Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was a movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that swept through the decorative arts and architecture. With the movement issued in a wide variety of style, it results in being known by various names, such as Glasgow style, or in the German speaking work, Jugendstil. This influenced enthusiasts throughout Europe and beyond, allowing a wide variety of styles to be created. Although once being popular, the eclectic styles were being upgraded and modernized. Artists varied their designs from inspirations to both organic and geometric forms, highlighting and expressing elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. The style went out of fashion after it gave way to Art Deco in the 1920's, but it experienced s popular revival in the 1960's, and is now seen as an important predecessor of modernism. Modernism is a term applied to the late-nineteenth century and twentieth-century movements-including art, literature, architecture, philosophy that promote the new, free from historical references.

The establishment of the movement of modernism, and the impetus behind Art Nouveau, was influenced from the desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century. Poorly made objects imitating earlier periods increasingly dominated the decorative arts, even though industrial production was at that point, widespread. The purpose behind the practitioners of Art Nouveau was to revive good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and produce genuinely modern design. The widespread belief that media such as painting and sculpture were superior to crafts such as furniture design and silver-smithing was supported by the academic system, which dominated art education from the 17th to the 19th century. The consequence many believed was the neglect of good craftsmanship. The 19th century was being seen as excessively ornamental, from the many Art Nouveau designers, and in wishing to avoid what they perceived as frivolous decoration, they evolved a belief that the function of an object should dictate it's form.

When Art Nouveau was first showcased in Paris and then in London, there was outrage; people either loved it or loathed it. Within the style itself, there are two distinctive looks: curvy lines and the more austere, linear look of artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Some aspects of Art Nouveau was revived again in the 1960's.

Style

-Sinuous, elongated, curvy lines

-The whiplash line

-Vertical lines and height

-Stylized flowers, leaves, roots, buds and seedpods

-The female form-in a pre-Raphaelite poses with long, flowing hair

-Exotic woods, marquetry, iridescent glass, silver and semi-precious stones

Influences

-Arts and crafts-Art Nouveau shared the same belief in quality goof and fine craftsmanship but was happy with mass production

-Rococo style

-Botanical research

The names

-Charles Rennie Mackintosh-Architect and designer of furniture and jewelry

-Alphonse Mucha-Posters

-Aubrey Beardsley-Book illustrations

-Louis Comfort Tiffany-Lighting

-René Lalique-Glass of jewelry

-Emile Galle-creamics, glass and furniture

-Victor Horta-Architect

400 words on Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha

Born 24th of July 1860 and died 14th July 1939, Alphonse Maria Mucha was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorator, mostly known for his illustrations of women. He produced work varying from paintings, to illustrations, advertisements and designs. His singing ability allowed him to continue his education through high school in the town of Ivancice, Moravia (today's region of Czech Republic). Whilst furthering his artistic education, Mucha worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly involving painting theatric scenery, then in 1879 moved to Vienna to work for a leading Viennese theatrical design company. He designed and published postcards, theatre and advertisement posters, numerous illustrations and decorative panels series, set around central themes inspired by nature, some printed on silk. He produced many drawings, pastel or watercolour studies and designs for interior decorations, cutlery and dinner object, jewellery and fashion.

The subject matter within Alphonse Mucha's work is highly obvious; women. This is highlighted by him making them become the focal point, by positioning them in the centre, with designs based around them. His work does represent culture, as he is an important contributor to Art Nouveau, which is apparent through him creating these "s" shapes with the women's bodies, and then taking this further by adding in swirls and patterns. This is obvious as the women is placed in front of the background, so she is the top layer. This allows the viewers eye to lead straight to her.The meaning of his artwork I believe is partly hidden, because to some people they are just images of well presented, elegant women. However I feel his work goes deeper than this, by highlighting this new movement of design of Art Nouveau, but it was also the time women were seen in a different light. His use of a circle placed usually behind the women's head resembles a symbol that he continually tends to use, which allows his work to be recognisable and well structured. The use of the circle also creates this drop background behind the lady, which allows her to stand out more, but the designs within the circle worlds around her.
The view of his work tends to be a full on body view of the women in the image, however some are cropped to just her upper body frame. The full body lengths emphasise this womanly figure and also determines the positioning if the other aspects within the photo as the body creates the shape. The shapes he uses are very organic, highlighting the new style from Art Nouveau, which includes swirls and circles, entwining into each other. The tones in his images tend to be quite soft and harmonious, allowing the whole image to blend together. Even though some of the colours are quite organic (greens, brown and oranges) there is a sense of feminism from the use of pinks, creams and slight reds. There is a sense of rhythm through out his work as they're all similar, involving a women, swirls, plants, organic colours, and a circle in the background. All these aspects do create a pleasing arrangement in his photo's as they harmonise each other, there is no clash between the objects.

I do think his first images were planned, as he had an intention of what he wanted to create, However I feel further down his career, he found the particular style he wanted, and eventually he could create images with ease and grace, as they all contain the same qualities. His work is very much watercolour based, and this creates a sense of tranquility in his photo's, as they come across quite soft and not too bright.

How my artists link together

Georgina Luck, Marumiyan and Alphonse Mucha may not have exactly the same points in comparison, however there are many similarities between them that makes me love their work. When I think of illustration, Georgina Lucks work is exactly what springs to mind, as her work is the style I love. However, when I saw Marumiyans work, it opened my eyes to look further into illustration as it looked so technical but simple at the same time. Furthermore, what I love about Alphonse Mucha's work is that it is so traditional and old fashioned, yet a very modern piece of advertising. All 3 artists use shape simularily, exagerating them or using line to highlight them even more. Alphonse Mucha uses the orihional contents in his work e.g. Hair and smoke to unleash radical new decorative forms, whereas Marumiyan accompanies his main image with more images based around the focal point. Georgina Luck is the opposite as she tends to just stick to one object, but when she does use more than one, they all compliment each other by allowing the whole image to be the focal point. I like all of their use of colour, as Georgina Luck tends to use a certain brand of watercolour and inks to get the best vibrancy, Marumiyan just focuses on using the brightest colours he can use, and Mucha's work consists of neutral, organic colours that can contain a hint of feminine colours such as purple or red. All three artists are known for being used for advertising, which allows them to think more about their composition. One difference they have, which intrigues me is the use of space. Georgina Luck has her main image in the middle of the page, with white space all around it allowing it to stand out more. In contrast to this, Marumiyan doesn't leave hardly any space, which allows his image to take up the whole image making this also the centre of attention. Mucha again uses up a lot of space, however some of his images do consist of just a plain background on show, which gives him this good balence between space and no space.

400 words on Marumiyan

Marumiyans work branches from various media's such as magazines, CD covers, posters and product packaging. People, plants, animals and buildings are some of the many materials he expresses throughout his work, and he also mentioned that illustrating natural objects such as flowers and animals is what he believes makes the artwork vivid and brilliant. People whom have viewed his work have described it as being filled with floral elements, intense energy and bright colour. This highlights his great care for detail, and thinks deeply about his use of colour. His work draws on aspects of traditional Japanese culture and the end of the 1800's art Nouveau posters, modernised by a more sophisticated understanding of light shadow invoked by the subsequent revolution in photography.

The subject matter sometimes isn't very clear, as he has a million aspects going on within one photo, which all stand out in their own way, so I tend to go by size proportion. His images tend to be based around a person, but the images has a whole look like a dream. 

The images of people tend to be side views, which I think allows other shapes and objects to stand out and be highlighted. The photo has been framed with quite a close up view, with parts of the image coming off the edges, and the whole image taking up the whole page. There is a definite theme throughout his work, and each piece is highly recogniseable e.g. The use of his layering and the particular images he uses such as nature and people allow his work to have its own style. 

His use of colour really allows his artwork to become their own, with constraining colours, but also harmonious and complimentary colours wich furthers his experiments with advertising. I think the way he uses size to create his focal points are really effective, as he knows what he wants the viewer to see, and he is successful in doing so.

The viewers attention is straight away pulled to the person in the picture, however the use of the other images gives the person more depth and meaning. I feel his images are also very much a fantasy, something like a dream or his imagination from a book he has read.

 In terms of an audience for his work, again those who are interested in fantasy and mystical interests would love his work, I believe they would work well in young children's book as they can be adapted to suit a story. I would like to try his style of work as I feel it would fit well with both handmade and digital, even both together. 

400 words on Georgina Luck

Based in the bright sunny sea-side of Brighton, Georgina Luck's elegant, yet spontanoeus style of work, highlights her occupation as a freelance illustraor and designer. Producing outcomes for packaging, advertising, publishing and editorial and health and beauty allows her to express her love with watercolour and ink by producing unique and personal illustrations. 

Furthermore, she confessed to using Schmincke watercolours, Schmincke Aerocolour inks and Daler Rowney acrylic inks, as she felt they are both good quality with all of them having different opacities, which allows her to have a broad range to choose from. As a commercial illustrator she is required to supple work digitally, and therefore scanning paintings through is an important part of the process, therefore she finds that Fabriano Artistico 'Extra White' paper is the only watercolour paper which doesn't dull the colours when they dry so this is best for her to use. 

The subject matter of her work depends on what she is advertising. The content doesn't go much further, as there is no work which seems to be just a doodle, or just a drawing she has made up on the spot. What you see it what you get with her work. 

There is a natural aspect of her work, because they are highly recogniseable e.g. everyone knows Heinz tomato ketchup and fruit and veg. Her illustrations are exaggerated slightly because they are not drawn to scale, the painting isn't precisley and accurately presented. 

When the images are on they're own, in my opinion they look just like a normal drawing, just a sketch in someone's sketch book, however putting her images on packaging and putting txt and information next to them completely allows the content to change from a drawing to produce. 

Her images tend to be close up views, cropped with a white box around them so there is very high contrast allowing the image to stand out. Her use of lines and patterns are very low, as they're naturalistic drawings, so they're less dependant on looking abstract. In contrast to this, her use of tone and contrast is what makes the image become a final piece. The tones create this 3D look to certain work, and there is a sense of rhythm created through the same style of splattered paint. 

The overal arrangement is pleasing to me, as the images seem very down to earth and out there. The use of her food images looking chaotic and messy express exactly how cooking can be. I could see these images on a cutting board for the kitchen, or magnet stamps on the fridge. You can feel the sense of love and passion coming through her work.