Art Nouveau & Modern Architecture

The new art forms at the turn of the century formally referred to as Art Nouveau set the stage for the modern movement in Europe. This movement created a different style, one in which rebelled from the academic traditions that had become rather stifling and disconnected. For the artisans of this time period, nothing seemed impossible. Architects such as Hector Guimard, Victor Horta, and Henry Van de Velde sought to infuse art and design with beautiful decorative organic forms characterized by tendrils and flowing curvilinear tracery.

Hotel Tassel, Horta, 1892

In the early work of Art Nouveau a defining symbolist proved to be Victor Horta. His primitive works operated largely on a body of ornamental forms paying tribute to a more literal Italianate influence. As the Wills reading depicted on Horta “we find just such style where we find no particular style”.  His designs for the bourgeoisie began with the Hotel Tassel in 1892, which could also hold the claim as his first Art Nouveau masterpiece. The facade plays against the curves and vegetal accents, including windows of varying sizes and exposes the notion of metal - for structural elements equally ornamental. The concept of which can be related back to Viollet-le-Duc. For the interior, Horta deployed prosperous and remarkable stained glass with floral motifs, mosaics and so on relating to organic analogies.  The space was structured with an underlying formal order and particularly fluid with three rooms in a row. Victor Horta compiled an immense portfolio however his more prominent work came in his earliest years, sadly a great deal of his buildings were destroyed.  

Paris Metro, Guimard, 1900

The Art Nouveau movement was introduced to Paris through French architect Hector Guimard after a visiting Horta. Guimard in the 1890s began his career by designing several hotels where he built off of the lessons of Viollet-le-Duc. Rejecting the classical symmetry while reinterpreting in a highly personal way, the outside of these building’s projections and windows reflected the interior, while the façade was animated. Guimard sought to express the true character of the materials he used more so through his principles of logic, harmony, and feeling. His style was in part an abstraction of medieval forms relating to the distinction that Ruskin had made between the stylistic traits of Gothic architecture. While the majority of his work followed suit and catered to the bourgeoisie of the time; Guimard experimented on much broader public applications as well. His most notable designs were for the Paris Meto, in which natural forms in iron were mass-produced from moulds. Gradually his works gained monumentality and included a vast amount of mediums from graphics to furniture and fashion.  

Henry Van de Velde was a Belgian painter, designer and architect whom through his studies drew influence from the Impressionists and Symbolists of Paris. In the 1890’s he took part in the Brussels avant-garde movement drawing an interest in crafts. Through  his knowledge under the work of William Morris, Van de Velde focused on the relationship between art and society, moving towards the applied arts and becoming one of the leading representatives of the Belgian Art Nouveau movement. In 1894, he designed his first work of architecture, his own house in Ucles, near Brussels, which he also designed furniture. His intent and cornerstone of his work as a designer, as similar practioners, was ‘the total work of art’ in which every minute detail bore the same athestic character as the overall building (Curtis 58). Van de Velde produced Exhibitions in Paris and Dresden which made ​​him known throughout Europe. As a pioneer for the Bauhaus he exhibited theories in many writings and journals, where it supported the fundamental role of art in the renewal of society and culture.