- In the late 1800s, society was bombarded
with products and inventions that
celebrated the machine made.
In theory, factories were making items
that made everyone's life better.
Every family on the block could now own
a well made and identical tea pot.
Class distinctions would disappear,
and a unified society would emerge.
The reality was crowded slums, a massive
increase in urban pollution, bad quality products,
child labor, and the slow removal of all things hand made.
Art Nouveau, or The New Art, was a style that sought
to counter this, with solutions based on
nature, and an idealized agricultural medieval life.
Art Nouveau forms are typically fluid and flat,
like Toulouse-Lautrec, the Japanese woodblock
also influenced Art Nouveau artists and designers.
In this case, impacting the use of space, while plant life
and the natural world, influenced the shapes.
Art Nouveau was more than a passing
fanciful style in graphic design.
The ideas of a return to natural forms also influenced
architects, product designers, and furniture makers.
Candlesticks, chairs, even entrances to the
Paris Metro adopted the Art Nouveau aesthetic.
Aubrey Beardsley was the bad boy of Art Nouveau.
He illustrated books and limited edition prints.
The subject matter ran toward the grotesque and erotic.
The style is black and white with high contrast.
The shapes are fluid and clearly are
derived from the natural world.
He used shapes from flowing vines,
peacocks, water, and flowers.
The peacock skirt was drawn for an edition of
Oscar Wilde's Salome.
The images shocked the British public.
Wilde was also unsettled and worried that
Beardsley's grotesque imagery and strong style
would overshadow his words.
In addition to Oscar Wilde's Salome,
Beardsley created a series of illustrations for
Sir Thomas Malory's book, The Death of Arthur.
These illustrations became Beardsley's best know work.
The subject matter is an idealized medieval Camelot.
Beardsley begins to incorporate harder edged borders
and elements from illuminated manuscripts.
Alfonse Mucha's posters and illustrations for advertising
shared Beardsley's fluid forms and idealized romantic past.
Mucha, however, incorporated color and complex pattern.
Many of these illustrations were intended for
large scale posters, rather than small books.
At small scale, these may seem less dramatic
than Beardsley's high contrast, but at
actual poster size, the effect is hypnotic.
Mucha used Arabic and Byzantine decorative motifs
for the patterns, borders, and typography.
Like Beardsley's connection to Camelot,
Mucha uses these foreign forms to comment on the goodness
of a more agrarian culture with hand made design.
Incredibly, we are in the midst of a similar reaction today.
This time with the digital and technological.
Again, we see a movement toward organic forms, hand made
production, and an idealized reverence for pattern.
For a designer who has known nothing
but the computer screen, this seems like
a radical and new idea.