New Art and Modernism... relationship?

Art Nouveau – meaning, “new art”, was a style of art and architecture that grew to be international, was a uniquely different from its contributor the Arts and Crafts movement. Like other styles of architecture and art that come and go, Art Nouveau was a stepping stone from the designs of the Neoclassicism and historical references to those of modernism, sometimes it is considered the first stage/ expression of modernism. Overall, the ideal was a harmonies form derived from nature that used modern technology and materials.  Eventually the main desire of architects and designers of this time was to create “the total work of art” where every part of the design would explain the same aesthetic quality as the rest of the building. Three main architects that can be used to represent this movement and transitional period are, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Henry Van der Velde.

Victor Horta was at the beginning of Art Nouveau movement, and looked to the Arts and Crafts Movement more intently for inspiration that later Art Nouveau architects and artists. His emphasis was placed on the use of modern materials and use of the natural forms to create the interior and exterior façade, which were harmonious in form. One of the first structures to incorporate this form was Hotel Tassel in Brussels. The form used in this building, biomorphic whiplash, incorporated an open floor plan, curvilinear forms mimicking nature and used exposed iron on the interior to execute the flowing design. The iron decorations were primarily structure that Horta wanted to incorporate into the ornamentation creating harmony between the structural qualities and the image of the building.  Another example of his use of modern materials was the Palais des Beaux-Arts, which was originally designed to have a reinforced concrete shell, however ended up being covered by stone to increase the appearance and image of the structure.  Finally towards the end of his career, Victor Hortas work can be seen to shift more towards the modernist form of rectilinear shapes, however he still focused on rational for the driving factor of his designs.

Hotel Tassel in Brussels

Henry Van der Velde like Horta was first inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and was driven by the “total work of art”.  His main contribution to the style is his idea of a distinction between ornament, revealing the structural reasons and use in a form, and ornamentation, meaning attachment of a material to decorate. He desired to share the quality of art nouveau architecture with common society through using industrial mass production, which where he contradicts with the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. One example of his work is the his own house in Uccle in which all the elements flow together and form one continuous ideal and design the image below shows how the furniture in his house adds to the design of the rest of the room. This was then carried throughout the remainder of the house.

Finally, Hector Guimard, though of the Art Nouveau style as expandable into other areas besides that of buildings and works of art. One of his greatest and most notable designs was that of the Paris Metro, which was designed off of naturally occurring and inspired forms. This was then formed into molds and mass-produced to enhance the surrounding area and create a harmony between the Metro entrys.

These three architects created work where, “ the very anatomy and spatial character of architecture [was] fundamentally transformed. Their forms were usually tightly constrained by functional discipline and by a Rationalist tendency to express structure and material. Furthermore, each artist in his own way attempted to embody a social vision and to enhance the institution for which he built.” This describes their style of work, Art Nouveau, however it also embodies the ideals of Modernism in respect to functional discipline, rational tendencies, social vision and drive to enhance the institution it is created for.  There are a few changes that have occurred on top of this idea, but the main structure for modernism can be seen in the underlying desires and ideas of the Art Nouveau architects.