Stanisław Wyspiański was the best known artist in the turn of the Century Poland, as well as the leading painter and poet from ‘Młoda Polska’ , the Polish declination of Art Nouveau.

He was author of play, poet, painter: a pure eclectic artist as commonly used at the Turn of the Century. Many information over his life and artistic production could be found on the quite complete reference page on wikipedia.

What we are presenting here in artnouveau.at is one of the masterpiece of the Polish artist, as well one of the greatest and fairly known Art Nouveau styled decoration. In August 1894 Wyspiański was in his birth city again, after an experience abroad. And in Kraków, he got heavily involved in the modernist movement. It was then he designed and partially made a polychrome for the Franciscan Church that was composed of flowery, geometrical and heraldic motifs.

These fitomoprphic motives constitute a real enhancement towards the symbolic decorative characteristic of Art Nouveau. The catholic Wyspiański conceived the illustration of a church using floral thus claiming for the creative and vivificate  attitude of God. The growing flowers are then symbols of the God creative power; the abstract geometric decorations are symbols too of the mysterious force which is hidden behind the Creation.

Floral elements are typically feminine ones. The unlimited and outstanding mysterious presence of God can’t be restricted to a single gender. It it also can’t be restricted to any human like representation. Abstract is the aesthetic predominance in San Francis church, intuitive but never acknowledgeable the Logos of God.

Sometimes I feel that the time really flows accordingly to the concept of time of the Greek mythology. Sometimes I really feel that that eventually it could be true, at least as far as history of art is concerned.

We are descending from the Classic Greek Art, in which the human beings, and specially their bodies, were constructed after the artistic ideal, and the artistic ideal after the daemonic (aka supernatural) essence. The Greek artist conceived her composition as a sort of representation of the daemonic perfection, depicting bodies who eventually were actual representation of that ideal. And the idealistic art should represent a model to which the real human beings tend to approximate, in order to tend toward the upper nature of the daemons. The concept itself of KaloKagathia, the marriage between the Beauty and the Good, was symptomatic of this attitude: the ideal beauty should be paradigmatic of an ethic social behavior, thus pushing the ethic attitude to copy the perfection (ideal) of the work of art. In other terms, social should have been a sort of imitation of the perfection of the art. Notwithstanding Plato.

The Platonic revolution, assigned to the art the infamous role of copy of the copy, copy of the Nature which was considered copy of the upper Metaphysic world of the Eidolon (Ideas). This was so impacting that basically the art production which followed was conceived as an imitation, at least, of the Nature. Being inspired, the naturalistic artist should take inspiration from the beauty of the nature, a mirror of the divine perfection. On the other hand, the plein-air painting of the Impressionists tended to impress on the canvas the momentum, the impression coming our, again, from a Nature conceived as a source of inspiration.

The fault came with the Symbolism, at the end, a sort of Nietzschiean Return to the Origin, to the Source, finally. How should be considered the Symbolist attitude toward Nature then ?

After having read Alfred Kubin’s sole roman, “Die Andere Seite” I was walking in a street, in a small village in northern Italy.

People continuously walking around a tower. At the upper of the tower, a clock which seems to attract all the people, and the people not being able to escape that fatidic attraction.

I was in that street, the same street as the one described and illuminated several times by Kubin. And I felt myself while I was reconstructing that street, and looking at that tower as per my influenced by Kubin eyes. I was able then to force the outside nature to my own vision. And my vision wasn’t a copy of the Kubin’s one; simply, I was using his same vocabulary, using which I was able to (re)describe the Nature. Once again, Daemon Triumphavit …

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I was impressed, reading the essay on the Italian Liberty architecture by the authoritative art historian Rossana Bossaglia, by the her concerns regarding the development of an Art Nouveau (Liberty, as the movement is known in Italy) architecture. In particular she complained about the lack of a real innovative research of new forms in architecture during the Art Nouveau period in Italy as was the case, for example in Belgium or in Spain.  Accordingly to Rossana Bossaglia, the problem with the Italian Art Nouveau architecture is the lack of a very meaningful research on the forms in the building’s own structure, thus relegating all the evocative suggestions of the Art Nouveau’ Lines to the decorative elements on the façade. In other terms, in Italy, accordingly to Bossaglia, the development of the national Art Nouveau style lacked a personality such as Victor Hortha in"Belgium, Odon Lechner in Hungary, Otto Wagner in Austrian or Anton Gaudi in Spain, thus limiting to very few examples the very contribution of Italy to the development to the international modernist style.

Anyway, even stated the lack of an outstanding personality or a school master, in Italy we could experience a very development of the know-how, of some techniques which are nevertheless impacting over the progression of the Art Nouveau style and technique. A brief digression here regarding the relationship between the style and the technique. In classical point of view, the work of art represents an ideal wedding (chemical ?) between technical skills, inspiration and personal style. The technique element, the Greek tekné constitutes a world of potential and possibility with which the artist could fully express his or her own feelings or inspirations. The point here is that classically an artist could really produce a work of art only after having mastered the expressive technique of his own artistic field. I have well printed in my head the words Arnold Schönberg, who in his theoretical masterpiece, Armonienlehere, complained that his fellows and disciples must know very well and master all the classical composition techniques prior to try any subsequent engagements into the new dodecaphonic arrangements. Giving life and form to a work of art (informing, using aesthetic terminology, a work of art) means basically mastering a technique at the same level which permits to a poet to fully express the complexity of his poetry and inspirations just after, and only after, having a deep knowledge of the language (including the possibility of providing complex images as consequence of mastering a complex vocabulary).

As far as the development of the Stile Liberty, the national declination of Art Nouveau in Italy, is concerned, one of the most exiting an fundamental contribution of the Italian artists at the turn of the century is due to their outstanding improvement of the iron workmanship techniques. Walking through some streets in Milan gives exactly the idea of the outstanding level that the technique of iron decorations reached during the turn of the century in Italy.

Artists such as Alessandro Mazzucotelli, Carlo Rizzarda or Umberto Bellotto, maybe not so known as other champions of art nouveau such as Alphonse Mucha or Gaudi, were eventually able to push to the extreme the ornamental possibilities of iron. Iron structures developed in other countries, of course: In the fin de siècle Barcelona or Paris, iron structures were used in architecture, sometime not just as decorative elements rather than as fully structural ones.

Anyway the technical level reached by the Italian artists permitted to create ornaments which present decorative ornaments with a very fitomorphic feeling. Moreover, seems that the researches for an art which could be overcharged by the same explosive mystic strength of Creative Nature, an art which could be able to mimic not the  naturalistic elements rather than the very inner force of the Nature itself, these researches boosted by improving these new techniques.

The expressive potentiality of an art as a mirror of the symbolic aspect of the nature was significantly improved by a technique which could release the flexibility potentiality of the metallic materials. The researches of Mazzucotelli and the other Italian artist of the iron constituted not just a technical step forward in the direction of fitomorphic ornament: they constituted also an improvements of its symbolic dictionary.

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HERE

Bruxelles constitutes a sort of capital city of the new style. The Belgian capital was the city where, at the beginning of the last decade of the XIX Century, the new concept of architecture of the Line, developed by architect such as Victor Horta, Paul Hankar, Gustave Strauven, Armand Van Waesberghe, beyond others; the city where the symbolism in painting began to widespread trough the entire Europe after the works of the artistic society such as Les XX and La Libre Esthetique; the city where the Austrian Workshop Wiener Werkstaette designed and realized maybe the most complete example of Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art) ever realized.

The central common concept of these realization in Bruxelles has to deal with the concept of Symbol. Compared to other form of meaning, the symbolic is characterized by an inner energy movement and an external complexity. Considering the meaning in literal sense, it stays in a one-to-one relationship with one sign. Even in case of plastic art, dealing with allegoric representations, the relationship between an image and its meaning is based over an accepted iconic vocabulary (as in the baroque glyphs and gryphon style, for example) and thus quite easily recognizable by who share that vocabulary. Allegory is then possible to be translated into other term, into other vocabulary using the meaning’s bridge.

Stoclet Palace nowadays

The case of the symbol is definitively different. The symbolic representation is not based on any vocabulary. The artist’s own creativity and freedom is capable to create relationship between an iconic image and a particular meaning, choosing the iconographic device in a different manner, time by time. The same subject, the same icon could be depicted with different attitude and then charged with different meaning. The meaning – symbolic (iconographic) relationship in Symbolism is not fixed rather than fluid: Symbol is conceived by the artist within a particular moment, within a particular state of the mind, within a special mood.

Stoclet Palace, details

As a consequence, the interpretation of symbolic art is as complex as its creativity act. More, the interpretation of the symbol is a creative moment per se, when the spectator exploiting his own symbolic heritage he achieved during the time, with previous sensitive experiences, with previous artistic experiences, within his cultural, philosophical, religious, social milieu.  The hermeneutic of the symbolist art spectator should be as complex and rich as the creativity engine of the artist himself, as the act to approach and interpret the symbolic work of art follows the proceed of the artistic production, overcharging the work itself by a plethora of other complimentary meaning. The power of symbol is then complete: it continues to suggest new reading, new interpretation, revitalizing the work of art, providing a beyond-the-time living and inspiring concept of art.

Stoclet Palace, façade details

The key work is complexity. From Latin complicatio, ethimologically the word means “put together several different things”. The movement of complexity happens either when composing a specific work of art, as well as when interpreting symbolically that work. And a further level of realization of a complex art is the so called Gesamkunstwerk, the Total Work of Art. There the complexity is not just realized with the combination (again Latin, combinatio) of meanings rather than with the widespread adoption of a particular style trough the entire composite elements of the work. The stimuli of such a pervasive artistic production achieves the goal of unity in complexity, in which the application of the same style is bound with different declinations of it by the symbolic development of its application. In other terms, this sort of Heraclitean approach provides within the style the eon, the Unity and within the symbolic artistic freedom of its application the multiply meanings.

In Stoclet palace, the expressive power of the Line pervade every single element, from the architecture of Josef Hoffmann, the decoration of the façade with its geometric and clean lines, the inner decoration and furniture design due to the works of Hfmann but also Gustav Klimt, Bertold Loeffler, Carl Otto Czecha, Leopold Forstner, Michael Powolny, Franz Metzner, Koloman Moser.

Every single detail, from the decorations to the furniture, from the garden to the kitchen tools, were conceived with a unity of style; every single detail represents a stylistic declination of the line, providing an overall synesthetic for the inhabitants of the villa. Everything in the palace is charged with aesthetic value, every single object represents a key to the Garden of Meanings, the structure, its interiors, its decoration constitute a Symbolic and Aesthetic Forest detached from the everyday, human, villain life.

One should be an aesthete to walk through this Forest and being excited by this trip rather than  scared by it; one should have the same cult of Beauty and of Art as a Des Essaintes or a Gabriele D’Annunzio to fully enjoy the unique experience of an aesthetic life within a Total Work of Art; one should have such a feminine attitude towards the Mysteries to use these tools, to look at these decorations as what they are, single small piece of art. Living surrounded by art without such an aesthetic passion could become a nightmare or an annoying task, such as taking care of old fragile objects.

Considering the actual status of the exterior of the Stoclet Palace, such an annoyed attitude could probably suitably describe what the actual property is feeling towards this Masterpiece. Accepting to live there is accepting to live surrounded by living Suggestions. Entering or, worst, living there is not a task for everyone: paraphrasing Plato, shouldn’t dare to enter there who is not an aesthete …

Emile Fabry was Belgian symbolist painter and designer. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under Jean-François Portaels, and worked with the designer Cir Jacques.

He had a special symbolist attitude towards the mysteries of the unconscious and of the obscure Nature forces. As many artists who worked within the milieu of Belgian Symbolism work, even Fabry was heavily influenced by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949),  depicting characters who expresses anguish through its depiction of wild-eyed and deformed figures.

The still and silence pervade the composition, as in case of “le fil de la vie”, weather the eyes of the central figure seems to be able to investigate in-depth the unconscious of the spectator. Marbled and crystallized colors provide the impression of a world where inquietude and mystery are ruling …

In 1892 Fabry took part in the first exhibition of the group ‘Pour l’Art’, which he founded with Jean Delville and of which he depicted the poster, and in 1893 and 1895 exhibited at the Salons de la Rose+Croix, established by the Sar Joséphin Pèladan.

In this period he experimented an aesthetic in which the characters are disposed in front of the spectator, developing over vertical lines, somewhat with an architectural approach, recalling some conposition of pre-raphaelitism:

The palette is also darkening, soft pointillism suggest an intimae light experience, just like the light itself was produced by the character rather than coming from some natural source. Again, the supernatural and intimate unconscious take over the usual expectation about the external natural phenomenon. No forecast is possible in either the intimate world nor in the work of Fabry. In “Vers l’Ideal” there are also present influences from the Austrian Secession (Klimt):

Emile Verhaeren in 1896 wrote about him:

A special artists with a strong willing. He is able to clearly express sadness, force and ingenuous sweet attitude. His characters has large front, large eyes, compact long hairs, placed in a metallic, marbled and silent world: they are like suspended upwards as huge melancholic flowers. He is one of the rare artist who as a special attitude towards life, and who is living in a splendid world apart. A world which sometimes looks as the only who is actually real. And this is his powerful art. We are brought into this individual vision which completely fascinates the spectator.

And eventually these word were inspired by one of the masterpiece of Fabry, “Les gestes”, 1895:

In this painting the curve lines are ruling the development of the shapes. The large eyes and the lounged faces are incredibly expressive, providing a melting pot of different feelings such as sadness (the woman on the very left), melancholy (far right) and a perverted beauty, which is able to dig in-depth the spectator unconscious and inner world (central figures). One can feel these eyes right in his blood without being scared rather being fascinated. These long faces, with an hermetic expressions constitute a incitation to the spectator to know the inner part of himself. Just like a painted symbolic version of the Delphic and Heraclitean motto, a sort of parallel with the Klimtian Nuda Veritas: These eyes in Fabry’s painting are the counterpart of the Nuda Veritas’ glass, both directed toward the spectator own sight (either external and internal) …

Death at 101, the author during his long life continuously remain on his ideal, researching new expressive way to depict the inexpressible trough symbolic form and lines, with metallic colors, with an attitude towards the mystery, trough his love for veiled Isis. He still maintains his role of prophet of symbolism just at the time of non-figurative and too often rizomatic and casual art. Our flag versos any action (aka non-symbolic) art.

The Aesthetic of the swirling lines constitutes a common element either in the development of Art at the turn of the Century as well as of the so-called Psychedelic Art during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Sinuous lines, symbolic elements and character attitudes, enigmatic and ambiguous expressions, are all elements that the artists of the ‘60s heavily inherited from their fin-de-siécle counterparts.

This artistic relationship sometimes happens just at stylistic level, when the psychedelic artists feel themselves free to be inspired in their works by most of the lines, patterns, shapes of the Art Nouveau poetic:

Sometimes, on the contrary, Art Nouveau or Symbolist Art masterpieces are literally brought into psychedelic style poster, overcharging colors accordingly:

The point here is that this psychedelic revisiting of Art Nouveau doesn’t look inappropriate, stylistically incompatible nor aesthetically inacceptable.

In other terms, Art Nouveau style fits perfectly into a psychedelic aesthetic and till the point the turn-of-the-century art can be considered as the very mainstream of inspiration for the psychedelic artists of the ‘60 and ‘70. This is mainly because some of the feelings and attitudes of the artists during these two periods are commonly shared.

Opening the perception to the mysterious forces hidden within the Nature, and let them come into the stream of the artist’s own feelings; discovering the expressive of the Line, of the draw, of colors, being able to mimic the Nature inner forces trough a passionate Art.

For either the Psychedelic travelers at the end of the 60s as well as for the Symbolist at the turn of the century Art constitutes the preferred way to unveil Isis or, at least, to make love with her …

Nouveau doesn’t mean new.

New refers to some point in time: something is new when in relationship with some other event which could be either older than the previous or different, or better. The concept of “New” could be referred as a quality (in relation with another stuff wich is qualitatively superseded) or as a time relative concept.

On the contrary, Nouveau doesn’t relate to the concept of time, it hasn’t nothing to do with quality, nothing to spare with some other relative point in time. Nouveau is a perpetuum mobile, it is an Heraclitean concept. Nouveau relates to the eternal mutating, a continuous re-generation trough the ways of dynamism and Speed. Nouveau doesn’t refer to something which is older or superseded by its quality: Nouveau, finally, means that what is predicated being Nouveau is overcharged by an inner energy, a mysterious and obscure vitalism which is able to continuously change and regenerate the subject.

Something is Nouveau because it never looses its own impacting energy, because it lacks really essence or being, and consists of pure dynamic mutability. Nouveau is living, ‘cause what could be considered living is exactly the contrary of being, a non-being, thus Nouveau is like a continuously transforming inexplicable symbol. And like a symbol Nouveau’s own definition is constantly re-disposing, avoiding any tentative to clarify, continuously escaping every attempt to bound it into the gate of the fixed written word.

Art is Nouveau when it can’t be defined, continuously burning its own definition. Art Nouveau is a Truth which is burning flame: a Truth which is non-truth.

Art Nouveau is a complex passion described by a furious Line.

Art Nouveau artist is then a suffering daemon who is aimed to an art which is incorruptible. And it is not because it is ontologically placed in a sort of eternal suspension, rather because its own burning flame is infinite as the Fire in Ephesos.

And, moreover, Art Nouveau is still here …

The music relies on fascinating melodies which induce an exciting mechanism in the brain of the listeners: actually, the listener is brought within the work of Art and once there he can feel the ecstasy, at the same time so close and so far from the one that inspired the artist. The dancer is drawing lines in the air with sensuous movements of her feminine (what else ? All of us have a very feminine attitude) furor.

The dancers are performing at the turn of the century over a music composed also at the turn of the century, but of exactly the following one: the performance altogether is develops accordingly between music and dance, an accord without any agreement, an accord over a bridge one century long …

Art Nouveau is so dangerous because it doesn’t care about time: Art Nouveau is now, every time.