Artist: Alfons Maria Mucha
Movement: Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an art movement from western Europe, which also became popular in the United States in 1880s and was one of the major trends until the First World War. Art Nouveau, which means New Art in French, is a modern art form, but it was inspired by natural world, forms and details of nature. Art Nouveau is often called ‘total’ art style, because it influenced all of the types of art, like architecture, interior design, graphic art and, of course, fashion, clothes, textiles, jewelry and so on (Gontar).
Alphonse Mucha is a czech artist, he was one of the first artists to engage with Art Nouveau style. He is mostly known for his style of paintings and illustrations, but he worked in all artistic fields. He studied in Prague, Munich and Paris, where he achieved immediate fame. He worked in theater where he could both design sets and costumes for the productions. He also created posters and illustrations for plays. Later he also worked with designs for jewelry and furniture, and was never limited in his work.
Although Alphonse Mucha’s work was original and he managed to develop popular and recognizable style, some of his inspirations came form exquisite Japanese styles of paintings and posters, that were painted on wood with water based ink creating very tender and light effect. Japanese prints are also characterized with very natural appearance. Besides that his main influences were Symbolism and Arts and Crafts Movement in England.
At the time when Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau style was extremely popular the Paris couture houses started to arise. Art Nouveau could be a synonym for luxury, and dressmaking was a form of art. The style is usually characterized by the use of long lines and temperate and dark colors. Ornament was also a big part of Art Nouveau style, Alphonse Mucha’s artworks that usually included woman image also present female figures as ornamental. He used long and twining lines, his female figures were infused with the natural background, their hair was decorated with flower crowns, eyes heavy-lidded and lips full (Encyclopædia Britannica). Obviously, the women on his paintings were idealized and he often used fantastic motives, but the lines and curves of woman and their background, like trees and flowers, were takes from the nature, they were usually asymmetrical. Some combinations of colors, like mustard yellow, dark red, olive, brown, violet and blue are still considered Art Nouveau palette.
Fashion designers that were greatly affected by the style were French designers Jacques Doucet, who used pastel colors and flower patterns and Paul Poiretare, who preferred simple styles, but used long lines in his tunics and drapes. Even designs of Coco Chanel may have been influenced by Art Nouveau. However, modern designer who is definitely using inspirations from Alphonse Mucha and other Art Nouveau artists is Anna Sui, she mixes vintage luxurious style with modern trends. Even her logo and webste design is done in Art Nouveau style, her models are presented in Mucha inspired posters and the prints on the clothing often resemble Art Nouveau ornaments, include floral prints.
Some of the trends popular now have also Art Nouveau roots, like lace and embroidery and, especially, organic and floral prints. Closing with long lines including full-length swirls also wears a hint to Art Nouveau. Jewelry with luxurious and natural elements and flower crowns also may be considered Alphonse Mucha’s legacy.
Bibliography
Alphonse Mucha. (2001). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2 February 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alphonse-Mucha
Gontar, C. (2006). Art Nouveau. The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm
Sui, Anna. (2015). ANNA SUI. ANNA SUI. Retrieved 2 February 2017, from http://www.annasui.com/en/#/home
The Cubist Style of painting revolutionized the way we see representational objects; meaning objects we recognize by their form, but not in a realistic format. The object form was dissected and reset from different views. Its innovators were Picasso and Braque. The subject of Surrealism was fantasy; removed from reality. Its most famous leaders were Dali and Magritte. Please refer to Lectures Folder on these topics and online research.
How did these two innovative ways of perceiving the world around us change, influenced the way designers created styles?
Cubism was one of the major styles in twentieth century, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were engaged in Cubism from 1908 and now these are one of the most famous artists in the world. In art Cubism includes flat planes, indeterminate space, cylinders, cones, rotation, and use of collage. These traits were also translated to fashion during the beginning of twentieth century and that is why Cubism still influences fashion. The names of Poiret, Vionnet, Chanel can be associated with Cubism the same way Picasso and Braque are. Richard Martin, Curator in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, states that the new vision created by Cubists turned ‘full, rounded, static, and exaggerated shell built on the human body to a soft, dynamic cylinder revealing the body and reveling in flatness’ (MetMuseum) and ‘three-dimensional and fixed shapes to two-dimensional and ephemeral forms’. Cylindrical day dresses, drop-waist skirts and tunics with flat geometrical forms are still worn by consumers today.
As for Surrealism, it was another early twentieth century movement, it influenced not how people viewed forms or dimensions, but how they treated image itself. The nature of image was questioned by the most famous surrealist artists, like Salvadore Dali, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Rene Magritte and others. They were inspired by the dreams and distortions of images. In fashion it usually tailored with weird, exaggerated forms or proportions, unusual images and dream-like prints, body suits of peculiar forms, elements of sculls or skeletons or other famous surrealist symbols.
Early collections of Alexander McQueen are famous for their surrealist roots, but surrealist images are used by many more famous designers: Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Martin Margiela, Dolce & Gabbana and others (Elle).
Works cited
Martin, Richard. "Cubism And Fashion". Metmuseum.Org, 1998, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/cubism_and_fashion.
Hirshlag, Jennifer. "Surrealist Fashion". ELLE, 2013, http://www.elle.com/fashion/g8486/fashion-moments-inspired-by-surrealism/?.
