1. Fin de Siecle Styles Symbolism Art Nouveau 1880-1910 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

2. Botticelli Giorgione Durer Fusili Bosch
What artists of the past can we think of who used symbolism
to interject meaning into their artwork?
Botticelli
Giorgione
Durer
Fusili
Bosch

3. “the beauty of inertia” love of symbolism of Hindu art
Wagnerian heroic symbolism also had a huge impact on many artists
Jupiter and Semele, 1878
…she dies by seeing great god
Gustave Moreau
“the beauty of inertia”
love of symbolism of Hindu art
The Apparition, 1874
Salome viewing the head of John the Baptist

4. X 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 X

5. 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)

6. Odilon Redon looked through the microscope of the mind
Cyclops, 1914
Guardian Spirit of the Waters, 1874
Crying Spider, 1881
Odilon Redon
looked through the
microscope of the mind
to create his images

7. Poet Rimbaud, in 1874: “To be a seer, you must be deranged”
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”

8. Heroes of the Symbolist movement
(coming from many different “schools”) were:
Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888

9. Edvard Munch Norwegian Yes, he could be called an Expressionist,
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

10. Paul Serusier Interested in the endless, not the immediate
“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
part of the Nabi (“prophet”) School of painters
that included Vuillard and Denis
Talisman, 1888

11. Gustav Klimt an Art Nouveau artist from Austria --- the Secessionists
who saw beauty in the dream
The Kiss, 1907

12. 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

13. Art Nouveau 1890-1914 . Gesamtkunstwerk!! Unified art
Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration
“The New Art” .
Gesamtkunstwerk!!
Unified art
Art is in everything
…furniture, clothing,
fabrics, jewelry,
buildings
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.

14. was inspiration for the
Japanese art,
with its beautiful,
flowing lines
and focus on nature,
was inspiration for the
Art Nouveau movement
Hiroshige, Plum Estate, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856
Lautrec’s copy is on the right; Edo=Tokyo
Hokusai, Waterfall, 1832

15. The Paris Exhibition of 1900
A mammoth, chaotic event, the Universal International Exhibition held in Paris in 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.

16. A true international style, Art Nouveau stretched itself around the world
Louis Tiffany (American, )
Louis Sullivan (American, )
Antonio Gaudí (Spanish, )
Alphonse Mucha (Czechoslovakian, )
Gustav Klimt (Austrian, )
Rene Lalique (French, )
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, )
Hector Guimard (French, )
Charles Mackintosh (Scottish, )
Aubrey Beardsley (English, )
Mucha bust, Czech
Mackintosh window
Glasgow
Guimard Metro sign, Paris

17. Artists were inspired by the organic….
Zsolnay vase, 1899

18. …including insects...
Tiffany Lamp
Galle, Dragonfly bowl, 1904

19. Furniture was part of the “Gestamkunstwerk” of Art Nouveau

20. Wallpaper, clothing and jewelry were organically designed

21. Louis Tiffany American craftsman stained glass jewelry
lamps, glassware

22. Art Nouveau posters and prints, inspired by Lautrec,
displayed the elegance of the new, turn-of-the century art...
Toulouse Lautrec, 1890

23. Mucha,
JOB cigarette paper poster, 1898
Fin