Just a random thought, but I think I’m beginning to like the Art Nouveau style. Stop yawning, I know you don’t care. And I know there’s a recession on, and wars and natural catastrophes but sometimes I Iike to give my little mind a break from all that and today I’m thinking about art. Art will save us, don’t you know? Not that I know much about it, being one of those ‘I like what I like, and I don’t care why or what it’s called’ type of people. Anyway, even I had heard of Art Nouveau, of course, but I dismissed it as being a bit too ‘flowerly’ for my liking (I loved the Paris metro stops, though).
But it’s been slowly growing on me and I even bought this book about it:
Art Nouveau Book
It’s a great little book, full of information and beautiful images — I got it at Fopp but Amazon also has a few copies.
For some reason I had thought of Art Nouveau as being a little … mumsy but I’ve changed my views now. According to the Victoria & Albert museum website, when the Art Nouveau movement was first established it was considered a bit too erotic and was criticised for being decadent.
Let us consider this painting by the Belgian artist *Fernard Khnoff:
Em… yes I think I can see what they were getting at. Not all flowers, then.
*I don’t particuarly like the above image but I’ve since had a look at some of Khnopff’s other artwork and it is amazing in a mostly creepy way.
Yikes! That last one might be reappearing in a few nightmares…
