SamkettellDRAW

My seminar is about the art movement of Art nouveau beginning in the late 19^th century, and ended quickly around the time of world war one. Originating from London and spreading across European countries of Germany, France, Spain and Austria. The movement was known for the varying use of different Medias like paintings, architecture, jewellery, furniture. It was a reaction against the industrial revolution which began in and took place in the 18^th century to the 19^th century and saw the transformation of farming areas that produced goods for Britain to become industrialized by the new use of special machine that were suited for factories. Up until the revolution the manufacturing was often done in people’s homes where they would use hand tools and very basic machines to produce the good that they needed. The upheaval of industrialisation also meant that systems like transportation, banking and communication was all improved for the better but only meaning that for the working class people the standard of living was lowered by the fact that they were given low pay and there was harsh and dangerous living and working conditions whilst the rest of the world moved into an era that would mark the start of mass production. Art Nouveau was also hugely influenced on the arts and crafts movement especially the artist of William Morris, the English textile designer established the design firm of “Morris & Co” in the early 20^th century where he collaborated with many friends creating a range or furniture and other furnishing for homes. His idea was that all of his work was to become part of ordinary peoples home, unfortunately this was unrealistic because of the costly materials and the fact that parts of it was created by hand made it too expensive for target group of people to be able to afford. Although Morris ultimately wanted these products to become wide spread and have a positive effect on people’s lives. Morris own style came from many natural sources in which was based on the forms from animals and plants. This subject matter for his textile designs was influenced by the gardens of Klemscott Manor where he and another partner in the design firm rented out this is much like the style of Art nouveau where it takes its subject matter from nature and organic forms that make there work. Art nouveau also showed the practice of Gesamtkunstwerk the German word meaning the “total work of art” would show the collaboration of many different art forms which would make up this completely unified and harmonious work of art. It aims to utilize all the senses artistic or not and all of these particles join and work cohesively into one final work of art. This concept was developed by the German composer of Richard Wagner, where he interpreted Gesamtkunstwerk that it was many different compartments coming and intertwining together to create on whole thing that strived towards an absolute unification and coming together as whole. Within Wagner’s work he tried to incorporate both the performance and the theatre, although it left things like the design décor and lighting was all to become secondary and inferior they were still heavily designed and important to the cohesion of the performance, but soon realised that this was only able to be done in isolated theatres rather than traditional theatres in big cities, so he was able to ensure that the architecture was unable to intrude into the viewer’s sight but work together with the performance rather than catching the attention of the audience on one thing but rather the stage, theatre and performance, ultimately worked together cohesively. Wagner wanted a harmonious performance that would enforce the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk with the unification and working function of many parts to create an almost utopian event. This is a lot like the Art Nouveau movement as they also saw the Gesamtkunstwerk as a purpose and inspiration to try and alter peoples own experience through design principles. Art nouveau like Wagner’s own vision reacted against industrial revolution and the advancing new technologies and wanted to rebel against it. Therefore choosing a style that was organic and naturalistic, it avoided the straight line but took in favour the curvy and ornamental style that would let it own line become fluctuated and become intricate and detailed with a natural based subject matter and expressed the women as once again a figure of beauty. Within art nouveau the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk didn’t just restrict itself to paintings but rather encompassed a range of different Medias ranging from paintings, poster design, furniture, architecture, jewellery, and to ceramics and glass. “This was about total renewal, in which everything should harmonise with everything else in its surroundings.” {1} And with a big part of Art nouveau being architecture saw the full effect of Gesamtkunstwerk were all the buildings were meretriciously planned out in order that everything in the building fully harmonised and link together in a perfect balance. It also saw that absolutely everything was designed from wallpaper, this then saw the development of many buildings across Europe that had the unique art nouveau style like the secessions building in Vienna, where at the top of the building Is a floral sphere is placed and detailed floral patterns on the wall appear like a tree the trunks coming down from the foliage. The white building is contrasted against the gold of the leaves and the sphere. The there is the municipal building in Prague and the Casa Batllo in Barcelona created by Gaudi all showed the art nouveau style where the artists avoided any straight lines and used curved soft lines that would create a distinctive aesthetic that both art nouveau and Gesamtkunstwerk were both associated with. The architecture was very ornamental and far from basic and stripped back like the art school of the Bauhaus established 1919 where unlike art nouveau they rejected any concept of ornamentation but rather took to a more minimalist style where everything was very stripped back and basic, where the founder of Bauhaus Walter Gropius wanted both Gesamtkunstwerk and to be more focused on form and wanted to avoid discussions that would focused on aesthetics as he rejected anything that could have been seen as ornamental, this was his main purpose of steering art into being more focused on technique because of the growing and improving industrialization. Art nouveau was severely different in the fact that their whole style and artworks were all based around the idea of ornamentation where everything from paintings to architecture was so decorative. This is seen within Gustav Klimt painting the Kiss where there are two figures that are enveloped in detailed robes and shows both linear constructs and organic forms were the robes almost appear to blend into the background. Then Beardsley print Salome where it features a lady in a peacock skirt it was and black and white in colour and shows a great difference from Klimt’s Kiss painting where that one is all colourful and bright the black and white one is monochromatic but still strikes our attention. It also the development of jewellery where the jeweller of Rene Lalique produced some intricate and detailed pieces where it used many semi-precious stones for their colour, this was unusual since before this all French jewellery was about hierarchy and showing your wealth, and this was seen by the material that were used to produce the pieces, so therefore laliques jewellery broke all of the traditional perceptions and expectations of jewellery and design, this enabled laliques to create a large and wide variety and range of jewellery, also within the jewellery style is the fine and intricate pieces that would show a varied range of different materials varying from enamel stones semi-precious or not and metal. Another big part of Art nouveau was the poster design and graphic arts, this saw some of the posters as advertisements for many thing like champagne and new and exciting tourist locations for people to go and visit. It also showed the development of book illustration and typography where they reproduced using a printing press to mass produce many replicas of posters and more .This was seen throught the artist of Alphonse muca and his posters were really eye catching with the use of outlining and flat colour this was especially evident within the hair as the viewer was known able to see all the details and depicted real people allowing them to become immortal within art. Also the most successful designs were acknowledged for their flatness of colour and intricate details. And within the poster design meant that art was all of sudden available and present to the public. The movement of art nouveau was so distinct when compared to the other art movements of the time like the impressionists and the fauvists that were around at the same in the sense that it incorporated so many different mediums and didn’t just limit its self to just painting and this art nouveau style is also seen in contemporary art with illustrations of pop culture mixed together with decorative and ornamental style that is mixed in with these images ultimately mixing both history and pop culture together and it also seen in large scale images

{1}: Quote by : Giep Franzen “The Brand as Gesamtkunstwerk” (page 4) 18 December2001, speech to C.E.O and chairman, Unilever Board of directors. Retrieved 24^th May www.planningaboveandbeyond.com/wp.../GesamtkunstwerkEnglish.doc

Dorothea Rockburne
Canadian artist known for her folded paper constructions, she studied at both "Ecole des Beaux-arts" in Montréal and studied at Black mountain college with other artists like Robert Rauschenberg she is interested in mathematics and compositional structures that are mathematically made. She works in a minimalistic manner in which her early work was made out of. she also "developed her work into characteristically aestheticized paintings of interrelated shapes for which she became renowned" {1} for. This is evident within her work with the drawings of her folded paper constructions that show how drawing can be interpreted as an attitude with it technically being what some would call a sculpture. But shows drawing techniques where it appears playful and fun.

"Locus" Series 1972

Reference

{1} : Source- Oxford University Press, (2009) "About this artist" retrieved 21/06/2013http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4972

SamkettellDRAW

Sunday, 23 June 2013

References

Friday, 21 June 2013

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Monique Jansen Lecture Research #4

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