Jugendstil
Parent categories: Art Nouveau - Germany
Era: fin de siècle - 1880s - 1890s - 1900s - 1910s
People: Gustav Klimt
Geography: Germany
Elvira house, Munich (1897) - August Endell
Image sourced here. [Nov 2005]
Definition
Jugendstil is defined as "a style of architecture or decorative art similar to Art Nouveau, popular in German-speaking areas of Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries." (Webster's II New College Dictionary Third Edition)
Art Nouveau became the dominant style between 1896 and 1909. Munich, Germany was the capital of Jugendstil (which means "youth style"). Henry Van de Velde was a theorist in Germany who influenced many others to continue in this style of graphic art including Peter Behrens, Hermann Obrist, and Richard Riemerschmid. The art of Jugendstil was applied to a wide range of products, furniture, and architecture. It inspired artists and influenced them to create an expressive look of cartoons and caricatures throughout Europe.
In Vienna, a different style was developed around 1900 with members of the Vienna Sezession.
In 1903 Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser founded the historical Wiener Werkstaette and created pieces of arts, in a very distinctive style, the Wiener Werkstaette Style.
Jugendstil got its name originally back in 1896, when it was published in the trendsetting cultural weekly Jugend, founded by Georg Hirth. The word Jugendstil is a distinctly German word used in the graphics vocabulary. Drawing from traditional German printmaking, the style uses precise and hard edges, which was different from the naturalistic style at the time. Within the field of Jugendstil art there are a variety of different methods, applied by each individual artists. Methods range from classic to romantic. The thing that sets Jugendstil apart is the typography used. Typically the letter and image combination is unmistakeable and was used for covers of novels, advertisements, or exhibition posters. Designers often used unique display typefaces which worked harmoniously with the image. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugendstil [Feb 2005]
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