my input - which is probably doubling up on what everyone else is saying.
Bet you wouldn't get the same response if the subject was the 'gothic period' or pre-raphaelites. Perhaps we might do another one on art deco.
If someone says 'art nouveau', then I have some idea of where I am, date wise - but I think the end date of the style, for me, is a little unclear. Perhaps a period that lasted from c. 1885 to somewhere around WW I. ??
In Italy, apparently, it was 'liberty' - in France and Belgium it was 'art nouveau' - in Germany it seems 'Jugendstil' - but it may have been only middle Europe that used the word Secession.
I'm never really sure that the U.K. originated it's own style of nouveau - the little we had we probably stole from Paris - since that was where all the decadence appeared to be - sinuous naked women and everything with a curve, although if you look at William Blake's work you can see a hint of the beginnings of the flowing lines of nouveau in his art. But Beardsley is pure erotic nouveau.
There is a distinct feeling that France was responsible for the whole of this 'new age art'.
If you believe the books then the British champions of arts and crafts and the Glasgow style disliked Continental art nouveau, since it didn't, so they said, revere the aesthetics of Morris and his pals who were bananas about the honesty of hand made medieval workmanship.
During the same period the graphic arts had 'symbolism' - the equivalent of nouveau on canvass - favourite of mine - big stuff with all that repression and sex simmering below the surface.
The British were too reserved for what they probably saw as degenerate Continentals - absinthe and Egon Schiele, and in the 1890's the U.K. still had a monarch in black and mourning and who encouraged traditional art.
An image such as Klimt's 'The Kiss' probably epitomizes best what most of us think of as 'secessionism' art, and the organically sensual glass designs of Daum, Galle or early Lalique likewise represent some of the best of 'art nouveau' - and don't forget the ironwork at the entrances to the Paris Metro.
If the discussion was confined to glass, then I think the U.K. would struggle to compete - we just weren't in the same league as the Continent of Europe.
Ivo is correct in saying metalwork, architecture and furniture, but I'm never sure about adding plastic - did they have plastic then?? Like Frank I'd prefer to shove this into the deco style.
There seems no doubt that Continental Europe was vastly better off in all of the decorative arts than the U.K., or the States - and they also invented that other big style that succeeded it - deco.
Sorry this has wandered off from glass - which I've just realized was probably where it was intended to be confined - please delete if it's too much off-topic.
Topic: Glass Secessionism (Read 570 times)
