Discover Art Nouveau in all its blooming glory
Summer is here, the parks are vibrant and green and BUGA 2005 is in full swing. Even Munich’s art scene is partaking in the city’s ubiquitous tribute to the splendor of plant and animal life. From April 15 until October 16, as part of the BUGA 2005 culture program, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Bavarian National Museum) is running a special exhibition, “Floraler Jugendstil” (Floral Art Nouveau), celebrating plant and floral motifs in Art Nouveau.
Art Nouveau is a style of decoration and architecture that flourished around the turn of the 19th century and took nature as its inspiration by embracing the plant and animal world in all its myriad forms. As artists of the time were fascinated by the Japanese and Chinese art shown at the 1851 and 1868 World Fairs in London and Paris, respectively, they often incorporated Asian motifs into their work. Art Nouveau was also linked with the Arts and Crafts Movement. As a result, many Art Nouveau pieces serve practical purposes as well as aesthetic ones.
Shortly after Art Nouveau emerged, it quickly spread throughout Europe and America, where it was subjected to widely differing interpretations. Indeed, the differences between the various international takes on the style are so great that it is difficult to find similarities between them. In Germany, Art Nouveau is known as “Jugendstil,” deriving its name from the magazine Die Jugend, or “Youth.” In France, the style was most compellingly adopted in the applied arts, most notably in the glassware of Emile Gallé and René Lalique.
The Bayerisches Nationalmuseum has an extensive collection of Art Nouveau pieces, acquired in the past 20 years from three private collectors. The individual pieces now on show, which represent a range of decorative arts in metal, ceramic and glass, are exquisite in detail and include several rare masterpieces from the most prominent artists of the style. Three major group-ings—jewelry, tiles, and French and American glass—are particularly worth seeing.
The collection of Art Nouveau jewelry includes some of the finest of its time, such as exquisite, painstakingly detailed hair combs. Precious gems are inlaid with glass, horn and other materials to stunning effect. A delicate comb by Lucien Gaillard, the Wiesenkümmel, personifies the elegance and fragility of Queen Anne lace. There are approximately 20 works by the American glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, which illustrate most of his glass techniques. The showcase piece of the Tiffany collection is the Apple Blossom table lamp of circa 1902–06.
The influence of Chinese and Japanese styles on Art Nouveau is especially evident in the collection of tiles from England, Belgium, Germany and France, many of which were originally used in murals.
According to curator Michael Koch, the two most significant pieces in the collection are the Vase mit Granatäpfeln (Vase with Pomegranates) by Emile Gallé of 1898 and the Vase mit Elefantenkopfhenkeln (Vase with Elephant Head Handles) by François Eugène Rousseau of 1884.
The large, blue Vase mit Granatäpfeln demonstrates several difficult glass techniques, including marqueterie de verre and patinage. The first is a technique of inlaying glass forms, in this case, floral motifs. Patinage is a technique in which ashes are mixed into the molten The Vase mit Granatäpfeln was an étude, used to study new techniques of creating art glass. Very few études have survived. It was common to destroy them at the glass factories, for they were simply “experiments.” According to Koch, there are no more than three examples of this kind in the world, so it is a “real luxury” for the museum to be able to exhibit one of them. Similarly, the Vase mit Elefantenkopfhenkeln is noteworthy and rare because of the technique used to create it. The surface of the vase looks cracked, like “ice glass.” Rousseau achieved this appearance by blowing the glass using compressed air. According to Koch, this was the first time in the history of glassmaking that such a technique was used. A bronze statuette of Loïe Fuller graces all the advertising for this exhibition. Fuller, an American dancer famous for her serpentine veil dances, fascinated the public at the turn of the century. She incorporated beautiful appliqués of flowers into her costumes. Fuller’s sensuous, writhing flower dances represented the spirit of Art Nouveau and she eventually became an iconic symbol of the style.
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