930s such as the Chrysler, Daily News, and Empire State buildings. Because many art deco buildings went up during a period of economic collapse known as the Great Depression, the style is sometimes known as depression moderne.

Art deco was also a product of the fertile artistic exchange between Paris, France, and New York City that occurred after World War I (1914-1918). American artists, writers, and musicians flocked to Paris after the war and brought with them a fresh approach to creative work. The French, who grounded their art in a firm grasp of tradition, absorbed something of the American spirit of improvisation. Later, American architects who had trained at Paris`s École des Beaux Arts (School of Fine Arts) brought European influence to the design of New York`s many art deco skyscrapers.


Art Nouveau


The Art Nouveau style appeared in the early 1880s and was gone by the eve of the First World War. For a brief, brilliant moment, Art Nouveau was a shimmering presence in urban centres throughout Europe and North America. It was the style of the age--seen on public buildings and advertisements, inside private homes and outside street cafés -- adorning the life of the city.
Art Nouveau was a response to the radical changes caused by the rapid urban growth and technological advances that followed the Industrial Revolution. This timeline establishes a counterpoint between major moments in the development of Art Nouveau and world events to provide a context for understanding the style`s many and varied influences.

Art nouveau embraced all forms of art and design: architecture, furniture, glassware, graphic design, jewellery, painting, pottery, lamp, metalwork, and textiles. 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).

Art nouveau flourished in a number of European countries, many of which developed their own names for the style. Art nouveau was known in France as style Guimard, after French designer Hector Guimard; in Italy as the stile floreale (floral style) or stile Liberty, after British art nouveau designer Arthur Lasenby Liberty; in Spain as modernisme; in Austria as Sezessionstil (secession style); and in Germany as Jugendstil (youth style). These diverse names reflect the widespread adoption of the movement, which had centres in major cities all over Europe-Paris and Nancy in France; Darmstadt and Munich in Germany; Brussels, Belgium; Glasgow, Scotland; Barcelona, Spain; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; and Budapest, Hungary.

Velde, Henry Clemens van de (1863-1957), Belgian architect and designer was one of the most successful and important practitioners of the art nouveau style. Inspired by the English Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris, he rebelled against the moribund styles of Victorian Revival architecture and industrial design. His own house at Ukkel (1895, near Brussels) was an early art nouveau landmark. His difficulty in finding suitable furnishings for it led him to design his own furniture, his intent being to raise the applied arts to the status of the fine arts.

Van de Velde`s success led to commissions for other houses, mainly in Germany, in which the architecture and furnishings - all incorporating sweeping art nouveau curves - were closely integrated. The fullest expressions of his style were found in a Paris shop, Maison de l`Art Nouveau (1896), and in the Folkwang Museum (1902) in Hagen, Germany. As a founder of art schools in Germany and Belgium - his Weimar School of Arts and Crafts (1907) later became the celebrated Bauhaus - van de Velde was the most influential of art nouveau architects.





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