Art Nouveau began in France and quickly made its way around
Europe, affecting countries such as Belgium, Germany, and Spain. The movement
gathered many architects and artists together in support of the new style, and
it flourished. The great popularity even brought the movement into the United
States where it had a different, less substantial impact. There were only two
main designers who had an impact on the spread of Art Nouveau in the United
States – Louis Tiffany and Louis Sullivan. While neither of them brought pure
Art Nouveau, they brought the ideas it was trying to convey.
Louis Tiffany learned about Art Nouveau at a large
exhibition in Paris and then brought it to the US when he returned. The main
way he influenced Art Nouveau would be through his work with stained glass and
other artistic mediums such as painting, jewelry making, and pottery. He
designed many stained glass windows for churches, and his work was even sold by
the founder of Art Nouveau, Samuel Bing.
Louis Sullivan is known as the “father of skyscrapers” and
is one of the architects to help rebuild Chicago after the great fire. He
applied Art Nouveau to his architecture, but more subdued in order to create a
style unique to America. Sullivan used inspiration from nature to bring in Art
Nouveau to this American style, as seen mostly in his Transportation Building
and Carson, Pirie, and Scott, as well as his Charnley House and other pieces of
architecture.
The development of technology and transportation allowed Art
Nouveau to spread around quickly, hitting not only Europe, but also the United
States. The ability for both Tiffany and Sullivan to visit France and then
bring back this movement allowed America to benefit from this style that
promoted creative, whimsical design.
Design Examples
Education at Yale University - stained glass designed by Louis Tiffany
Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building
A metal bowl designed by Louis Tiffany
Current Applications
One Step Further
Louis Comfort Tiffany contributed a lot to the growth of Art
Nouveau in America. He is best known for his work with stained glass, but he
also created lamps, mosaics, jewelry, and metalwork.
Tiffany attended several schools as a young adult, such as Pennsylvania
Military Academy, Eagleswood Military Academy, and then the National Academy of
Design. He originally began his career with painting, but decided to focus on
glassmaking instead. Tiffany developed a new method of joining pieces of
colored glass together that involved soldering copper foil to each piece in
order to reach an entirely new level of detail. Some of his glass work is seen
in The First Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, the Palacio de Bellas Artes
in Mexico City, as well as his own home, Laurelton Hall in New York.
He also won a myriad of awards starting in 1893. He
participated in the World’s Fair in Chicago that year and had some of his lamps
on display, and that resulted in 44 awards. In 1900, he participated in the
Exposition Universelle and won a gold metal there, as well. Not only are his
achievements shown through exposition awards, but his knowledge of design was
shown through his father appointing Tiffany the first Design Director for
Tiffany & Co.
It is also interesting to note that, not only did Tiffany
work with glass and jewelry, but he also designed interiors. He designed the
interior of the Mark Twain House in Connecticut as well as the interior of
several rooms in the White House under the Arthur administration. Louis Tiffany
was skilled in many different areas of design and very positively impacted the
use of Art Nouveau in the United States.
It's so interesting to see how Louis Sullivan and Louis Tiffany took the art nouveau style and applied their own twist on it. I agree that it may not have been "pure" art nouveau that spread throughout the United States, but it did play a crucial role in the history and advancement of design, no matter if it was purely art nouveau or not.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find it kind of ironic that even back in the day, the advancement in technology was helping further the reach of design and impacting the way we engaged with the world.
I like how Louis Sullivan and Louis Tiffany focused on different things during the Art Nouveau period. I feel it gives us more to look at and how they looked at it in buildings vs furniture and the interiors. They both did not focus on one thing vs. the other. They each did separate parts and with it not being big in America we can still get a good taste/ sense of what the Art Nouveau movement was like.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at the works of Sullivan and Tiffany, I discovered that I prefer their version of Art Nouveau to the more traditional European Art Nouveau style. Maybe my preference for American Art Nouveau simply just grows out of familiarity with it, like being familiar with Tiffany lamps and some of Sullivan's buildings. I think it was very brave of Sullivan and Tiffany to attempt Art Nouveau in the U.S., and it's a shame that it never really caught on.
ReplyDeleteBrave! I totally agree.
DeleteWonderful summary. I agree with Makenzie that these two designers were brave! They were also very talented as you summarized in this post. Great current examples!
ReplyDelete