Seize the Stem! Art Nouveau in Europe
In the late 1890s, French architect Hector
Guimard—now best known for his sprouting, organic designs for the Paris Metro—coined
the phrase “Reject the flower, seize the stem!”
In this seminar, we will explore Art Nouveau, the “the new style” often
epitomized by the tendril form, in its various stylistic manifestations and
cultural meanings across Europe from the fin
de siècle through the first years of the twentieth century. In addition to investigating the ways in
which plant and animal forms served as inspirations for this self-consciously
modern approach to architectural structure, the design of objects, and surface
decoration, we will examine the social contexts within which the new style(s)
developed, as well as larger historiographical and methodological questions
regarding Art Nouveau’s place and meaning as a reform movement within the
history of design. Class sessions will
address issues specific to regional expressions of the style—mainly in Belgium,
France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain—as well as more thematic concerns
and influences, including the rise of nationalism, new interest in local
ethnography and the vernacular, the burgeoning of consumer capitalism, new
developments in biological and psychological science, the Gesamtkunstwerk (total-artwork) and theatricality in design, as
well as backlashes against and critiques of Art Nouveau’s so-called “whiplash
curve” in both period and current scholarship. 3 credits.