Art Nouveau Furniture Style
Art Nouveau was one of those styles that came, burned brightly and then faded out quickly. The popularity of Art Nouveau furniture style these days shows it is making a comeback.
Art Nouveau Furniture Style
Art Nouveau was a very short lived period of design that was used in art, architecture, and furniture design. It began around the last decade of the nineteenth century, and ended with the advent of World War I. It was very popular in Europe during this time. Belgium and France were centers of the movement. The name itself comes from the French meaning “new art”, but in many ways this was a misleading term for the style itself.
Art Nouveau was begun as a reaction to the rather rigid form of the late Victorian age. It was felt an entirely new style needed to be developed to move the world of art and expression into the Industrial age and into the new century. Yet its inspiration came from older styles. The Gothic and Rocco styles both contributed much to Art Nouveau, as did the art of Japan and Java. Inspiration came from such unlikely sources as Celtic manuscripts and ancient Persian pottery.
Art Nouveau was highly stylized. It was about languid and free flowing lines. Decorations and themes often had to do with nature, but moved away from classical subjects and looked for new inspiration in nature. Seaweed, grass, and even insects gave not only designs, but ideas. It stressed exuberance in its forms and bright colors. It was in lines that it really made its own statement. Every line seemed to come alive and explode into spirals like living things growing out of control.
By the turn of the century it was very popular, and pieces were eagerly sought by many famous and well known people of the time. Art Nouveau pieces found their way into the homes of the rich. People became bored with it quickly, however, and by the outbreak of the First World War, it was already declining in popularity. The World War all but consumed Europe, and in its aftermath there was little time for stylized anything, especially furniture. The Art Nouveau period was dead and seemed buried.
In the period between 1920 and 1950, most critics panned Art Nouveau as a moribund and even an ugly style. By the end of the 1950’s, furniture design as well as many other areas of life had become too functional with too little style and flair. The 1960’s were the result, and the Psychedelic movement rediscovered Art Nouveau and felt it had found a long lost kinsman. The swirling lines and rejection of the rigid box like shapes fit right into the new hippy based lifestyle. Art Nouveau pieces became sought after and soared in value. This appreciation has continued to the present, and the Art Nouveau furniture style is a highly sought after in the world of antiques. They offer decorators an alternative to the truly dull utilitarian shapes of Victorian design, and the lifeless and cold shapes of modern furniture.
The Art Nouveau furniture style is a true blend of the old and the new, and invokes a vision of what a generation of dreamers envisioned for the 20th Century, before the reality of its world wars ended their dreams.