Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Plates bright and vivid. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> The international movement know as art nouveau transformed the decorative arts throughout Europe and the United States at the turn of the century providing a departure point for modern art. Jugendstil Art Nouvean the first substantial work in English on the German and Austrian manifestation of the style is an important study of its origins development and international con- nections. Jugendstil like its European and American counterparts was characterized by the sinous line that had its origins in natural forms-the swelling and turning of a flower toward the light echoed in a tulip glass by Karl Koepping or in a favrile vase by Louis Comfort Taffany. Author Siegfried Wichmann documents this floral and functional theme of the growth of plants demonstrating the increasing influence on the fine arts of biological research between 1870 and 1917. Darwin’s name was on everyone’s lips and illustrated scientific books by Haeckel Bolsche and Gerlach revealed a new world of both terrestrial and marine flora whose flowing movement and iridescent color captivated the artists of art nouveau. Dr. Wichmann also examines the abstract trend that distinguished German art nouveau after 1900 an apparently contradictory direction toward a style whose rectilinear forms were linked to an evolving machine aesthetic. The illustrations offer a dazzling display in varied media glass and metalware lighting fixtures jewelry furniture textiles and architecture. Jugendstil Art Nouveau will be a major source book on the works of Obrist Endell Hoffmann Thonet and other masters of the German art nouveau but it also includes a generous selection of works by such international masters as Gaudi. (OS)