From 1880 to 1905 a new decorative style characterized by sinuous lines and free – flowing compositions based on plant and animal forms, developed in different European countries taking different names like “Art Nouveau” in England, “Stile liberty” in Italy and “Jugendstil” in Germany.
In Architecture the Belgian designer Victor Horta can be considered the earliest art nouveau architect; he used industrial materials like iron and casting and incorporated swirling and tendril designs to his buildings to express the malleable nature of metal and the vitality of plant growth.
The style was indeed initially characterized by arabesque and naturalistic decoration, that we can find in Gaudi’s exuberant ornamentation, and then become gradually more geometric as we can see for example in Mackintosh’ s works.
One of the thing that caught my attention is that art nouveau used ornamentation not just to make buildings and houses interiors more pleasant to see, but it was also moved by a philanthropic aim to give the workers airy, light - filled and beautiful spaces to live and create an alternative to the slums. Besides, art nouveau was influenced by the arts and crafts movement which flourished in England from about 1850 to 1900 and the major exponents of that movement, John Ruskin and William Morris were both socialists and Morris in particular believed that well designed products can raise working-class people above disinterested employment. It is quite interesting though to see how different movements influence each other and also how art and architecture are extremely link to their history and society.
I think that architects and designers should always relate to the needs of their society and aim to give people better places to live. Unfortunately most of the time only people who can afford it can have well – designed houses, while the poor part of the population often lives in ugly buildings. But the cost of the production of handmade well – crafted objects is always going to be high. Or maybe in the future we as designer can help our society to find materials and way to produce beautiful objects and houses that will be accessible to all.
References:
M.Moffet, M.Fazio, L.Wodehouse, A world History of Architecture, , Laurence king publishing, 2003, London
Article “Introduction to Art Nouveau”written by Francoise Aubry, curator of the Horta Museum in Bruxelles, http://www.artnouveau-net.eu/get_page.asp?stran=2
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