5. Art Nouveau In design Art Nouveau was characterized by writhing plant forms and an opposition to the historicism which had plagued the 19th century. There was a tension implicit throughout the movement between the decorative and the modern which can be seen in the work of individual designers as well as in the chronology of the whole. Its emphasis on decoration and artistic unity links the movement to contemporary Symbolist ideas in art, as seen in the work of the Vienna Secessionists, but the movement was also associated with Arts and Crafts ideas and, as such, Art Nouveau forms a bridge between Morris and Gropius
10. Vienna Secessionists At the turn of the century, Vienna was a center of radical intellectual vitality, home to Freud, Schoenberg, the architect Adolf Loos, and others. In general, especially in German-speaking countries, young artists complained of he stranglehold the establishment had on exhibitions and policies. In 1897, 19 artists from the Viennese Artists' Association broke off from the organization, including Austrian painter and illustrator Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), the architects and designers Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), Olbrich, and Moser. These were the Secessionists. They celebrated modernity vs. the retreat into revivalism seen in other movements. Nevertheless, they did share notions with Arts and Crafts: that art belongs to all, that the notion of great art vs. minor art needs to be abolished. They designed and erected a geometric building for permanent exhibition space, and they published a periodical. They supported Art Nouveau, and Klimt especially was the preeminent exponent. In 1905 came a further split within the movement: a split between the fine arts people and the applied arts people. The latter, including Klimt, associated art with industry and were dismayed by the increasingly strong trend towards naturalism. Geometrics, functionalism, and a two-dimensional quality were features instead here. In 1939 growing Nazism contributed to the dissolution of the movement.
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12. 1901 In the Old Testament, the Jewish widow, Judith, saved the city of Bethulia from siege by the Assyrians by adoring herself and venturing into the enemy camp to gain access to the Assyrian general, Holofernes. He invited her to a banquet intending to seduce her, and while they were alone at the feast, Judith took advantage of Holofernes' drunkenness to decapitate him, and returned to Bethulia with his head in a sack. The Jews saw Judith as a virtuous heroine, but Klimt portrays her as a Viennese femme fatale. Her expression of cruel triumph has often led to her being confused with Salome, who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist to satisfy the vengeful spirit of her mother.
17. 1906 'Rouault was a deeply religious man, considered by some to be the greatest religious artist of the 20th century. The terrible compassion with which he shows his wretched creatures makes a powerful impression. A savage indictment of human cruelty; she is a travesty of femininity although poverty drives her still to prance miserably before her mirror in hope of work. Yet the picture does not depress but holds out hope of redemption. This work is for Rouault a profoundly moral one. She is a sad female version of his tortured Christ, a figure mocked and scorned, held in disrepute.' From: D Solle, Great Women of the Bible in Art and Literature (Eerdmans 1994)
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