ART NOUVEAU PORTALS

ART NOUVEAU PORTALS

1. Salvador Valeri i Pupurull, Casa Comalat, 1911, Barcelona, Diagonal 442D; 2. Josef Maria Olbrich, Glücherthhaus, 1901, Darmstadt, Mathildehöhe; 3. Gottardo Gussoni, Casa dei Draghi, 1918/20, Torino, Corso Francia 23; 4. Firsch Mausoleum, 1917, Eire Cemetary, Eire Pennsylvania; 5. Jules Lavriotte, Hôtel Lavriotte, 1901, Paris, 29 Avenue Rapp; 7-9. Ixelles, Bruxelles; 10. Hector Guimard, Castel Béranger, 1895/98, Paris, Rue de la Fontaine 14; 11. Strasbourg; 12. E. André, Maison Huot, Nancy, Rue Claude Le Lorrain 92; 13. San Sebastian, Calle Prim; 14. Alfred Wagon, 1904, Place Etienne Pernet, Paris.

Art Nouveau was the first pan-European style since Neo-classicism. Easily imitated, content free, and highly adaptable, the style was particularly appealing to private patrons uninterested in the politics of national styles that had characterized the various historical revivals of the 19th century.

The signature serpentine, coup de fouet gesture could devolve into spineless dither and filigree, however, and by the end of World War I, everyone agreed that the fin-de-siècle was over. In Europe, the various manifesto modernisms prevailed; Americans contented themselves with Art Deco, or, as Roy Lichtenstein put it, “modernism for the home.”