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Inspiration for Luna’s Art Nouveau Guitar

Posted in Instrument Inspiration, tagged art nouveau, lalique, mucha, tiffany, toulouse-lautrec on January 30, 2013| 5 Comments »

Luna’s Art Nouveau guitar was inspired by the Art Nouveau movement. This is, admittedly, a long post but there were so many facets of life influenced by Art Nouveau that I hope to do justice to its scope.

Art Nouveau was a artistic movement which peaked in popularity between 1890 and 1910 which was practiced in the fields of art, architecture and applied art. It is a French term meaning “new art” and is characterized by organic and plant motifs as well as other highly stylized forms. The organic forms often took the form of sudden violent curves which were often referenced by the term “whiplash”. You can see organic motifs at the rosette and 12th fret of the instrument as well as a “whiplash” curve at the rosette.

Art Nouveau’s success was a reaction against late 19th century academic art and was replaced by the development of 20th century modernist styles. Art Nouveau was most popular in Europe, but its influence was global and influenced many different mediums:

ARCHITECTURE
Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment.

INTERIORS
Art Nouveau is also considered a philosophy of design of furniture and other elements of interior design. The focus was design keeping the entire building in mind and making all details part of ordinary life.

GLASS
Glass art was a medium in which the style found tremendous expression—for example, the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York, Charles Rennis Mackintosh in Glasgow, and Emile Galle and Rene Lalique in France.

emile galle

lalique

lalique perfume bottle

tiffanny chandelier

tiffany dragonfly lamp

tiffany wisteria lamp

tiffany window

JEWELRY
Jewelry of the Art Nouveau period revitalized the jeweler’s art, with nature as the principal source of inspiration, complemented by new levels of virtuosity in enameling and the introduction of new materials, such as opals and semi-precious stones. The first image is os a woman adorned in the art nouveau style….a perfect blank canvas for the stunning jewelry and hair combs to follow.

art nouveau fashion

lalique moth pendant

lalique cicada pin

lalique dragonfly necklace

lalique necklace

lalique pendant

lalique dragonfly pendant

lalique peacock pendant

lalique skylark pendant

lalique

POSTERS
The flowery, ornate style was born practically overnight in 1894 when Alphonse Mucha, a Czech artist working in Paris, was pressed to produce a poster for Sarah Bernhardt, the brilliant actress who had taken Paris by storm. His creation was the first masterpiece of Art Nouveau poster design. The poster craze of the 1890s witnessed the spread of poster art to all of Europe and America and with it the Art Nouveau style.