Importance of Art Nouveau

Within modern artistic forms, one of the most renowned and easily recognizable is the one called Art Nouveau officially but it has endless varieties within Europe, depending on the country and the region.

Explanation of the name and origin

As always, each motion Artistic has had an explanation and why regarding its name or those terms that have been chosen to designate it. In the case of this artistic style, we find the peculiarity that officially in France and in the rest of the world has been known as Art Nouveau but then the name varies depending on the region. However, internationally he is known as this and this refers to the idea that he represented a new, modern art style, renovated compared to what was being exhibited at the time when arose.

When we talk about the origin of this style, we must place ourselves especially in Europe at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, more specifically between 1890 and 1910. In these years, the Old Continent was in the historical period known as Belle Époque, the one that supposed a time of relative peace and harmony between countries that ended in 1914 with the explosion of the First War World. In this historical context, we can also talk about a succession of technological and scientific advances that improved the quality of life of the populations and thus the art sought to reflect that well-being from the abundance and the ornamentation.

Main characteristics of the new art

Among the most distinctive elements of this style of art we find the predilection for curves and shapes. natural forms, which in many cases imitated the irregular, abundant, dynamic and wavy forms of the nature. Many artists belonging to this style represented in their works the shapes of leaves, fruits and plants covering almost the entire available space in the case that we talk about painting and escaping the traditional limits of the frame in the case of furniture or arts decorative.

The arches, the irregular shapes, hyper abundant of vegetation and sinuosity, the texture, the delicacy and the elegance are all characteristics that make Art Nouveau an easily recognizable art. Another element is that this artistic style spread to endless branches of art: although it is especially recognizable in painting and architecture, it has also had a strong presence in sculpture, decorative arts, furniture and graphics, a branch that would begin to develop at that time with the growth of the advertising and the mass media communication.

Main references and popularity of this style

Perhaps one of the things that played into Art Nouveau's favor to make it such an identifiable style is that many of its main referents have gained special fame in the 20th century and in the world of international exhibitions, galleries and centers of art.

Among them, we can point out Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha: both Austrians became the most visible artists of this style who contributed to its dissemination and the development of plastic arts, decorative arts, graphics and advertising.

Images: Fotolia. vgorbash – boule1301