Designers During the Second Half

¶ … Designers

During the second half of the 19th century two artistic movements appeared almost in parallel, as a response to the long period of artistic sterility imposed by the historicism that only tried to recover movements from the past. The ideology of those past tendencies had promoted into the western world a wave of "neo" styles: Neoclassicist, Neogothic, Neorenaissance. The revolution occurred from the modernists' irritation towards the excessive technique that killed the esthetic spontaneity, bringing forth the phenomenon known as Art Nouveau. The new style combined the industrial production with the esthetic pursuit of art, including the artistic dimension into the every-day modern life. The enthusiasm over decoration acquired a different dimension and the functional blended with the esthetic satisfaction. Its main manifestations occurred in the world of architecture and graphic design. The style used modern techniques such as mechanical reproduction, printing and xylography. The intention was to create a new esthetic expression, inspired in nature, but incorporating novelties from the industrial revolution. In architecture it was frequent the use of iron and glass. Some of the most representative artists of this period were Aubrey Beardsley,

Gustav Klimt,

Alphonse Mucha and the American glassmaker

Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Art Nouveau was based on the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, a book designer, that declared that art should be made accessible to everybody and give an esthetic value to even the most common objects. This was made possible by the new techniques of mass reproduction of the industrial era. By the mid 19th century the Victorian design fashion in Europe was very heavily decorated. The Arts and Crafts movement intended to oppose that opulent style with simplicity and good design. It appeared as an attempt to combat the cold machine age, where industrial revolution was believed to be the cause of the growing insensitivity in people's minds, and eliminate the machinery from the artistic production, in an attempt to return to the hand manufacture.

The fascination towards the new art was also influenced by the cinema, and the world of publicity, reaching every side of modern life. The decorations seen in the houses portrayed in films, that reached every corner of society, made this new style particularly popular. New theories and esthetic visions brought a violent change in popular taste, bringing a fascination for the fantastic, the mythical, the exotic, taking inspiration from eastern civilizations (Japanese, Islamic), naturist ornamentation such as flowers and vegetal designs, waving lines that would induce motion and symmetry. The new art style became a commercial kind of work, since it was aimed towards the masses and the every day life. The industrial design was dictated by fashion and the public taste, that was rapidly changing as the speed of modern life brought new ideas almost constantly and commercial tools, such as films and advertising, influenced in that change.