Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau period lasted from 1890-1910. This was a time where there was a lot of economic growth which supported new and experimental directions in design. The Art Nouveau used the Arts and Crafts flowing line, simplicity in furniture design. The leaders of the movement were Belgium and France. An example of Art Nouveau in Belgium is the Tassle House in Brussels.

Tassle House, Brussels, 1892 by Victor Horta

Another one of Victor Horta pieces was the Horta House. This house had asymmetrical facade, twisted iron balcony, large glass windows frames, and curvilinear nature related details.

Horta House, Brussels, 1898-1911

Henry Van de Velde is a significant Belgian practitioner. He designed his own house in 1894 along with furniture, table silver, and kitchen cookware. Three chairs he designed were the Side Chair, Villa Esche Armchair, and Kessler Diplomats Chair.

Kessler Diplomats

Side Chair

Villa Esche Armchair

Hector Guimard was the most significant figure in Paris. He was an architect and a designed furniture, tile designs, window and door trim, and fireplace mantels. One of his main projects thats famous was designing the Paris metro subway station.

Current Applications:

Discussion:

I reviewed Justine's blog and I liked how she explained and showed pictures of Art Nouveau in different parts of the world. Such as, Belgium, France and Spain. I learned that Art Nouveau spread across the Europe area. Also I reviewed Allison S's blog and learned that Art Nouveau is not only in interior design but in fashion as well. I enjoyed her video of the fashion week in London that was all inspired by the Art Nouveau period. 

Arts ans Crafts Movement

The Arts and Craft Movement began in England from a man named William Morris. He was inspired by the formation of craft guilds. He formed his own company which concentrated on church decoration, stained glass, textiles, and furniture. Philip Webb worked for William Morris and he designed the Morris chair. It consisted of simple honest construction, solid wood frame, lost cushions for seat and back, and was widely copied.

One of the Arts and Crafts cabinetmaker is Voysey. He combined gothic and Japanese details. Below is a picture of one of Voysey's sideboards.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect and designer in the Arts and Crafts Movement later period. He introduced exaggerated proportions and the furniture was used simple in geometric forms. The chairs he created had extremely high backs and he used a lot of violet, silver and gold painted ornamentation. The most important building of his career is the Glasglow School of Art. 

Current Applications:

Discussion:

I reviewed Paige S's blog and she did a good job on explaining each chair design. She found a great current application of a chair from Mackintosh. I also reviewed Flor's blog and I learned about the Red House Philip Webb. I really liked how she compared the designs and textiles to Lilly Pulitzer. That was a great current day application comparison.  

Here is a short video clip explaining the Arts and Craft Movement. This video does a great job on explaining how the furniture was made and and how the movement came about.