From fantasy to functionalism - Art Nouveau

UNESCO Courier, August, 1990 by Andreas Lehne

From fantasy to functionalism

IN 1895, a German specialist in Oriental art named Samuel Bing (1838-1905) opened a gallery in Paris which he called "L'Art Nouveau". Among the modern artists whose works he showed were Henry van de Velde, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Felix Vallotton and Constantin Meunier.

These works were praised in the German press, and some of them were shown in Dresden in 1897 at an international art exhibition at which van de Velde's interior designs caused a sensation. Van de Velde, who was soon inundated with commissions, became the driving force behind Jugendstil, the German version of Art Nouveau.

Jugendstil in Munich

However, it was Munich, not Dresden, which became the main centre from which the influence of Jugendstil would spread in Germany. A relatively small city, Munich had become the leading artisitc centre of nineteenth-century Germany thanks to the ambitious policies of the Wittelsbachs, the Vavarian ruling house. In 1893, the Munich public discovered the works of the Dutch Symbolist painter and illustrator Jan Toorop (1858-1928), who displayed his mastery of the new style in the sinuous locks of the Javanese girls who feature in many of his paintaings.

Hermann Obrist (1863-1927) was one prominent member of the new movement. In 1894, this great traveller, familiar with all the trends of avant-garde art, transferred to Munich the embroidery workshop he had set up in Florence. His embroidered wall hanging entitled Peitschenhieb (1895; "Whiplash") is one of the finest examples of German "floralism". This =brilliant interlacing of stitches flowing over ornamental forms like the cells of a living organism" has some affinities with the celebrated stucco relief (now destroyed) which embellished the facade of the Berlin architect August Endell's Elvira photography studio (1897-1898), a fantastic piece of decoration which was also endowed with organic life. Both these artists sought to vie with Nature.

The Munich painter Richard Riemerschmid (1868-1957) revolutionized interior design through his blend of Judendstil and local tradition. In 1900 his "Room for an Art Lover" was shown at the Paris Exhibition. He designed a theatre whose fluent, elegant lines expressed a balanced, mature style which had not yet become purely geometrical. Riemerschmid was one of the cofounders of the Vereinigte Werkstatten fur Kunst im Handwerk ("Workshops for Arts and Crafts") which set out to raise the aesthetic standard of everyday objects but, unlike the British Arts and Crafts Movement, fully exploited the technical possibilities of mass production.

The reputation of Munich was based essentially on its art journals such as Pan and the popular magazine Jugend from which the German Art Nourveau movement took its name.

Otto Eckmann (1865-1902) gave illustration and typography a completely new look. In his work plat forms medl into zoomorphic or abstract motifs, in an endless metamorphosis. Water changes into plants and plants into swans or snakes which then acquire human attributes. Typographical characters are intertwined like creepers, then transmogrified into flames and billowing columns of smoke.

Freshness, humour and satire are the hallmarks of these journals, partly illustrated in colour, which propagated the ideas of Jugendstil with great speed. In the pages of Pan and Simplizissimus artists such as Gulbransson, Arnold, Thony and Paul published vitriolic caricatures; a stylized dachshund playfully drawn by Theodor Heine is transformed into a decorative motif full of irony.

Jugendstil in Berlin

By the turn of the century, Berlin had become a great modern city with a vigorous cultural life which placed it in the forefront of modern trends. In 1898, the artistic avant-gade finally turned its back on the outmoded cultural policy of the imperial court. Major architectural projects showed the influence of passing trends. Van de Velde designed spectacular shop interiors. With modest resources at his disposal, August Endell redecorated the auditorium of the Buntes Theater, creating a world of bizarre, fantastic, organic forms in a similar style to that of his Elvira studio. The same harmony of colours was used throughout, ven in the uniforms of the attendants. The department stores designed by Bernhard Sehring and Alfred Messel still bore the influence of historicism, but some features such as the visible structure of the display windows and the glass surfaces into which the facade dissolves, prefigure modern architecture.

Above all, Berlin offrs monumental, eclectic variants of Jugendstil, one, one notable example being the law-court in the Littenstrasse (1896-1905, with its startling contrast between the building's colossal dimensions and its graceful staircases.

Unlike Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (although Hungary had enjoyed a large measure of autonomy since 1867) was a multinational state subject to the centralized power of Vienna.

The Vienna Secession

In Vienna Art nouveau found a champion in Otto Wagner (1841-1918), who was professor of architecture at the Vienna Academy and a passionate advocate of the need for an architectural style detached from historical pastiche and responsive to the demands of the modern age. "Only the functional can be beautiful," he told his students.