Fine Art and Culture

[pieter]

She forget's to say that Art Noveau was Jugendstil in the German speaking world and that it played an important role in the Northern and North West-European countries, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland (in which the Western and Eastern parts were occupied by Germany - Prussia and Austria-), the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Jugendstil had an important influence on Art, Architecture, graphical design, 3D (three dimensional Design and) and ceramics (Jugendstil porcelain, Jugendstil tableware/crockery). Art Noveau is the French word for Jugendsti, but do not forget that Art Noveau was Jugendstil in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Jugendstil

Jugendsrtil (Art Nouveau in French; 'New Art') is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Jugendstil were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art.



One major objective of Jugendstil was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.


Jugendstil house in Arnhem


Jugendstil house in Arnhem

The first Jugendstil houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893. It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the style to the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé.



From Britain, Belgium and France, Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) spread to the rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see Naming section below). It often appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities (Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darmstadt in Germany; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain), as well as in centres of independence movements (Helsinki in Finland, then part of the Russian Empire).

By 1914, with the beginning of the First World War, Jugendstil was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism. The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.


Jugenstil; house in Apeldoorn, Gelderland Province, Netherlands, 30 kilometer above Arnhem where Pieter lives

[pieter]

Please realise that when this American Art Historian speaks about Art Noveau in the Germanic world (Germany, Austria and other coubtries) she means Jugendstil. Excellent lecture though. Also from a historical point of view in the sense of Industrial revolution. Germany became a new Industrial powerhouse in the end of the 19th century and early 20th century next to the USA.

[pieter]

Jugendstil

Der Jugendstil ist eine Kunststilrichtung, die sich um die Jahrhundertwende manifestierte. Sie lässt sich ungefähr auf die Jahre 1896 bis 1920 datieren, bevor sie vom Art Déco Stil abgelöst wurde. Erkennen kann man den Jugendstil an geschwungenen Formen, floralen Ornamenten und mythologischen Motiven. Dabei wandte sich auch die Avantgarde des Jugendstils oder der Art Nouveau, wie sie in Frankreich hieß, gegen die bestehenden Normen des Historismus.



Was den Jugendstil ebenfalls kennzeichnet, ist ein Streben nach Funktionalität. Hierfür wurden, beispielsweise in der Architektur, Gebäude als Gesamtkunstwerk angesehen – das Innere des Hauses sollte sich im Äußeren bereits wiederfinden. Doch nicht nur in der Architektur, auch in der Kunst fand der Jugendstil seinen eigenen Ausdruck. Florale Muster und Ornamente sind hier ebenfalls maßgeblich, die Farben rücken oftmals in blassem Ton in den Hintergrund.

Entdecken Sie jetzt Ihr dekoratives Jugendstil-Gemälde online in der Dietz Offizin. Hier mehr erfahren...




Jugendstil

Jugendstil is an art style that emerged around the turn of the century. It can be roughly dated from 1896 to 1920, before it was replaced by the Art Deco style. Jugendstil can be recognized by its curved shapes, floral ornaments and mythological motifs. The avant-garde of Jugendstil or Art Nouveau, as it was called in France, also turned against the existing norms of historicism.



What also characterizes Art Nouveau is a striving for functionality. For this purpose, for example in architecture, buildings were viewed as a total work of art - the inside of the house should already be reflected in the outside. But Jugendstil found its own expression not only in architecture, but also in art. Floral patterns and ornaments are also important here; the colors often fade into the background in a pale tone.

Discover your decorative Jugendstil painting online in the Dietz Offizin now. Find out more here...

[pieter]

Nov 18, 2022

This educational film deals with Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) architecture using two representative buildings: the Croatian State Archives (formerly the National and University Library) and the Kallina House. With vivid drawings and animations, the film introduces young people to the basics of this style, which, at the beginning of the 20th century, stopped imitating the past and began to discover new art forms.

Imprint:
Text and script: Iva Novak; Vedrana Ceranja
Production: Novena

MUO – Museum of Arts and Crafts, 2022

The film was made as one of five educational films as part of the ARTNOUVEAU2 project. All films were translated into the native languages ​​of all partners.

The “ARTNOUVEAU2” project (2020-2022) is funded by the European Union (ERDF, IPA II), INTERREG Danube Transnational Program.

Folks,

This video shows the great influence and existence of Jugendstil architecture in Croatia from the time of the Austrian Habsburg time, when Croatia was part of and thus occupied by Austria. I hope that the images tell the story despite the German language.

Pieter

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

I like the fact that this Art critic Joanna Murray (who is an artist herself) can explain things in a normal language. Her english has a working class East End Cockney, Mancunian or Yorkshire dialect accent. I am not an expert on English accents, but hear that her English is not Upper Middle class or Posh Oxford English or Camebridge English, the language British Art critics, curators or cultural experts usually speak.

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Gerhard Richter's aunt, the sister of his mother Hildegard Schönfelder, Marianne Schönfelder had schizophrenia, and was killed in the Nazi euthanasia program, Aktion T4. Marianne had an important influence on Gerhard Richter's life and his profession art, Gerhard Richter being an artist.





Marianne Schönfelder

Marianne Schönfelder (* 30 December 1917 in Dresden; † 16 February 1945 in Großschweidnitz, a municipality in the district Görlitz, in Saxony, Eastern Germany) was a victim of the NS Race Hygiene and Mental Health Action Brandt. She is known while she was the aunt of the German artist Gerhard Richter (born 9 February 1932).

Marianne Schönfelder was the daughter of the merchant Alfred Schönfelder and his wife Dora. After attending the girls' secondary school in Dresden (East-Germany), Marianne Schönfelder presumably suffered from schizophrenia and was admitted to the Arnsdorf State Asylum in 1938 at the age of 21. In the same year, the decision for forced sterilization was made and carried out by doctors who were not simple NSDAP members, but members of the SS and who had distinguished themselves through their particular loyalty

Marianne Schönfelder's death was terrible, tragic, horrible, but not in vain. They could not erase her memory box because of Gerhard Richter's painting, the original photo and because of the important influence she had on little Gerhard. She took him to art exhibitions.


Original photo. Marianne Schönfelder 30/12/1917-16/2/1945
Gerhard 4 months, Marianne 14 years old, June 1932
Admitted to the psychiatric institute in 1938.
September 7, 1938: sterilization; Gerhard was 6 years old.
death of Marianne, age 27: 16/2/1945; Gerhard was 13 years old.


Aunt Marianne (Painting Gerhard Richter)




Gerhard Richter in front of the painting of his aunt Marianne Schönfelder

Marianne Schönfelder died on February 16, 1945 in the Großschweidnitz asylum. In this killing center, over 5,000 patients were murdered in the so-called Brandt operation. The main causes of death were drug overdose, systematic malnutrition and inadequate care. Marianne Schönfelder was buried in a mass grave on site.

Aktion T4 was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of Tiergartenstraße 4, a street address of the Chancellery department set up in early 1940, in the Berlin borough of Tiergarten, which recruited and paid personnel associated with Aktion T4. Certain German physicians were authorised to select patients "deemed incurably sick, after most critical medical examination" and then administer to them a "mercy death" (Gnadentod). In October 1939, Adolf Hitler signed a "euthanasia note", backdated to 1 September 1939, which authorised his physician Karl Brandt and Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler to begin the killing.




Philipp Bouhler (11 September 1899 – 19 May 1945) was a German senior Nazi Party functionary who was both a Reichsleiter (National Leader) and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer (Adolf Hitler) of the NSDAP. He was also the SS official responsible for the Aktion T4 euthanasia program that killed more than 250,000 disabled adults and children in Nazi Germany, as well as co-initiator of Aktion 14f13, also called Sonderbehandlung ('special treatment'), that killed 15,000–20,000 concentration camp prisoners. Bouhler was arrested on 10 May 1945 by American troops. He committed suicide on 19 May 1945 while in the U.S. internment camp at Zell am See in Austria. Reichsleiter (transl. national leader or Reich leader) was the second-highest political rank in the Nazi Party (The NSDAP Nazi party), subordinate only to the office of Führer (Adolf Hitler). The Reichsleiter also functioned as a paramilitary rank within the NSDAP and was the highest rank attainable in any Nazi organisation (NSDAP).


SS-Gruppenführer in the Allgemeine SS/SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. On 1 September 1939, Brandt was appointed by Hitler as co-head of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program, with Philipp Bouhler. Additional power was afforded Brandt when on 28 July 1942, he was appointed Commissioner of Health and Emergency Services (Bevollmächtigter für das Sanitäts- und Gesundheitswesen) by Hitler and was thereafter only bound by the Führer's instructions. He received regular promotions in the SS; by April 1944, Brandt was a SS-Gruppenführer in the Allgemeine SS and a SS-Brigadeführer in the Waffen-SS. Brandt and Hitler discussed multiple killing techniques during the initial planning of the euthanasia program, during which Hitler asked Brandt, "which is the most humane way?" Brandt suggested the use of carbon monoxide gas, to which Hitler gave his approval. Hitler instructed Brandt to contact other physicians and begin to coordinate the mass killings. Historian Horst Freyhofer asserts that, in the absence of at least Brandt's tacit approval, it is highly unlikely that the grotesque and cruel medical experiments for which the Nazi doctors are infamous, could have been performed.


Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934. A member of Hitler's inner circle at the Berghof, he was selected by Philipp Bouhler, the head of Hitler's Chancellery, to administer the Aktion T4 euthanasia program.


SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS Karl Brandt, administrator of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program of Nazi Germany (1939-1945)

The killings of the Nazi euthanasia program, Aktion T4 took place from September 1939 until the end of the war in 1945; from 275,000 to 300,000 people were killed in psychiatric hospitals in Germany and Austria, occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic). The number of victims was originally recorded as 70,273 but this number has been increased by the discovery of victims listed in the archives of the former East Germany. About half of those killed were taken from church-run asylums, often with the approval of the Protestant or Catholic authorities of the institutions.


One of the victims of the T4 Nazi Euthensia program: The housewife Irmgard Heiss died in 1944 as a result of her years-long stay in the Weilmünster hunger center. (Photo: Stellbrink family archive)


Another victim of the Nazi T4 euthenasia killing program. The Feeble-minded Anna Lehnkering (August 2, 1915 in Sterkrade - March 7, 1940 in the Grafeneck killing center) a German woman who was murdered in a gas chamber by the Nazi regime as part of Action T4. Anna Lehnkering was just 24 when she died in 1940


Anna Lehnkering (August 2, 1915 in Sterkrade - March 7, 1940 in the Grafeneck killing center). She was only 24 when she was murdered. A German victim of the Nazi's.

The aunt of the West-German artist Gerhard Richter (with Nazi Germany and East-German DDR roots) was killed in the Nazi Euthenasie T4 program this had a great impact on his life as a human being and artist. In the first scenes from the German movie Werk ohne Autor ( NEVER LOOK AWAY ) you see his aunt in during the late thirties when Gerhard Richter was a young boy. She says; "Never look away, everything which is true is beautiful". The she hurts herself and her head is bleeding. After that you see that she is taken away to never return and her final moments before she is killed.

[pieter]

Gerhard Richter visits the Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) exhibition in Dresden with his aunt


The traveling exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) started on July 19, 1937 in Munich and then visited eleven other cities in Germany and Austria over four years. It was the largest and best-attended traveling exhibition of the time, with approximately three million visitors.

[pieter]

The former top Nazi officer whom is the father of the girfriend of the artist is confronted with paintings of his 'hidden past', his responsibility for the murder of the aunt of the lover/boyfriend of his daughter in the Nazi T4 Euthenasia program. History can never be hidden and always comes to the surface if it's documented.

[pieter]

Gerhard Richter in the studio

[pieter]