Introduction to Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was a popular art movement from around 1880 to 1915 which developed differently in many places around the world. For this reason, it would be complicated to explain the history of the movement in just one blog post. Today, you’ll get just an introduction to what makes Art Nouveau Art Nouveau.

The Art Nouveau style was applied not only to painting and sculpture but also to architecture, furniture, jewelry, fabrics, and all types of materials used for interior and exterior design. You can even find silverware done in the Art Nouveau style. One of the most famous Art Nouveau designs is the metro entrance created by Hector Guimard that can be seen all over Paris. The image shown below isn’t great but you can see that the post seem to grow like the stems of flowers and spread out into careful placed stalks. The design has even been copied and used elsewhere, including in places in Chicago.

The most distinguishing aspect is the overall look of an Art Nouveau object. Usually it consists of curvy lines with smooth surfaces. The object will look as if it has grown from nature. Often, the artist will use natural objects for inspiration such as seashells, flames, trees, flowers, and animals.

Furthermore, Art Nouveau was extremely closely linked to Symbolism, a movement in which artists tried to show truth using unrealistic or fantastical objects. This could include religious icons or mythical creatures.
The glass sculpture shown above is a hand which rises out of a sea and is covered with seashells and algae. In fact it’s called Hand, Surrounded by Algae and Shells by Emile Galle. As was often the case with Art Nouveau pieces, this sculpture has symbolic meaning. The hand represents mankind which is in harmony with nature. This is apparent by the way the waves and algae and shells and hand are all made of complimentary materials and all run together smoothly. The hand, however, is in danger of being overtaken by the sea, the power of nature, just as people as a whole are in endangered by the power of nature. While we are usually in control, there is always the possibility that a hurricane or tidal wave or storm will take away that control.

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An Update

Yes, I was sick. Very sick. But I feel much better now. Last night my computer got sick and I was without an internet connection. But look! We're both better now and I can resume posting. Check back later in the day for something real.

Ukiyo-e Japanese Woodblock Prints

Ukiyo-e are Japanese woodblock prints. If you haven’t yet done the project from yesterday, consider doing a Japanese-inspired woodcut print. The most popular subjects for ukiyo-e were landscapes, like the ocean scene shown below, and performers from “the floating world,” such as geisha (the picture shown here is by Utamaro) and sumo wrestlers.
Ukiyo-e became popular in Japan in the 1620s when a lot of people were settling in cities. A class of artisans came into being and they were looking for a way to produce many copies of the same image as easily, quickly, and inexpensively as they could. This was particularly useful when it came to illustrating books. At this time, the ukiyo-e were not in color.

Prints grew in popularity, especially among people who were not wealthy enough to afford original paintings. The ukiyo-e were also used to advertise for kabuki theater.

Beginning in the 1860s, ukiyo-e could be produced in color. This involved creating several woodblock carvings (one for each color) for every picture and printing one color on top of the next. Below is an example of one of these color ukiyo-e that you have probably seen before. It is called The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai.
Towards the end of the 1800s, ukiyo-e fell out of popularity in Japan but they served as huge sources of inspiration for artists especially in Paris, such as Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas. This is something I did not mention when I first talked about these artists but now that you know all about ukiyo-e, expect it to come up much more often!

Just a warning, I’m afraid I may be coming down with the flu. It’s been going around and I feel the start of a cold. If it develops into the flu this may by my last post until Monday. But I certainly hope it doesn’t happen.

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Create Your Own Woodcut Print

I decided that it would be too difficult to post about M.C. Escher without showing any images and, especially, without getting into a lot of really complex mathematical concepts that I don’t understand well enough to write about just yet (and definitely not in an interesting way). So instead, I’m posting about woodcut printing. This is, incidentally, how M.C. Escher created many of his works. At the end you’ll find instructions to make your own woodcut print.

When he creates a woodcut print, the artist first draws or prints an image onto a block of wood. Then he cuts away the background. That is, he cuts away everything that he doesn’t want to come out in color in the print. Then the artist rolls ink onto the woodblock. The ink will coat the image and leave the background clean. Finally, the woodblock is pressed onto paper and the image appears, exactly as shown on the woodblock but in reverse.

Create Your Own Woodcut Print

Supplies Needed:

Styrofoam Plate
Marker
Pencil
Ink Pad
Paper

Gather your supplies. You can use the leftover Styrofoam plate after you finish a container of berries. Cut the edges off to create a flat surface. Protect your workspace with newspaper.

You should design your image first, on a scrap piece of paper. Then draw it onto the Styrofoam plate with a marker. Don’t press too hard.

Now, use your pencil to color in everything you didn’t mark with your marker. Feel free to press hard this time. This will leave the marker lines raised above the background. Those lines will pick up the ink and the part you colored in with pencil will not.

Press your ink pad onto the Styrofoam. Be sure to mark all the lines with the ink. Quickly but carefully press the Styrofoam onto your piece of paper.

And now you have a simple and safe woodcut print of your own. You can make as many copies of your print as you want in as many colors and on as many types of paper. Mix and match and have fun with it.

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Negative and Positive Space

Positive and negative space are both needed to create a complete picture. Without background (negative space), the subject (positive space) of a work of art might become meaningless or you might be unable to locate it at all.

For example, Imagine a yellow rectangle with a purple circle in the center. The circle, in purple, is the positive space and the background, in yellow, is the negative space. The contrast of the yellow background allows you to see the circle.

Without the negative space you wouldn’t be able to locate the positive space. The whole image would just be purple and meaningless.

Of course, this could go the other way, too. If the circle and the rectangle were the same shade of yellow, it would be an image without any positive space. The whole image would be the yellow background. Again, this is meaningless.

Look at any painting. Every artist uses positive and negative space but M.C. Escher is a particularly good example of an artist using negative space to his advantage. Due to copywrite issues, I cannot reproduce any images here, but I will direct you to the official M.C. Escher website. When you get there, click on Picture Gallery, then Switzerland and Belgium, then the image Sky and Water. Look at the way positive and negative space define each other in the form of fish and birds.

Tomorrow I’ll post something more on Escher, without images of course.

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