Fin de
Siecle
Styles
Symbolism
1880-1910
Art Nouveau
1890-1905
Klimt,
Pallas Athene, 1898
•decadence, opulence
•paint is the carrier of symbolic
meaning
•Athena usually holds figure of Nike
(Victory) but this Athena holds a
woman with a mirror, for modern
man to see his reflection
What artists of the past can we think of who used symbolism
to interject meaning into their artwork?
Botticelli
Giorgione
Durer
Bosch
Fusili
Wagnerian heroic symbolism also had a huge impact on many artists
Jupiter and
Semele, 1878
…she dies by
seeing great
god
Gustave Moreau
1826-98
“the beauty of inertia”
love of symbolism of Hindu art
The Apparition, 1874
Salome viewing the head of John the Baptist
But the “New Symbolism” of the turn of the century
rejected representations of:
virtue
morality
progress
history
seascapes
domestic
animals
still life
orientalism
realism
rationalism
What was left?
“Suggestion, that is the Dream…”
De Chevannes, The Dream, 1893
To the Symbolists, great art should be:
•ideative (stating an idea)
•symbolist (the idea comes in a form)
•synthetic (the idea is generally recognizable)
•subjective (as seen through the artist and
interpreted through the viewer)
•decorative (visually suggestive and interesting)
Cyclops, 1914
Guardian Spirit of the Waters, 1874
Odilon Redon
looked through the
microscope of the mind
to create his images
Crying Spider, 1881
Henri
Rousseau
Sleeping
Gypsy, 1897
•personal fantasy
•sleeping
subconscious
•also naïve, also
fauve
Poet Rimbaud, in 1874: “To be a seer, you must be deranged”
Heroes of the Symbolist movement
(coming from many different “schools”) were:
Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888
Madonna, 1902
Edvard Munch
Norwegian
Yes, he could be called an Expressionist,
but Symbolism also applies…emotion and
subject matter are intertwined
The Cry, 1893
“I believe in a last
judgement where...
(Romantics, showing
sentiment, will all go
to hell)... while the
faithful disciples of
Great Art will be
glorified and
surrounded by
…rays, perfumes and
melodious
sounds…for all
eternity in the divine
source of harmony.”
---Wagner
Interested
in the
endless,
not the
immediate
Paul Serusier
Talisman, 1888
part of the Nabi (“prophet”) School of painters
that included Vuillard and Denis
Gustav Klimt
an Art Nouveau artist
from Austria --- the Secessionists
who saw beauty in the dream
The Kiss, 1907
Aubrey Beardsley
an Art Nouveau artist
from England,
sometimes referred to
as a “decadent artist”
who leaned on the
occult and mystical
in his graphic designs
Paganism
was experiencing a revival
now that Darwin had opened
the debate of the origin of
mankind
Peacock Skirt, 1893
Art Nouveau
1890-1914
Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to
create an international style based on
decoration
“The New Art”
.
Lalique’s Dragonfly Pin
Art Nouveau was a response to the
Industrial Revolution.
Some artists were excited by the new
materials and potential of the
Industrial Age, while others feared the
destruction of culture and beauty with
the emergence of mass production.
Gesamtkunstwerk!!
Unified art
Art is in everything
…furniture, clothing,
fabrics, jewelry,
buildings
Japanese art,
with its beautiful,
flowing lines
and focus on nature,
was inspiration for the
Art Nouveau movement
Hokusai, Waterfall, 1832
Hiroshige, Plum Estate, One Hundred Famous
Views of Edo, 1856
Lautrec’s copy is on the right; Edo=Tokyo
The Paris Exhibition of 1900
A mammoth, chaotic event, the
Universal International
Exhibition held in Paris in 1900
was a late celebration of
nineteenth-century values,
imperialism and eclecticism. It
included displays of real live
“natives” from African colonies
compete with camels and exotic
animals.
But the exhibition was also intended
to look forward to the new century:
an elevated electric railway
surrounded the site, and it held
examples of what the general public
considered to be the last word in
modern architecture and design,
epitomized by Art Nouveau.
A true international style, Art Nouveau
stretched itself around the world
Louis Tiffany (American, 1848-1933)
Louis Sullivan (American, 1856-1924)
Antonio Gaudí (Spanish, 1852-1926)
Alphonse Mucha (Czechoslovakian,
1860-1939)
Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918)
Mackintosh window
Glasgow
Rene Lalique (French, 1860-1945)
Mucha bust, Czech
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French,
1861-1901)
Hector Guimard (French, 1867-1942)
Charles Mackintosh (Scottish, 18681928)
Aubrey Beardsley (English, 18721898)
Guimard Metro sign, Paris
Artists were inspired by the organic….
Zsolnay vase, 1899
…including insects...
Tiffany Lamp
Galle, Dragonfly bowl, 1904
Furniture was part of the “Gestamkunstwerk” of Art Nouveau
Wallpaper, clothing and jewelry were organically designed
Louis Tiffany
American craftsman
stained glass
jewelry
lamps, glassware
Art Nouveau posters and prints, inspired by Lautrec,
displayed the elegance of the new, turn-of-the century art...
Toulouse Lautrec, 1890
Mucha,
JOB cigarette
paper poster, 1898
Fin