1. Submitted By: Bhumi. R. Goodluck(0911)
Semister: 6th (3rd year)
Date: 4/07/’12
Submitted To: Ar.Aditi Joshi
2. Art Nouveau, 1890-1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and
architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end
of the nineteenth century.
The exhibition is divided into three sections: the first focuses on the
1900 World's Fair in Paris, where Art Nouveau was established as
the first new decorative style of the twentieth century; the second
examines the sources that influenced the style; and the third looks
at its development and fruition in major cities in Europe and North
America.
At its height exactly one hundred years ago, Art Nouveau was a
concerted attempt to create an international style based on
decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation
of artists and designers, who sought to fashion an art form
appropriate to the modern age. During this extraordinary time, urban
life as we now understand it was established. Old customs, habits,
and artistic styles sat alongside new, combining a wide range of
contradictory images and ideas. Many artists, designers, and
architects were excited by new technologies and lifestyles, while
others retreated into the past, embracing the spirit world, fantasy,
and myth.
Art Nouveau
3. Art Nouveau
At its beginning, neither Art Nouveau
nor Jugendstil was the common name
of the style, and the style adopted
different labels as it spread between
artistic centers. Those two names came
from, respectively, Siegfried Bing's
gallery L'Art Nouveau in Paris and the
magazine Jugend in Munich, both of
which promoted and popularized the
style.
4. Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau was in many ways a response to the
Industrial Revolution. Some artists welcomed
technological progress and embraced the
aesthetic possibilities of new materials such as
cast iron. Others deplored the shoddiness of
mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed
to elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine
art by applying the highest standards of
craftsmanship and design to everyday objects. Art
Nouveau designers also believed that all the arts
should work in harmony to create a "total work of
art," or Gesamtkunstwerk: buildings, furniture,
textiles, clothes, and jewelry all conformed to the
principles of Art Nouveau.
6. CASA MILA
Architect Antoni Gaudi
Location Barcelona, Spain map
Date 1905 to 1910
Building Type multifamily housing
Construction System masonry and concrete
Climate mediterranean
Context urban
Style Art Nouveau
Notes Expressionistic, fantastic, organic forms in
undulating facade and roof line. light court.
Architect sometimes referred to as "Antonio
Gaudi".
7. CASA MILA
"La Pedrera—'the quarry'—was the name an astounded
population gave to this completely unique building. It could be
compared with the steep cliff walls in which African tribes build
their cave-like dwellings.
The wavy facade, with its large pores, reminds one also of an
undulating beach of fine sand, formed, for example, by a receding
dune.
The honeycombs made by industrious bees might also spring to
the mind of the observer viewing the snake-like ups-and-downs
that run through the whole bulding.
In this last secular building which he constructed before devoting
all his energies to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi created a paradox: an
artificial but natural building which was simultaneously a summary
of all the forms that he has since become famous for.
The roof sports an imitation of the bench from Guell Park as well
as an ever more impressive series of bizarre chimney stacks."
8. CASA MILA
The building does not have any straight lines.
Most people consider it magnificent and overwhelming --
some say it is like waves of lava or a sand-dune. This
building seems to break our understanding of conventional
architecture.
The most astonishing part is the roof with an almost lunar
appearance and dream like landscape.
The building can be considered more of a sculpture than a
regular building. Critics remark on its detachment from
usefulness, but others consider it to be art. The
Barcelonese of the time considered it ugly, hence the
"quarry" nickname, but today it is a landmark of Barcelona.
9. CASA MILA
It was built for the married couple, Rosario Segimon and Pere Milà.
Rosario Segimon was the wealthy widow of José
Guardiola, an Indiano, a term applied locally to the Catalans returning
from the American colonies with tremendous wealth. Her second
husband, Pere Mila, was a developer who was criticized for his
flamboyant lifestyle and ridiculed by the contemporary residents of
Barcelona, when they joked about his love of money and
opulence, wondering if he wasn’t rather more interested in “the
widow’s guardiola” (piggy bank), than in “Guardiola’s widow”.
The design by Gaudi was not followed in some aspects. The local
government objected to some aspects of the project, fined the
owners for many infractions of regulations, ordered the demolition of
aspects exceeding the height standard for the city, and refused to
approve the installation of a huge sculpture atop the building—
described as "the Virgin"—but said by Gijs Van Hensbergen in his
biography of Gaudi, to represent the primeval earthgoddess, Gaia.
14. CASA MILA
The most famous feature of Casa Mila is the roof and the sculptured
chimneys. The chimneys have the look of helmeted Greek warriors or
the imperial guards in the Star Wars movies.
There are also several tiled and stuccoed sculptured forms that house
the stairwells, giving the roof a playful feel that the rest of the building
lacks.
16. CASA MILA
The wrought-iron
balconies were the
design of Josep
Maria Jujol, Gaudí's
frequent
collaborator. Each is
different and was
improvised in the
forge.
21. CASA MILA
Casa Mila was in poor condition in the early 1980s.
It had been painted a dreary brown and many of its
interior color schemes had been abandoned or
allowed to deteriorate, but it has been restored and
many of the original colors revived.
The building is part of the UNESCO World Heritage
Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí". The building is owned
by Caixa Catalunya.
