Jugendstil Art Nouveau: Floral and Functional Forms

Wichmann, Siegfried

ISBN 10: 0821216074 / ISBN 13: 9780821216071

Published by New York Graphic Society, Boston, 1984

About this Item

Green cloth boards with silver stamped lettering. Glossy black and color-illustrated dust jacket with green and white lettering. 238 pp. 146 illustrations in color and 337 in BW. "The international movement known as art nouveau transformed the decorative arts throughout Europe and the United States at the turn of the century, providing a departure point for modern art. Jugendstil Art Nouveau, the first substantial work in English on the German and Austrian manifestation of the style, is an important study of its origins, development, and international connections. Jugendstil, like its European and American counterparts, was characterized by the sinous line that had its origins in natural forms--the swelling and turning of a flower toward the light echoed in a tulip glass or in a favrile vale by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Author Siegfried Wichmann documents this floral and functional theme of the growth of plants, demonstrating the increasing influence on the fine arts of biological research between 1870 and 1917. Darwin's name was on everyone's lips, and illustrated scientific books by Haeckel, Bolsche and Gerlach revealed a new world of both terrestrial and marine flora, whose flowing movement and iridescent color captivated the artists of the art nouveau. Dr. Wichmann also examines the abstract trend that distinguished German art nouveau after 1900, an apparently contradictory direction toward a style whose rectilinear forms were linked to an evolving machine aesthetic. The illustrations offer a dazzling display in varied media--glass and metalware, lighting fixtures, jewelry, furniture, textiles, and architecture." -Jacket. VG-/VG- front cover of book is lightly curved at edge, light corner/edge wear and scuffing to dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 167745

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Jugendstil Art Nouveau: Floral and Functional Forms
• Publisher: New York Graphic Society, Boston
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0821216074
• ISBN 13: 9780821216071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • European Decorative Arts
  • General Decorative Arts - European

About this title

Synopsis

Shows art nouveau style vases, glassware, fabrics, tables, chairs, desks, cabinets, lamps, and jewelry, and indicates natural forms which inspired the designs

Reviews

If Art Nouveau, with its sinuous, agitated lines, floral shapes and organic patterns, is reminiscent of a growing plant, the resemblance is not coincidental. Biologists' investigations of flora and fauna, as shown in illustrated scientific books and popular magazines, served as visual inspiration to Art Nouveau pioneers. The metaphor of natural growth was what the movement needed to break free of academic styles and invent new forms. This strikingly illustrated study (144 color, 77 black-and-white plates) focuses narrowly on the Jugendstil school of Germany and Austria. A Tiffany lamp in the form of a flowering apple tree, the spirals of Bentwood furniture, a moth-shaped brooch, phosphorescent vases, even Josef Hoffmann's geometrical baskets and silverware prove the point. Some Jugendstil artists created mythic landscapes of the birth of the universe; in one, a dragon amidst a rotating cosmos suggests the Big Bang. November 15
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Wichmann's book, originally in German, focuses on German and Austrian Art Nouveau, and takes as its theme the metamorphosis of scientific knowledge into the making of art. The chapter headings bear this out: "the lamp as sculpture . . . the lamp as flower," "geological and submarine motifs," "aesthetics of the machine." The running text expands on this theme, while the long captions to the illustrations examine particular artists or ideas. The illustrations are profuse and very beautiful, and few objects, even those from the usual masters, are familiar from other texts: indeed, many come from private collections. Wichmann makes a clear case for the fusion of floral models with animal forms leading developmentally from Art Nouveau to Symbolism. An excellent and lovely book. Bouillon's book is more ambitious in scope and more pretentious in tone, attempting a coherent and exhaustive study of Art Nouveau: an analysis of its development over the time span noted and a synthesis of its variegated styles. The text is a bit arch at times, and some of the many illustrations all too familiar, but this in-depth study is a worthy successor to Robert Schmutzler's Art Nouveau (Abrams, 1978. rev. ed.) and even includes the German edition of Wichmann in its bibliography. Grace Anne A. DeCandido, "School Library Journal"
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.