ART NOUVEAU

BY SWATI SHARMA (6TH SEM)

Introduction-Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau, Or The French Term For New Art, Is A Colorful Movement In The Arts That Captivated Europe During The Transition From The 19th Century To The 20th Century. In Other Languages, Art Nouveau Had Other Names, Such As Stile Liberty In Italy And Jugendstil Or Youth Style In German. Art Nouveau Was A Movement That Swept Through The Decorative Arts And Architecture In The Late 19th And Early 20th Centuries. Generating Enthusiasts Throughout Europe And Beyond, The Movement Issued In A Wide Variety Of Styles. Art Nouveau Was Aimed At Modernizing Design, Seeking To Escape The Eclectic Historical Styles That Had Previously Been Popular. Artists Drew Inspiration From Both Organic And Geometric Forms, Evolving Elegant Designs That United Flowing, Natural Forms With More Angular Contours. The Movement Was Committed To Abolishing The Traditional Hierarchy Of The Arts, Which Viewed So-Called Liberal Arts, Such As Painting And Sculpture, As Superior To Craft-Based Decorative Arts, And Ultimately It Had Far More Influence On The Latter.

The Style Went Out Of Fashion After It Gave Way To Art Deco In The 1920s, But It Experienced A Popular Revival In The 1960s, And It Is Now Seen As An Important Predecessor Of Modernism. This Cultural Movement Included Decorative And Applied Arts, Architecture, And Painting During The Years 1890 To 1905. An Early Example Of The Paintings Of Art Nouveau Is Edvard Munchs The Scream. This Painting Was Created In 1893 And Later Displayed During The Artists First Paris Show At La Maison De lart Nouveaux Gallery. This Location Was The Interior Design House For Which Art Nouveau Is Named. Now The Scream Hangs In The National Gallery In Oslo, Norway. The Print Manifestations Of Art Nouveau Are Important For Understanding The Movement. The Lithograph Tropon By Henry Van De Velde (1898) Shows The Distinct Color Choices Of An Art Nouveau Print With Brilliant Ochre, Dull Green, And Orange, Combined With The Letters Of The Word Tropon. This Simple Composition Combines A New Style Of Color Choices With The Curvy Lines. According To The Grove Dictionary Of Art, Art Nouveau Also Served As An Important Link Between Neoclassicism, Which Focused On Classic Art Periods Including Greek, Roman, And Renaissance Themes, Transitioned Art To The Modernist Movements. Art Nouveau Ended At The Same Time As Cubism And Surrealism Were Beginning. What Sets Art Nouveau Apart From The Neoclassicist Forms Of Art Is The Attempt By Its Artists To Create A Truly New Form Of Art That Did Not Mimic The Past. The Movement Also Sought To Create An International Style. When Tourists Visit Paris In The 21st Century, It Is Easy To Look Around And See The Lasting Impact Of Art Nouveau Designs, Including Prints, Pictures, Signs, And Wallpaper In Public Places And In The Windows Of Cafes And Brasseries. In European Hotels Preserved From This Time Period, Architecture And Interior Design Examples Survive Today Much Like The Boutique Hotels Of Miamis South Beach Preserve The Art Deco Style Of Buildings And Interior Design. The Art Nouveau Movement Produced New Themes In Architecture. Curvy Lines Known As Curvilinear In Art, Asymmetrical Shapes And Forms, Surfaces With Leaf And Vine Decorations, And Other Patterns Characterize Art Nouveau Buildings.

The Brilliant Interior Design That Started In This Time Period Is Evident Today In The United States Of America. Louis tiffany Began Creating His Famous Lamps At The Turn Of The Century. Tiffanys Work Is Preserved At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art In New York City. As An Artist And Designer, Tiffany Was Very Prolific In The Creation Of Lamps, Drawings, Paintings, Stained Glass Windows, Mosaics, Ceramics, And Jewelry. The Famous Jewelry House, Tiffany & Company, Founded By Charles Tiffany, Is The Same Firm For Which Louis Became The First Design Director In 1902 In The Middle Of The Art Nouveau Period. Today, Tiffany & Company Sells Magnificent Pieces Of Jewelry And Other Collectibles To The Rich And Famous.

MAJOR ARTISTS OF ART NOUVEAU

Emile Galle
(1846-1904)

Life:
Emile Gall Was Born In The French Town Of Nancy In May 1846. His Father Was Charles Gall, An Artist Painter And A Master Enamellist Who Produced Refined Work; His Mother Fanny Was The Daughter Of A Crystal And Porcelain Merchant Named Reinemer. When He Married Emiles Mother, The Elder Gall Joined Her Familys Business. Emile Was Educated In Nancy, Where He Obtained His Baccalaureate. At Age Nineteen, He Travelled To Weimar, Where He Studied Music And German Art, Before Going To Meisenthal. He Then Worked In The Glass Factory Of Lorraine Burgun, Schewerer & Cie, Where He Improved His Knowledge Of Glass Chemicals, Techniques And Forms. Inquisitive By Nature, Gall Went Beyond The Standard Theoretical Approach To New Processes That He Was Learning And Taught Himself Glass Blowing. He Later Travelled To London, Where He Spent Time Contemplating The Collections Of The South Kensington Museum (Now The Victoria And Albert Museum) Then On To Paris. Gall Was Fascinated By Botany And Throughout His Travels He Studied Plants, Animals, And Insects In Nature, Making Detailed Reproductions That Would Later Serve As References For His Decorative Work. Gall Returned To Nancy And In 1867 Started Working With His Father, For Whom He Designed New Ceramics, Furniture, And Jewellery. In 1873, Gall Established His Own Glass Studio Within The Family Factory And Was Henceforth Able To Employ The Processes He Had Previously Learned. Two Years Later He Married Henriette Grimm.

In 1877, He Assumed Management Of The Gall Establishments. The Following Year, Ceramic Production Studios (Then Located In Saint-Clment) Were Set Up In Raon-letape. At The Same Time,

Gall Considerably Expanded The Premises For Glass Works Within The Family Business, Which For A Decade Had Relied On The Firm Burgun, Schewerer & Cie For Their Production. In 1878, While Participating In The Universal Exposition In Paris, Gall Was Quite Impressed With The Work Of Some Of His Contemporaries And Actually Fell Under Their Influence. That Was How He Came To Submit The Artistic, Individual And Original Glass Creations That Earned Him Grand Prize At The 1889 Exposition. Gall Was Utilising Innovative Materials, Such As Carved And Etched Glass And Pte De Verre, And Had Also Developed New Forms Of Glass Vases In Colours Never Seen Before.

Contribution
Emile Gall Is Considered One Of The Most Outstanding Glass Artists Of His Time, As He Greatly Contributed To The Development Of The Art Of Glassmaking And To The Art Nouveau Style. The Works Of Emile Gall Had A Major Influence On The Art Nouveau Movement. He Developed A Technique For The Production Of Cut And Incised Flashed Glass And Enameled Designs, Enhanced By Bright Colors And Transparency Of The Material. He Traveled In Paris, London And Weimar After His Training, Which Included Art, Botany, And Chemistry, And Began Producing Fine Pottery, Furniture And Jewelry. In 1873 He Set Up His Own Glass Studio And A Year Later He Took Over His Father's Glass And Ceramics Factory In Nancy. At The 1878 International Exhibition In Paris He Was Inspired By The Glass Works Of Some Of His Contemporaries. At The Paris International Exhibition In 1889, He Presented His Own New Types Of Glass, Including Carved Cameo And Pate De Verre Work, New Shapes Of Vases And Extraordinary New Colors. In 1901, He Founded "l'ecole De Nancy". He Submitted His Designs To Artisans Who Were Responsible For Their Production And Who, After Receiving The Masters Approval, Fixed Their Signature On The Piece.

Throughout The 1890's In His "Cristallerie d'emile Gall", He Created Abundant New Glassworks And Therefore Employed A Team Of Craftsmen-Designers, Who Worked On His Designs And Applied His Signature After His Approval. In Those Years, He Also Exhibited His Art Nouveau Works With Great Success, Thus Winning International Awards, Recognition Through Commissions And Increased Popular Demand. In 1901, He Founded The School Of Nancy (With Other Artists, Including Majorelle And Daum) And Served As Its President. The Following Year He Participated In The Exposition Of Decorative Arts In Turin, Italy. After His Death In 1904, His Widow Continued To Run The Glassworks Until The Outbreak Of War In 1914, All The Glass Sold Being Marked With A Star After His Signature. The Gall Glassware, Mainly Made By Acid Etching On Two And Three Layer Cameo Glass With Landscape And Floral Designs, Continued To Be Made Until 1935, When The Firm Closed Down.

Major Works:
Gall Made Vases And Lamps In Two Distinct Qualities Of Glass: His "Masterpieces", That Took Hours Of Precise Work To Make And His Less Expensive, Though Of High Quality Art Glass, That Would Later Be Called "Industrial Gall". Nature Inspired His Designs, Which Were Mostly Floral, Some With Foliage, Or Landscape Decorations And Some With A Strong Japanese Feeling. On some vases Galle added a poem. These are known as Vase parlante or Talking vase, a vase with a message. TYPES OF GLASS WORK HE DID WAS:

Acid Etching

The vase is protected with bitume de Judee. The part that is left uncovered is eaten by the hydrofluoric acid. The acid will give a depth to the vase. This process can be repeated. Most of the time the vase is lowered in an acid bath. This was unhealthy for the workmen.

Wheel Carving
A pattern is cut on the vase with the use of a rotating wheel. The difference between acid-etching and wheelcutting is, wheel cutting is done by skilled men and took many hours. Wheelcutting is more refined, more detailed then acid-etching.

Martele
Wheelcutting that looks like a piece had been hammered.

Cabuchons
Applications. Every piece of glass that is applied on the vase while it is still hot. This can be a handle, a band, etc.

Enamel
Painting the vase with glasspowders. After the painting the vase will be heated again, so that the powders become glass as well.

Vitrification
The vase is rolled into glasspowders on a marble table. Afterwards the vase is heated again.

Intercalair
Between two layers of glass. A pattern with glasspowders is placed on a marble table. Then the vase picks up this pattern. Afterwards the vase is covered with another layer of glass, so the pattern is between two layers.

Marqueterie
Hot pieces of glass are applied on the surface of a a vase to make the decoration. The hot vase was rolled over a marble stone, so that the applied pieces were embedded. The narcis vase is a great example of this technique.

Victor Horta(1861-1947)
Life:
Victor Horta Was Born In Gand, Belgium In 1861. The Son Of Cobbler, He Enrolled In The Acadmie Des Beaux-Arts In His Native Town, Then Attended Public Secondary School From 1874 To 1877. In 1878, He Made His First Trip To Paris For The Universal Exposition And Completed A Period Of Training With The Architect And Decorator Jules Debuysson. In 1880, Fate Led Him Back To Belgium Right After His Father Died. Married The Next Year, He Moved To Brussels And Enrolled In The Acadmie Royale. During This Period He Commenced Training Under Alphonse Balat, The Official Architect Of Leopold Ii. In 1884, Horta Submitted A Plan For Parliament That Earned Him The First Place In The Godecharle Architecture Competition. The Next Year He Built Three Houses In Gand. In 1887, His Plan For The Museum Of Natural History Won The Triennial Alumni Competition Launched By The Acadmie Des Beaux-Arts In Brussels. In 1889, Horta Returned To Paris To Attend The New Universal Exposition. Upon His Return To Belgium, His Wife Gave Birth To A Daughter Simone And In 1892 He Was Hired To Teach At The Facult Polytechnique Of The Universit Libre Of Brussels Where He Was Appointed Professor In 1899. Hortas Nod To Architecture Marked The Beginning Of A Lengthy Series Of Commissions That Continued Until The First Decade Of The Twentieth Century, Among Which The Majority Were For Townhouses, Mainly In The Belgian Capital.

In 1906, He Divorced His Wife; Two Years Later, He Remarried. In 1912, Horta Was Entrusted With The Reorganisation Of The Acadmie Des Beaux-Arts Of Brussels. The Next Year He Agreed To Serve As The Institutions Director For Three Years. At The End Of His Term Directing The Acadmie Des BeauxArts, Horta Was Forced To Exile Himself To The United States Until 1919. Upon His Return, He Sold His Premises On The Rue Amricaine And Started Working On Plans For The Palais Des Beaux-Arts In Brussels.

Contribution:
His work over a ten-year period from 1893 marked his involvement with the flowing forms of Art Nouveau and was characterized by the idea of the "total work of art" in which furniture, furnishings, and interior decoration were part of a fully integrated building. Horta was influenced by the rationalist principles of Viollet-Le-Duc as revealed in the decorative use of structural ironwork that became a hallmark of his buildings. His building "House Tassel" is considered as the first Art Nouveau building. It was built as early as 1893. His introduced vegetal curve dynamic in his building designs and asymetry. His plans are always very clever and rational. He always uses new materials like iron, large light well in glass or stain glass, and new technics like central heating or electrical lightenings together with traditional materials like stone. As an architect, he also designed every part of the house, from the carpet to the fire-dogs. In his memories, he said "I was not the first architect of my time to design furniture but I was the first to integrate it to my architecture". After the first world war, he continued his work with more geometrical shapes, but also with more public orders (Museum, Station, Pavillion for International exhibitions). At this time, he also used more standard elements to reduce the costs of his buidings influenced by his knowledge of Sullivan's and Frank Lloyd Wright's works that he learned deeper during his exil to the United States from 1915 to 1919.

Major Works:

Horta Designed A Private Residence For The Physicist-Chemist Emile Tassel. Today, Tassel House Remains A Key Art Nouveau Monument. Set On A Deep And Narrow Lot, The Structures Principle Element Is A Central Staircase Covered By A Frosted Lantern. Bathed In Light, Supported By Thin CastIron Columns Sprouting Botanical Arabesques That Are Continued In The Paintings And Mosaics That Cover The Walls And Floors, The Staircase Is Townhouses Principal Architectural Feature. The Following Private Residences Are Among Hortas Most Famous: Tassel (1893) Solvay (1894) Van Eetvelde (1895) Aubecq (1899) Max Hallet (1902). In 1898 Horta Also Completed A House And Studio For His Own Use On The Rue Amricaine. Victor Horta Lent His Talent To Public Projects, As Well. In 1895, He Built The Maison Du Peuple For The Belgian Socialist Party, Largely With Solvays Financing. He Also Worked On Department Stores: The Brussels Department Store Chain Called A linnovation (1900); The Anspach Stores (1903); Magasins Waucquez (1906) And Magasins Wolfers (1909).

Gustav Klimt(18621918)
Life:
Im Not Interested In Doing A Self-Portrait. What Painting Subjects Interest Me? Other Things, Women In Particular No Reference To The External World Would Disturb The Charm Of The Allegories, Portraits, Landscapes And Other Figurative Works Painted By Gustav Klimt. In Order To Create His Seductive Oeuvre, In Which The Female Body Revealed Its Full Sensuality, The Artist Relied On Colours And Motifs Inspired By The East (Klimt Was Deeply Influenced By Japan, Ancient Egypt, And Byzantine Ravenna), A Flat, Two-Dimensional Space And A Stylised Image Quality. At The Age Of Fourteen, Klimt Received A Government Scholarship To Attend Viennas Kunstgewerbeschule (School Of Arts And Crafts), Where His Talents As A Painter And Draftsman Were Quickly Confirmed. The Artists Earliest Works Made Him An Unusually Precocious Success. His First Important Initiative Dates To 1879, When He Created The Company Of Artists Known As The Knstlerkompagnie With His Brother Ernst And Franz Matsch. Late Nineteenth-Century Vienna Was Undergoing A Period Of Architectural Ferment, Due To The Fact That In 1857, The Emperor Franz-Joseph Had Decided To Tear Down The Ramparts Surrounding The Medieval Centre Of The Town To Build The Ring With Taxpayer Money. As The Ring Was A Series Of Magnificent Residences Bordered By Beautiful Parks, Klimt And His Partners Benefited From Viennas Changes, Which Provided Them With Many Opportunities To Exercise Their Talents. In 1897, Klimt Left The Highly Conservative Knstlerhausgenossenschaft (Cooperative Society Of Austrian Artists) And Along With Several Close Friends Founded The Secession Movement, For Which He Served As President. There Was Immediate Recognition. Above The Entrance Porch Of The Secession Building (Designed By Joseph Maria Olbrich) Was Inscribed The Movements Motto: To Each Age Its Art, To Art Its Freedom.

Beginning In 1897, Klimt Spent Almost Every Summer On The Attersee Lake In Austria With The Flge Family. These Periods Of Peace And Tranquillity Provided Him The Opportunity To Paint The Many Landscapes That Make Up A Quarter Of His Entire Output. Klimt Executed Preparatory Sketches For Most Of His Works, Sometimes Producing Over One Hundred Studies For A Single Painting. The Exceptional Character Of Klimts Oeuvre Is Perhaps Due To The Absence Of Predecessors And Any Real Followers. He Admired Rodin And Whistler Without Slavishly Copying Them. Klimt, In Turn, Was Admired By The Younger Generation Of Viennese Painters, Such As Egon Schiele And Oskar Kokoschka.

Contribution:
Gustav Klimt was one of the most representative artists of Jugendstil and became an influential figure of the Viennese Art Nouveau. In 1897, he founded with fellow artists J. Hoffmann, K. Moser and J.M. Olbrich, the Wiener Secession, an intellectual and artistic association, inspired by Art Nouveau movements, born in rebellion to established art taste in Austria. The same year he founded the art journal "Ver Sacrum", in which the Vienna Secession artists and architects developed their revolutionary anti-art theories, their interdisciplinary aesthetic ideals and published original illustrations as well as chronicles of the Secession. In 1903, they left the Vienna Secession, aspiring to a renaissance of the Arts and Crafts, to more functional aesthetics, abstract designs and purer forms, and founded the Wiener Werksttte for Decorative Arts.

Major Works:

Gustav Klimt's style is highly ornamental. The Art Nouveau movement favored organic lines and contours. Klimt used a lot of gold and silver colors in his art work - certainly an heritage from his father's profession as a gold and silver engraver. Klimt's style drew upon an enormous range of sources: classical Greek, Byzantine, Egyptian, and Minoan art; late-medieval painting and photography. Klimt's works of art were a scandal at his time because of the display of nudity and the subtle sexuality and eroticism. His best know painting The Kiss, was first exhibited in 1908. As everything coming out of Klimt's hands, it was highly controversial and admired at the same time. The artist created few paintings on traditional canvas. He saw himself more as a mural painter and decorative artist. He designed posters and worked as an illustrator for magazines - best known Ver Sacrum (The Rite of Spring). Ver Sacrum was more than a magazine. It was a building where artists could exhibit their works and publish their ideas in the magazine. Ver Sacrum was published from 1898 to 1903. His subtly erotic work was frequently displayed behind a screen so as not to corrupt the sensibilities of the young.Klimt's work reflected the contradiction of his time. He combined a deliciously sensual mixture of opposites; ecstasy and terror, life and death, austerity and pleasure. The exposed yet invulnerable look of the woman, Judith, is yet another example of the appealing coexistence of opposite qualities. Some other famous paintings by klimt are: Love 1895 The Beethoven Frieze 1902 Idylle 1884 Dame mit Cape 1897-98 Wasserschlangen I 1904-07 Emilie Floge 1902 Bildnis Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein 1905 Bildnis Fritza Riedler 1906

Danae 1907 Adele Bloch-Bauer 1907 Mda Primavesi 1912 Die Jungfrau 1913 The Virgin; Narodni Galerie, Prague Girl-friends 1916-17 Die Tnzerin 1916-18

Hector Guimard
Life:

(1867-1942)

Hector Germain Guimard Was Born In Lyon In 1867. He Entered The Ecole Des Arts Dcoratifs In Paris At Age Fifteen; Three Years Later He Entered The Ecole Des Beaux-Arts. These Early Works Already Evidenced The Architects Style, Which Effortlessly Combined Expensive With Inexpensive Materials And Asymmetrical Compositions With Varied Forms. Guimard Spent many Year Travelling, In Particular In England And In Belgium, Where He Met Victor Horta And Commenced A Dialogue With Art Nouveau. In 1898, Guimard Also Participated In The Competition Launched For The Paris Metro And Focused On The Kiosks Intended To Shelter The Stations Entries. In The End, Guimard Was Awarded The Job Of Designing The Entrances, Having Been Imposed Upon The Jury By The Projects Financier, Baron Empain. But Not Everyone Appreciated Guimards Style; The Overly Cautious Were Quick To Label It Style Nouille. Thus It Was Decided In 1902, After A Major Press Campaign, That The Opening Of The Entrance Of The Place De lopra Station Would Not Be In The Art Nouveau Style. The Decision Represented A Lost Opportunity For A Juxtaposition Of Two Styles (Garniers Historicism And Guimards Art Nouveau). Because Each Style Was Revolutionary In Its Time, Such A Comparison Would Have Formed An Excellent And Accurate Testament To Historical Change And Evolution. Moreover, In 1925, Guimards Entrance To The Metro At The Place De La Concorde Was Demolished And Replaced By A Classic Entrance. In 1903, Guimard Participated In The International Housing Exposition At The Grand Palais And Designed A Pavilion.

The Architect Continued To Build A Large Number Works Up Until The Late 1920s, But Not All Of Them Represented Art Nouveau Architecture. After The Second World War, Guimard Became Interested In New Industrial Construction Methods. A Modernist, He Considered The Material And Economic Hardships Stemming From The War: Reconstruction Had To Be Quick And Inexpensive. The Parisian Townhouse At 3 Jasmin Square (Sixteenth Arrondissement), Completed In 1922, Shows Guimards Response To These Concerns. Most Of The Houses Architectural Elements Were Factory-Made Before Assembly. Guimard Was Pioneering When He Made The Faade In Concrete Bricks And Moulded Cement Coated In White Plaster; Cast-Iron Was Used For The Windowsills, Whereas Tin Was Used For The Buildings Roofing. In 1930, He Built A Country Home Called La Guimardire, Utilising Pipes As Supportive And Decorative Elements. The Home Was Destroyed In 1969. When War Came To Europe In The Late 1930s, Guimard, Who Was Ill At The Time, Exiled Himself To The United States. However, with the rise of the austere Art dco style and the concomitant change in formal intention, Hector Guimard went out of fashion. Hector Guimard Died In New York In 1942.

Contribution:
Like many other French nineteenth-century architects, Guimard attended the cole nationale suprieure des arts dcoratifs in Paris from 1882 to 1885, where he became acquainted with the theories of Eugne Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. These rationalist ideas provided the basis for the principles of Art Nouveau. Some say that Guimard became devoted to this style when he visited the Htel Tassel in Brussels, designed by Victor Horta. Hector Guimard advanced to the status of leading exponent of the Art nouveau style, which in France is often called the "Guimard style".

Hector Guimard's all-encompassing intention as a designer omits no element of daily living; no detail was regarded as too unimportant for his notice. The most commonly used Art nouveau motifs include nature, natural motifs such as blossoms and stems, tendrils and twigs. The organic verve with which line was executed, the handling of script, and the repertoire of motifs all observe these stylistic principles. In 1920 Hector Guimard submitted his first designs for standardized mass-produced furniture. The fluid, curvilinear lines that characterize Guimard's designs became synonymous with the Art Nouveau movement. His best known work can be seen all over central Paris. For instance, he designed the distinctive green entrance structures for the Paris Mtro1. The entrances are constructed out of cast iron and glass and are based on plant-like forms. Although Guimard was going against the classical design of the day when he constructed this project, he was quite successful and influential, spawning a variety of structures based on his 'sinuous green cast-iron tentacles'.

Major Works:
Guimard designed his buildings as a whole including the wall papers, furniture, doors, tiles, stain glasses. Few of the Main buildings designed by guimard are: Ecole du Sacr Coeur, Paris Castel Beranger, Paris (1893-95) Guimard's first Art Nouveau building. La Hublotire, Le Vsinet (1896) Metropolitain entrances, Paris (1900) (Abbesses, Porte Dauphine, ...) Maison Coilliot, rue Fleurus, Lille (1898-1900) Villa La Bluette, Hermanville s/ Mer La Sapinire, Hermanville s/ Mer Castel d'Orgeval, Villemoisson s/ Orge (1904)

Hotel Nozal, Paris (1904)(destroyed) Guimard's House, Paris Htel Jassd, Paris Immeuble Jassd, Paris Htel Deront-Levant, Paris Immeuble Trmois, Paris Immeubles, rue Agar, Paris Htel Mezzara, Paris Hotel Delfau, Paris

Josef Hoffmann(1870-1956)
Life:
Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann was born December 15, 1870 in the Moravian village of Pirnitz (Brtnice), to Josef Franz Karl Hoffmann and Leopoldine Tuppy. Hoffmann grew up with three sisters and was nicknamed Pepo. His father was the town mayor and also a successful businessman. He built a sizable fortune through the local cotton industry, ensuring the familys well-being. Hoffmann was strongly influenced by the local Moravian folk-traditions. His familys interest in the Biedermeier style would influence his development as an architect and designer. chool was a challenge for Hoffmann. At the age of nine, he transferred to the local gymnasium in Iglau (Jihlava), where Adolf Loos was also a student. Hoffmann found the instruction strict. He failed his fifth year twice, an experience that left him full of shame and agony. By contrast, he enjoyed the time spent with the son of an architect working on local building sites. This is how he discovered his calling. Although Hoffmanns father had wanted him to pursue a career in law, he was permitted to enroll in 1887 at the Architecture Department at Brnns Hhere Staatsgewerbeschule (Senior State Commercial and Technical School). Loos was also enrolled at the school at the same time. In 1891, Hoffmann passed his final exam and enrolled in a practical course at the Militrbauamt (Military Building Office) in Wrzburg, Germany. Hoffmann and Loos did not agree on matters of artistic style. Their dispute was over the use of ornament, particularly after the founding of the Wiener Werksttte. Loos nonetheless admitted that Hoffmanns style was successful. In an article from 1898, he wrote: I find it difficult to write about Josef Hoffmann, for I am utterly opposed to the direction being taken today by young artists, and not only in Vienna. For me tradition is everything the free reign of the imagination takes second place. Here we have an artist with an exuberant imagination who can successfully attack the old traditions, and even I have to admit that it works.

In 1892 Hoffmann applied to Viennas Akademie der bildenden Knste (Academy of Fine Arts). He was accepted and moved to Vienna, where he remained for the rest of his life. In October, he enrolled in an elite class of architecture led by Karl von Hasenauer, one of the leading proponents of the historicist style in Vienna at that time. After Hasenauers death in 1894, Otto Wagner took over his class. Throughout the course of his lifetime, Hoffmann would repeatedly give credit to the influence of Wagner on his work. Along with Koloman Moser and others, Hoffmann was a founding member of the Siebner Club in 1895 (Club of Seven). The members discussed current trends in architecture and art. Also in 1895, Hoffmann received a fellowship, the so-called Rome Prize, and spent time traveling in Italy the following year. When he returned to Vienna in 1897, Hoffmann became one of the founding members of the Vereinigung bildender Knstler sterreichs (Vienna Secession). He was an instrumental figure within the group. He contributed to its publication Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring), and frequently designed exhibitions for the Secession. In 1900, Hoffmann began designing homes for a planned artists colony in the Hohe Warte suburb of Vienna. Two of the first built were a double house for Moser and Moll. With these commissions, Hoffmann began to pursue his ideal of a unified integration between architecture and interior elements, which is termed a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art.

Contribution:
Hoffmann is well-known for the simple, restrained, yet visually interesting dining chairs, several intended for cafs, that he designed early in the 20th century. His "birdhouse" chair, for example, reveals his way of using a decorative feature to emphasize structure. Hoffmann worked well into his eighth decade, continuing to use the geometric motifs that would influence the Art Deco Style of the 1920s. In 1928 his work appeared in the Art and Industry exhibition held at Macy's store in New York, where it exerted a strong influence on American designer Donald Desky.

Hoffmann is one of the seminal figures in the modern decorative arts movement of the first half of the 20th century. Though considered a part of Art Nouveau (1890-1914), his design aesthetic went far beyond the organic to incorporate a straighter more linear geometry plus a curvalinear aspect. Hoffmann embraced the Germanic form of Art Nouveau called Jugendstil. He broke away from traditionalism in favor of a new brand of historicism based upon functionalism and practicality married to an elegant aesthetic. This reflected a modernized medieval approach to the beautification of everyday objects. As a design aesthetic, he embraced the fundamental strength found in geometry. He began to develop a new visual language which incorporated the use of strict geometric shapes applied in a elegant manner that created simple, often repetitive patterns. He found similarly like-minded young designers and artists, and together in 1897, they initially formed the Vienna Secessionists. His colleagues were a group of highly talented individuals including Joseph Maria Olbrich, Kolomon Moser, and Gustav Klimt and others. As a group, they rejected the prevailing conservatism that constricted the Viennese art world. They actively advocated for the inclusion of the New Art (Art Nouveau) as well as the work of foreign artists and designers to be shown in Viennas galleries. This led to Glasgow-based Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibiting in Vienna as well as to influence and in turn be influenced by the members of Vienna Secession group. Hoffman continued to work in Germany and throughout Europe between the two world wars. He also served on various architecture and design faculties. Apparently, he continued to get an occasional interior commission. He was not pleased at the end of his last few years that he was not more honored. Certainly his earlier achievements warranted more esteem and even adulation? Hoffmann's great creative talent and major influence on generations of architects and designers cannot be underestimated. However, not until a quarter of century after his death was he again recognized for his creative gifts.

Major Works:

The Secessionist artists desired a break from mass production products, in exchange for more sophisticated, commissioned work. To this end, Hoffman created work such as: The Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905), the Purkersdorf Sanitarium outside Vienna (1903), and the Fledermaus Cabaret in Vienna (1909).

The Neue Galerie, a Museum for German and Austrian Art in New York, City, has frequently placed on exhibition several Hoffmann/Wiener Werkstatte period pieces. The exhibitions have included: Biach bedroom (1904), Hans Salzer bedroom (1902), Jerome Stonborough and Margaret StonboroughWittgenstein (1905), and dining room designs done for the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (Geneva 1913). By 1906, Hoffmann had built what many consider to be his first truly great work, the Sanatorium in Purkersdorf. He was finally producing customized works of art. The Purkersdorf Sanatorium project was obtained through Adolphe Stoclet. Stoclet sat on the supervisory board of the Austro-Belgischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. Hoffmann was commissioned to complete the Palais Stoclet in Brussels for the wealthy banker and railway financier, Victor Zuckerkandl. Considered the Masterpiece of Jugendstil, this work was the finest example of Gesamtkunstwerk. The project includes highlighted murals in the dining room by Klimt, and four copper figures by Franz Metzner. His famous furniture designs are: Purkersdorf Armchair Sitzmaschine Armchair Kunstschau Armchair Palais Stoclet Armchair Fledermaus Chair Siebenkugelstuhl Chair Armloffel Chair Kubus Armchair Club Armchair

Haus Koller Chair

Otto wagner(1841-1918)
Life:
Otto Wagner was born on the 13th July 1841 in Vienna. His father died when he was 5 years old. In 1850 he visited during two years the Vienna academic high school. He studied from 1857-1862 in the polytechnic institute of structual design and later in the academy of visual arts by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nll. Otto Wagner subsequently spent a brief stint in the practice of the Viennese architect Ludwig von Frster before becoming self-employed in 1864. From 1894 until 1912 Otto Wagner was a professor for architecture at the Viennese Akademie der bildenden Knste. The roll of distinguished pupils of Otto Wagner's includes such great names as Josef Hoffmann, Josef Maria Olbrich, and Adolf Loos. As a teacher, Wagner soon broke with tradition by insisting on function, material, and structure as the bases of architectural design. In his remarkable inaugural lecture, Wagner, who was already in his fifties, declared himself absolutely and without reservation in favor of a modern architecture in response to modern needs and condemned all stylistic imitation as false and inappropriate. This inaugural lecture, which epitomized Wagner's philosophy of architecture and design, was published in the following year as a book under the title Moderne Architektur. After the turn of the century, Wagner started throwing off the Art Nouveau influence. Through his 1894 lecture, which was published as a book in numerous editions, Wagner facilitated greatly the reform of architectural practice and the establishment of modern design principles, such as honest use of materials, especially steel; rejection of historicist formal vocabulary; and preference for simplicity and clarity of form. His own work remained tied to tradition much longer, although it became increasingly modern after the turn of the century. His theories and teachings, on the other hand, exercised a broad and fruitful influence and found their full realization in the work of subsequent generations.

Contribution:
Architect otto wagner was part of the "viennese secession" movement at the end of the 19th century, which was marked by a sort of revolutionary spirit of enlightenment. Wagner's architecture was a cross between traditional styles and art nouveau (or jugendstil, as it was called in austria) influences. Wagner used new, modern materials and rich color, yet retained the traditional use of ornamentation. His earliest projects were classicalin styles. From 1893 he turned away from:-historicism. His designs were based on function,material, and structure as the bases ofarchitectural design, he combined technical andconstructional functionality with high aesthetic criteria. His projects were largely public-works structures, such as the vienna stadtbahn the metropolitan railway, which is today part of the u6 line. For this transport system he designed the stadtbahn pavilions, the stations, several bridges and the railings, all of which are still preserved in their original state by the city of vienna.

Major Works:
Otto Wagners main works date from around 1900. the Postal Savings Banks and the Steinhof Church. The vigorous attacks launched by conservative groups are to be primarily attributed to these successes. Many of his further designs such as that for the Emperor Francis Joseph Municipal Museum, the Technological Museum of Trade and Industry, a new Academy of Fine Arts, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Trade were not realized. In the last years of World War I, Wagner designed hospitals, soldiers barracks, and interim churches. Other important buildings designed by otto wagner: Rumbach Street Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary - 1872 Kirche am Steinhof (Church of St. Leopold), Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital, Vienna 1907 Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, Vienna, Austria 1899 Floodgate, Nudorf, Vienna (1894)

Majolica House, Vienna (18981899)

Adolf Loos(1870-1933)
Life:
adolf loos was born on December 10, 1870 in Brno (Brnn), now in the Czech Republic. Adolf Loos was nine when his father, a stonemason, died. To his mother's grief, Adolf Loos refused to continue the family business. His mother disowned him when he was 23. Began studies at the Royal and Imperial State Technical College in Rechenberg, Bohemia. Spent a year in the army. Attended the College of Technology in Dresden for three years. Traveled to the United States and worked as a mason, a floor-layer, and a dishwasher. He set up his own practice in 1897 and produced his first major work the Caf Museum in Vienna in 1899. In 1903 Adolf Loos was editor of the journal "Das Andere - Ein Blatt zur Einfhrung abendlndischer Kunst in sterreich", in which he expressed his thoughts on, and theories of, contemporary architecture, fashion, and design. In 1908 Adolf Loos's important theoretical essay on art was published: "Ornament und Verbrechen". In it Adolf Loos excoriated the "Austrian ornamentalists", scourging in a vitriolic diatribe their predilection for decoration as a degenerate phenomenon from the standpoint of civilised man: "The evolution of culture is synonymous with removing decoration from utilitarian objects." And for architecture Adolf Loos predicted: "Soon the city streets will shine like white walls!". Adolf Loos gained greater notoriety for his writings than for his buildings. Loos wanted an intelligently established building method supported by reason. He believed that everything that could not be justified on rational grounds was superfluous and should be eliminated.

Contribution:

He believed that reason should determine the way we build, and he opposed the decorative Art Nouveau movement. In Ornament & Crime and other essays, Loos described the suppression of decoration as necessary for regulating passion. Adolf Loos gained greater notoriety for his writings than for his buildings. Loos wanted an intelligently established building method supported by reason. He believed that everything that could not be justified on rational grounds was superfluous and should be eliminated. Loos recommended pure forms for economy and effectiveness. He rarely considered how this "effectiveness" could correspond to rational human needs. Loos argued against decoration by pointing to economic and historical reasons for its development, and by describing the suppression of decoration as necessary to the regulation of passion. He believed that culture resulted from the renunciation of passions and that which brings man to the absence of ornamentation generates spiritual power. Loos built boxy houses with plain white rendered facades and seemingly conventional, comfortably bourgeois but self-effacing interiors. But that was precisely his brilliance. He created rooms for living, not for display he mocked architects who followed the fashion of over-designing every detail of a clients life, so that there was nothing left but to live in a prescribed architecture that left nothing to the imagination. Loos acted as a model and a seer for architects of the 1920s. His fight for freedom from the decorative styles of the nineteenth century led a campaign for future architects. He was, in other words, a sensualist, of a possibly twisted kind. His houses, with their blank, masklike outsides and their intricate, lush-but-disciplined interiors, make perfect emblems of his well-dressed outer self and his complex inner self. Both buildings and writings express a singular, tortured personality, with strange views on desire, yet had a general influence. Architects such as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier learned plainness and controlled luxury from him.

Major Works:
He believed that the materials of a room should match its use and mood, with marble in more public places and wood in more intimate rooms, or pale maple in a woman's dressing room and oak in a man's. The dimensions, including height, should also be varied to suit each room, with the result that his houses

became three-dimensional jigsaws of interlocking spaces, with many floor and ceiling levels, connected by short flights of steps and crisscrossed by views from one to the other. He loved mirrors, using them to multiply rooms and dissolve their boundaries, and played games with the veining of marbles. In one convulsive music room, as in a gestalt test, you can read monsters and pudenda into the symmetrical patterns of matched fantastico panels. His shapes are severe, almost all straight-lined and right-angled, but they are full of constrained sensuality. In 1899, Adolf Loos designed the Cafe Museum, considered one of the most notable projects of his early career, which asserted his developing theories that technique is more dominant than decoration. Between 1909 and 1911, Adolf Loos designed and constructed one of his most notable works, the controversial Loos haus in the Michaelerplatz, in the heart of old Vienna. Its design was inspired by the relationship between the historic memory of the city and the new inventive city of modern architecture. A major characteristic of Adolf Looss private residential works were the undecorated white facades. Before being appointed Chief Architect of the Housing Department of the Commune of Vienna in 1922 Loos designed the Steiner House for the Chicago Tribune competition. In his five-year stay in France, Adolf Looss career continued and as he created many important works and contributed to exhibitions at the dAutomne. The Tzara House in Paris (1926-1927), Villa Moller in Vienna (1928), Villa Muller (1930), Villa Winternitz in Prague (1931-1932) and the Khuner Country House at Payerbach in lower Austria were all created in that time period. They each had a style that was indifferent to the current taste of architecture in the 1920s, and which reflected Looss own feelings about styles of the time. In the 1920ies, Adolf Loos lived primarily in Paris, where he designed various villas. One of his most famous buildings is the Mller Villa in Praque ("Mllerova vila"), which is now a museum. His other famous works includes: 1911-1912: Haus Stoessl 1912: Haus Horner 1912-1913: Haus Scheu 1918-1919: Haus Strasser 1922: Haus Reitler 1926: Maison Tristan Tzara, Paris

1922: Haus Rufer