Modern Art, Day 196 March 2013

The Nabis, Art Nouveau

Paul Serusier, “The Talisman/Landscape: The Bois d’Amour [Forest of Love],” 1888 follower of Gauguin showed painting to other artists in hope to create a movement of anti-naturalistic

painting that dealt more with emotions saw society as too materialistic, crass, and vulgar called themselves the Nabis (greek for prophet)

Maurice Denis, “Splashes of Sunlight on the Terrace,” 1890 Nabis liked the idea that their art was decorative

Whistler, “Arrangement in Grey & Black, No. 1 (“Whistler’s Mother”),” 1871

Whistler, Peacock Room, “Harmony in Blue and Gold,” 1876-77

Whistler, “Nocturne in Black & Gold,” c.1874

“I ask it [the price of the painting] for the knowledge of a lifetime”

Said the picture’s meaning depends on who looks at it

Whistler won, but got only 1 farthing in damages which meant paying for the trial almost bankrupted him

“To those who early in life rid themselves of the friendship of the many”

Not a Nabi painter

Denis, “April,” 1892 Nabi very ethereal, lots of intellectual elitism in this group complete withdraw from participation in the Salon and society with their art;

consider themselves the stewards of purely beautiful art use thick plaster-like blocks of color

Vuillard, “Interior: The Artist’s Mother and Sister,” 1893 Decoration is so important, the patterns in the painting overwhelm the figures and

the sister almost disappears into the wallpaper

Pierre Bonnard, “The Nursemaid’s Promenade (The Screen),” 1899 part of Nabis

Bonnard, poster for La revue blanche, 1895 very decorative means “the white review,” emphasizes purity of their style of painting

Johannes Toorop, “Delfst Slaolie,” 1894 ad for salad oil using sex to sell

TL, “Divan Japonais,” 1893 Toulouse-Lautrec (TL):

characterizing nature of scene with distortions and unnatural shapes

emphasis on the strange and peculiar; was more comfortable with the rejects of society since he himself was a “freak” due to his disease that made him very short

TL celebrates the eccentricity of people

Divan Japonais: poster for nightclub, means Japanese box

images of femme fatale here

Art Nouveau, aka Jugendstil, Modern Style, Modernismo focused on fin de siècle, embraces the handmade and eschews the industrial,

factory-produced

Victor Horta, stairs in Tassel House, Brussels, 1892-3