ART MOVEMENTS: art nouveau PART 1

The art movement studies continue! I wanted to learn more about what art movements influence Struzan’s work and it was time to look at Art Nouveau.

AT A GLANCE

At a glance, Art Nouveau seemed to be summed up by showcasing the ties between people and nature through montage:
Theophile Steinlen art below:

STRUZAN EXAMPLES:

The only problem is, not every movie or show Struzan makes a poster for is about nature. So I wanted to dig deeper to find what motifs from this art movements he carries into his other work.

SOLID SHAPES MIXED WITH RENDERED SUBJECTS

One motif I noticed was how some pieces in the movement focused on flat, or loosely shaded elements mixed with shaded human subjects - creating a graphic contrast.

Leopoldo Metlicovitz art below:

STRUZAN EXAMPLES:

S-CURVE LINE MOTIF

A very common motif in Art Nouveau is the S-curve, both in art and architecture of the time.

Raphael Kirchner art below:

Mucha art below:

This motif is used in Struzan’s skies very often.

STRUZAN EXAMPLES:

However, Struzan’s sky lines are not always S-curves. I thought longer on it and I realized, that I had seen graphic lines before in 15th century woodcuts. Another element that Struzan uses very often.

SHARP, FLOWING SHAPE MOTIF

For the last motif, I want to look at sharp, flowing shapes. I always associated this motif with Struzan and was very pleased to see more of the roots of this style.

Otto Eckmann art below:

Koloman Moser art below:

Struzan uses this shape motif both in clouds and often in his borders for his posters.
STRUZAN EXAMPLES:

CONCLUSION

This was such a fun study! I enjoyed being able to trace a direct line from a past art movement directly to Struzan’s works through his career

And we can look how Struzan brings it all together: Graphic shapes mixed with rendered subjects, S-curve motif and sharp, flowing shape motif: