For the second week of the course, we will be continuing our survey of the art and design movements that preceded the birth of modernism in the early 20th century. Our topics will include the development of art nouveau as well as the influence of avant garde movements in art - especially De Stijl and Constructivism - on modern design.
Reading Assignment
A key reading for Tuesday of this week will be the essay "Ornament and Crime," by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos.
A key reading for Tuesday of this week will be the essay "Ornament and Crime," by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos.
This essay is often cited as one of the earliest clear-cut expressions of modernist thinking with respect to architecture and design. Please read the pdf copy of the essay as well as the introduction to Loos's work and thought in the file Adolf Loos and Avant Garde (from The Story of Design).
By Thursday, make sure you have read the remaining articles on the avant garde and origins of modern design that are posted in the content area.
Written Assignment
The first written assignment is due by 4pm Friday, uploaded to Blackboard. See syllabus for details and ask us if you have any questions. A separate posting for the assignment (so you can turn it in), will be available by mid-week.
The first written assignment is due by 4pm Friday, uploaded to Blackboard. See syllabus for details and ask us if you have any questions. A separate posting for the assignment (so you can turn it in), will be available by mid-week.
Texts . Each link returns you back to course materials found on bb.cazenovia.edu
Further Readings:
Adolf Loos (1870 - 1933 Vienna) brought back from his three-year stay in the US (1893-96) an idea from Louis Sullivan:
"It could only benefit us if for a time we were to abandon ornament and concentrate entirely on the erection of buildings that were finely shaped and charming in their sobriety."
Louis Sullivan, Guaranty / Prudential Building
Buffalo, NY completed in 1896
13-story skyscraper
From Sullivan's comment, Loos developed his radical aesthetic purism which made him fervently against Art Nouveau and German Werkbund
"The German Werkbund has set out to discover the style of our age. This is unnecessary labour. We already have the style of our age."
The Deutscher Werkbund is a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists, established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus School of Design.
The urge to ornament one's face and everything within reach is the start of plasitc art. It is the baby talk of painting. All art is erotic. Ornament and Crime p.19
Adolf Loos so against Art Nouveau and Modern style, called it sinuous whiplash
... so let's look -
1890 - 1910
Art Nouveau = New Art
- In Britain, it was known as Modern style with its roots in Arts & Crafts movement
- In Scotland known as Glasgow style led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
- In the US associated with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it is known as the Tiffany style
- Scandinavia it was known as Skønvirke or Jugendstil
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| The Paris Exoposition Universelle of 1900 was a high point of Art Nouveau architecture and attracted close to 50,000,000 global visitors showcasing architecture, design, furniture, decorative objects of the style |
The style was inspired by natural, curvilinear, organic forms and structures to an exaggerated extreme
The international style of art (painting, graphic arts, sculpture), architecture and decorative arts; furniture, interior design, jewelry, textiles, ceramics, glass art, and metal work
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| Belt buckle by Archibald Knox for Liberty Department Store  
Jonathan Fine jewelry
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| Hiroshige's, Sokokura, from Seven Hot Springs |
Another important influence was Japonism: the wave of enthusiasm for Japanese woodblock printing that was being imported into Europe at the time. Works by Hokusai (1760 - 1849), Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) both printmakers of the Edo period, as well as others. Japanese prints appeared in prints, ceramics, jewelry and furniture.
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| Jugendstil door handle in Berlin (circa 1900) Posters for various dancers / musical events / actors and plays, posters not only were for advertising events but truly became an art form. |
Alphonse Mucha poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt, 1895
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| Lithograph print by Alphonse Mucha, 1897 |
Jules Cheret poster for American actress
and dancer Loie Fuller 1893
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| Post Impressionist Toulouse-Lautrec's posters |
French Art Nouveau painter Maurice Denis said in 1891 "I believe that before everything, a painting must decorate."
Maurice Denis
Figures in a Spring Landscape, Sacred Grove 1897, oil on canvas
By 1910 it was replaced by Art Deco, followed by Modernism
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| Adolf Loos cafe chair 1898 |
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| Loos Haus completed 1912 Michaelerplatz, Vienna, Austria
"In 1910, a public furor spawned by the simplicity of the modernistic design resulted in a municipal order to suspend work; construction ceased and building permits were denied. Adolf Loos responded to the attacks in a public meeting attended by more than 2000 angry residents. The controversy ended with an agreement to add window boxes in an attempt to countrify and familiarize the unpopular design."
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| Bed + mirror by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy 1898 - 1899 Belgian architect and furniture designer |
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| Paris Metro Subway station Abbesses Hector Guimard 1900 |
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| Gateway of the Castel Bérangerby Hector Guimard (1895–1898) |
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| Antoni Gaudí, architect, Barcelona, CatalynSagrada Familia 1882 - 2026? |
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| Gustav Klimt The Kiss 1907 - 1908 symbolist painter |
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| Wall cabinet by Louis Majorelle |
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| Louis Comfort Tiffany lamp 1900 - 1910 |