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I don’t mean to sound pretentious but i have a hard time understanding how anyone can have a difficult time differentiating between art nouveau and art deco. Th

by elhudy 3y ago

I don’t mean to sound pretentious but i have a hard time understanding how anyone can have a difficult time differentiating between art nouveau and art deco. The only similarity between the two lies in word “art”.

keiferski 3y ago
In that post I explore a few ideas as to why I think this happens. I think it’s more that Art Nouveau gets labeled as Deco. In general though, both are art movements from roughly the same time period with roughly the same basic principles. For someone unfamiliar with art history, it can be confusing in a way that doesn’t happen with say, Medieval vs. Neoclassical architecture.
- bradknowles 3y ago
  Not the same time period. Art Nouveau started in the 1890s and was exhausted by the time of the start of the First World War (1914). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Déco first appeared in 1910, and became much more popular in the 1920s, after the end of WWI. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco
  - keiferski 3y ago
    Read my comment again. I said “roughly” the same time period. And yes, they overlapped for about a decade and from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with art history and living a century later, that is very close.
    - bradknowles 3y ago
      WW-I was a huge event in the history of this world, and it is a pretty clear divider between those two styles of art and architecture. I wouldn't call pre-WWI and post-WWI "roughly the same time period". Not by a long stretch. The length of time between them is not relevant in this case. What is relevant is the events that occurred between them. Like the pre-atomic age and the post-atomic age. The events themselves in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were relatively short-lived. But their impact on this world greatly exceeded the time immediately before those two events and the time immediately after those events.
      - keiferski 3y ago
        No, it's not a "clear divider" between the two. It was more of a slow transition between Art Deco and Art Nouveau, which as I already stated, overlapped for nearly a decade. This is all pretty clearly laid out in the historical literature that you yourself linked to. You don't seem to understand how art movements work; there is not a firm dividing line when one ends and the next begins. Beyond that, the question was about why people mix the two. Your nit-picking about how we should divide history is irrelevant to the discussion.
        bradknowles 3y ago
        Art Deco got its start in 1910, but it didn't take off until after WWI. I did read those pages, even though I've been a big fan of Art Nouveau since I met my wife in the mid-90s and she introduced me to the style, and I was a fan of Art Deco since I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. And I lived in Brussels, Belgium for almost eight years, in a house that was built in 1910 (according to the numbers formed into the bricks), and I lived about two blocks away from Hotel Horta. We have several coffee table books on Art Nouveau and Art Deco, some of which you can no longer find. So, I am very well acquainted with both styles and when they were common. I also make a point of reading articles at any links that I include for reference.
        keiferski 3y ago
        Well, then it's a little unclear to me what you are arguing against. That they aren't from "roughly the same time period" from the perspective of someone that isn't familiar with art history? Why would someone unfamiliar with art history make a distinction between early 20th century art movements? They both occurred in the early 20th century, unlike (as I used in my example) neoclassical and medieval styles, which occurred centuries apart. This is the subject of the grandparent post that I was replying to. Yes, in actuality, they overlapped a bit, and Art Nouveau waned as Art Deco rose – although again, this is not so clear cut in other art fields as it is in architecture; e.g., jewelry or furniture.
        3y ago
eternityforest 3y ago
I think it's because people show examples of Nouveau and label them as Deco.
patmorgan23 3y ago
Was art nouveau a response to the art deco movement?
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  The other way around. Nouveau was more 1890s-1900s, while deco was more 1920s-1930s. However, both were heavily inspired by Arts & Crafts (1860s-1920s). They just focused on and innovated on differents aspects of it.
RoyalHenOil 3y ago
I think the source of the issue is that Art Nouveau and Art Deco also both commonly get mixed up with Arts & Crafts (as well as Craftsman and Mission), which is ancestral to them both and shares elements with both -- sinuous organic shapes and hard geometric shapes.

by elhudy 3y ago

keiferski 3y ago

In that post I explore a few ideas as to why I think this happens. I think it’s more that Art Nouveau gets labeled as Deco. In general though, both are art movements from roughly the same time period with roughly the same basic principles. For someone unfamiliar with art history, it can be confusing in a way that doesn’t happen with say, Medieval vs. Neoclassical architecture.

bradknowles 3y ago
Not the same time period. Art Nouveau started in the 1890s and was exhausted by the time of the start of the First World War (1914). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Déco first appeared in 1910, and became much more popular in the 1920s, after the end of WWI. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco
- keiferski 3y ago
  Read my comment again. I said “roughly” the same time period. And yes, they overlapped for about a decade and from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with art history and living a century later, that is very close.
  - bradknowles 3y ago
    WW-I was a huge event in the history of this world, and it is a pretty clear divider between those two styles of art and architecture. I wouldn't call pre-WWI and post-WWI "roughly the same time period". Not by a long stretch. The length of time between them is not relevant in this case. What is relevant is the events that occurred between them. Like the pre-atomic age and the post-atomic age. The events themselves in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were relatively short-lived. But their impact on this world greatly exceeded the time immediately before those two events and the time immediately after those events.
    - keiferski 3y ago
      No, it's not a "clear divider" between the two. It was more of a slow transition between Art Deco and Art Nouveau, which as I already stated, overlapped for nearly a decade. This is all pretty clearly laid out in the historical literature that you yourself linked to. You don't seem to understand how art movements work; there is not a firm dividing line when one ends and the next begins. Beyond that, the question was about why people mix the two. Your nit-picking about how we should divide history is irrelevant to the discussion.
      - bradknowles 3y ago
        Art Deco got its start in 1910, but it didn't take off until after WWI. I did read those pages, even though I've been a big fan of Art Nouveau since I met my wife in the mid-90s and she introduced me to the style, and I was a fan of Art Deco since I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. And I lived in Brussels, Belgium for almost eight years, in a house that was built in 1910 (according to the numbers formed into the bricks), and I lived about two blocks away from Hotel Horta. We have several coffee table books on Art Nouveau and Art Deco, some of which you can no longer find. So, I am very well acquainted with both styles and when they were common. I also make a point of reading articles at any links that I include for reference.
        keiferski 3y ago
        Well, then it's a little unclear to me what you are arguing against. That they aren't from "roughly the same time period" from the perspective of someone that isn't familiar with art history? Why would someone unfamiliar with art history make a distinction between early 20th century art movements? They both occurred in the early 20th century, unlike (as I used in my example) neoclassical and medieval styles, which occurred centuries apart. This is the subject of the grandparent post that I was replying to. Yes, in actuality, they overlapped a bit, and Art Nouveau waned as Art Deco rose – although again, this is not so clear cut in other art fields as it is in architecture; e.g., jewelry or furniture.
        3y ago

eternityforest 3y ago

I think it's because people show examples of Nouveau and label them as Deco.

patmorgan23 3y ago

Was art nouveau a response to the art deco movement?

RoyalHenOil 3y ago
The other way around. Nouveau was more 1890s-1900s, while deco was more 1920s-1930s. However, both were heavily inspired by Arts & Crafts (1860s-1920s). They just focused on and innovated on differents aspects of it.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago

I think the source of the issue is that Art Nouveau and Art Deco also both commonly get mixed up with Arts & Crafts (as well as Craftsman and Mission), which is ancestral to them both and shares elements with both -- sinuous organic shapes and hard geometric shapes.