Art Nouveau (Part III)Prints on PaperMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below the other posts in this series:
Art Nouveau (Part I)
Art Nouveau (Part II)
Art Nouveau (Part IV)

Introduction[1]
The first tentative gestures of the Art Nouveau movement was made in the mid-1800's in continental Europe. It spread its zenith for a brief twenty years, from about 1890 to 1910, Artists and craftsmen of the time were seeing the results of the Industrial Revolution and the creation of an increasingly mechanised society. It became all too easy for a machine or assembly line to reproduce objects that formerly had been hand-wrought with care and thought and love.

Alphonse Mucha, 'Gismonda' (1894).

Many artists became disgusted with imitative art and the machine, which seemed to have cheapened and vulgarised everything. They wanted to return to craftsmanship, quality, simplicity and nature. Art and Craft Guilds and Societies sprang up everywhere to preserve and carry on the tradition of skilled artistry and fine craftsmanship.

The individual Art Nouveau artist became adept at creating and designing furniture, fabrics, pottery, glassware, silver ware and jewlery, as well as paintings and sculpture. This diversification included architecture and interior decoration. Everything was to be handcrafted and all had to be objects of beauty and use. All continental Europe felt the influence of Art Nouveau, but Paris became the center for the movement, developing some of the most sophisticated and inspired examples of Art Nouveau artistry.

Large French Art Nouveau Citrine and Diamond Lavalière Necklace.

Art Nouveau (Part III)[1]

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)[2]
We already discovered a hint of Expressionism in the work of Maillol (see previous post in this series); it can be discerned even more clearly in this linocut by Henri Matisse. What, in Mailol's case, still seems rounded-off and static, is in a state of dissolution in the work of Matisse; his female nude seems truly to be threatened by the waves - their inclusion creates a dissonance, even if the woman's hair, portrayed in the same characteristic style as waves, appears to be a point of harmony with the element of water. One is almost tempted to switch around the titles of the two illustrations: Matisse's depiction seems closer to the theme of the 'Wave' than does Maillol's static wood-engraving, for which 'Female Nude' would be a more appropriate title. On the other hand, his girl responds actively to the element of water, whereas Matisse simply confronts the woman asleep in the deck-chair with the sea.
Henri Matisse began by studying law, was a student of the Parisian Académie Julian from 1890, and subsequently of the Ecole des Beaux Arts,. Initially he had an affinity to Impressionism, but he turned away from this around 1900, influenced by Cézanne, and then found his way towards the expressionist style typical of him, which made him the outstanding leader of the new force in France, the 'Fauves', literally, 'wild beast.'

Title: Female Nude, ca. 1906-1910 (Detailed View).
Technique: Linocut.
Size: 47.3 x 38.5 cm.

Edward Okun (1872 - 1945)[2]
Edward Okun is a Polish representative of Art Nouveau who is little known. Okun studied in Warsaw, Cracow, Munich and Paris, and lived abroad for a long time, and returned to his home country in 1921, where he was Professor at the School of Art in Warsaw from 1925-1930. The periodical 'Chimera', for which Okun produced the cover, which is illustrated below, was named after the fire-breathing monster from the Greek myth which had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent - a name full of symbolism for a periodical in a country which in those years, struggled against Russia, Germany and Austria for its national independence and achieved this from time to time only in the realm of art.

Cover for the periodical 'Chimera', 1902 (Detailed View).
Technique: Pen and ink.
Size: 22 x 18 cm.

Armand Séguin (1869 - 1903)[2]
Emile Bernard (1868-1941) and Armand Séguin are the most gifted artists in the group from Pont-Aven, which we will encounter on several more occasions in this series. Séguin met van Gogh and Gauguin there too, who were an important influence on his paintings and graphic art. As a consequence of his early death, his oeuvre is not large in terms of number, but it nevertheless contains a powerful message and a high artistic value. The illustrations below are two pieces produced during his second visit to Post-Aven in 1892/93. Both testify to Séguin's introverted nature, about which his painter friends have reported. It finds especially clear expression in the 'Sea Landscape', which wound up on the horizon, towards which three parallel lines lead, so preventing the eyes of the spectator from drifting off into the distance which remains shut off from view. The peaceful horizon stands in stark contrast to the waves of the landscape which is depicted in swirling lines and is reminiscent of paintings by van Gogh. In the 'Avenues of Trees' Séguin's lines tangle themselves in knots even more clearly; the elliptical character of the portal is striking. The tree-tops are joined together in waves, and the silhouette of the avenue resembles waves too, rising slowly and then suddenly collapsing. The influence of Séguin on their graphic portrayal of landscapes by Edvard Munch, who had seen the work of his French colleague in Paris, is unmistakable.

Title: Sea Landscape, 1893 (Detailed View)
Technique: Lithograph.
Size: 22.5 x 30.5 cm.

Title: Anvenue of Trees, 1893 (Detailed View)
Technique: Etching.
Size: 18 x 30 cm.

Franz von Stuck (1863 - 1928)[2]
The rise of Franz von Stuck from being an impoverished son of a village miller to the position of 'painter laureate; sounds like a modern western dream, but it took place in Munich around the turn of the century. Stuck studied at the College of Commercial Art (1882-1884), and from 1885 at the Academy, but his professors must have seen him only very rarely: as he was completely penniless, he had to concentrate on earning a living, which he did by creating a series of humanistic pictures for various magazines in Munich. Taking Boeklin, Lenbach, Holbein, and Dietz as his models, this largely self taught artist managed to be represented at the annual exhibition in Munich in 1889. And thus began a career as a painter, graphic artist, sculptor and architect: in 1893 he co-founded the Munich 'Secession'; from 1895 he was Professor at the Academy there; at the end of the 1890s he had already earned so much money with his work that he could build the famous Stuck villa in Munich, which was his home and studio simultaneously (since 1968 it has served as a Museum of Art Nouveau, and a tourist attraction for those interested in the history of art). In 1906 he was raised to the peerage, hence epithet 'painter laureate'.
His paintings represent without doubt his most impressive work, but we shall concentrate on his Art Nouveau work, which almost exclusively have erotic themes. Stuck's title page for the periodical 'Pan' is much more moderate than his usual style.

Title page for periodical 'Pan', 1895 (Detailed View).
Technique: Autotype.
Size: 31.8 x 22.3 cm.

Reference
[1] J.C. Day, Art Nouveau Cut & Use Stencils, Dover Publications, Inc., New York (1977).

[2] P. Bramböck, Art Nouveau, Tiger Books Internation, London (1988).

The Art of Zandra Rhodes - Part II[1]Wearable Art Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below another post in this series:
The Art of Zandra Rhodes - Part I

Introduction [1]
Zandra Rhodes is first and foremost a textile print designer. Several years of her selling her unique and forward thinking print designs after her graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1964 had mixed results. Her work with fashion designers had led her to believe that most of them were unable to recognise the potential of a print to enhance and enrich a garment. In the main, what they did was merely cut up all the existing fabric.

Zandra Rhodes.

Eventually Rhodes took the leap and created her first collection in 1969. Inspired by cuts and shapes of ethnic clothing, she began the process of developing garments that followed the shape of the textile print itself. An autodidact when it came to fashion design, Rhodes' work was so original precisely because of this. She did not follow the conventions of pattern cutting and dressmaking because she never studied these except at school so Rhodes had a totally different viewpoint when creating fashion design. This allowed for an entirely fresh approach to the construction of clothing. Other fashion designers made patterns to create the silhouette. With Zandra's technique, the cutting of the design out of the printed textile lead to the creation of the shape. Hers is non-constructive clothing, where the print is the dominating factor that dictates the design of the resulting dress.

Zandra and Ben Scholten reviewing a newly printed fabric.

When studying her work of this period, we begin to see the development of Rhodes' hallmark. She has allowed the motifs and inherent shapes of her print design to dictate the silhouettes of her clothing. In this way lines and circles become necklines and sleeves, repeats and edges are cut around to become shaped edges of jackets and dresses. This idea continues to be explored in the collections of the House of Zandra Rhodes, and has been an integral part of her designs over the years.

Backstage. Model Nell Campbell and Leonard of London (1977).

The Art of Zandra Rhodes - Part II

Kaftan, 1970, Style 70/32.

Coat, 1969, Style 223.
Circular coat, combining one-color 'Diamond and Roses' and two color 'Knitted Circle' prints on yellow felt; skirt consists of one large circle; stitched collar with cords and wooden beads.

Jacket 1971, Style 71/23.
'Dinosaur' jacket in yellow wool felt in 'Button Flower' print with appliquéd motifs at neck, with wide zigzag edges as decorative outside seams.

Dress 1969, Style 22.
Dress in quilted yellow satin in 'Knitted Circle' print with front panel sleeves, and bodice in 'Wiggle Square' print.

Kaftans Overview.

One Kaftan (Detail View).
Kaftan, 1970, Style 70/10.
Kaftan in 'Indian Feather Border'; print on red silk chiffon; separable strips of 'Feather Border' hanging from ruched yoke and sleeves gathered horizontally; trimmed with velvet ribbons.

Coat, 1971, Style 71/34.
Coat dress in quilted satin in 'Frilly' and 'Button Flower' print. The pattern is arranged in three rows in the 'Frilly' print. The skirt is made from 13 complete circles. The first consisting of one circle, the second of three circles and the third of nine circles. The sleeves printed with 'Button Flower' print. Plain black satin bodice with appliquéd 'Button Flower' motif.

Indian Sari Collection.

Reference:
G. Monsef, D. Nothdruff and R. de Niet, Zandra Rhodes – A Lifelong Love Affair With Textiles, Zandra Rhodes Publications (2009).

Japanese Dyed TextilesArt EssayMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed other posts on Japanese textiles on this blogspot:
Discharge Thundercloud
The Basic Kimono Pattern
The Kimono and Japanese Textile Designs
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part I)
Textile Dyeing Patterns of Japan
Traditional Japanese Arabesque Patterns (Part II)
Sarasa Arabesque Patterns (Part III)
Contemporary Japanese Textile Creations
Shibori (Tie-Dying)
History of the Kimono
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part I
A Textile Tour of Japan - Part II
The History of the Obi
Japanese Embroidery (Shishu)
Japanese Dyed Textiles
Aizome (Japanese Indigo Dyeing)
Stencil-Dyed Indigo Arabesque Patterns (Part V)
Japanese Paintings on Silk
Tsutsugaki - Freehand Paste-Resist Dyeing
Street Play in Tokyo
Birds and Flowers in Japanese Textile Designs
Japanese Colors and Inks on Paper From the Idemitsu Collection
Yuzen: Multicolored Past-Resist Dyeing - Part 1
Yuzen: Multi-colored Paste-Resist Dyeing - Part II

Japanese Dyed Textiles[1]
In Japan there is no division between fine and decorative arts. Craftsmanship is very highly valued. The hands of many many artists and craftsman are still busily and beautifully decorating textiles in Japan, and dyeing is one of the processes they use most distinctively and creatively.

A dyed and screen printed Japanese textile.

From ancient times, people the world over have been dyeing textiles, and the process ranges from simply rubbing a leaf over woven fibers to the sophisticated techniques of tie-dyeing and yuzen.

Yuzen - Japanese Textile.

Whatever the technique, dyeing has offered nearly unlimited possibilities of self expression and these are marvellously exploited in Japanese textiles.

Different dyeing techniques displayed on cloth wrappers (furoshiki) of silk crepé.

The variety of designs applied to fabrics in Japan is limitless. The names of most colors in Japanese are derived from their dye sources, and the colors themselves were seen as the essence of the 'spirit' within the plant. When transferred to cloth, the spirit in the color would protect the garment's wearer. This belief may have come from the medicinal qualities possessed by many dye plants.

Left: Indigo-dyed Cotton Yukata, Indianapolis Museum (USA).
Right: Shibori Dyed Kosode Kimono, Metropolitan Museum (USA).

As elsewhere in the world, colors also signify social status, and certain colors were assigned to each of the court ranks. The color purple was placed highest because of its rarity, while abundant indigo was the lowest.

Enthronement of the Japanese emperor.
Note the use of purple.

Whatever the color, however, the dyeing process itself is extremely difficult, time-consuming and fraught with possibilities for failure. Even for the experienced professional dyers, the results of the dyeing process remain unpredictable. Unexpected bleeding of the color, miscalculation of dye materials, unfavourable weather conditions and the fact that most errors cannot be corrected once the dye has been applied to the fabric - all plague the dyer, who must be very skilful, experienced, and well-trained to achieve pleasing results.

Dye bled quilt.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, when chemical dyes were invented, dyes were extracted from natural substances. Crushed insects, charcoal soot, and ground minerals were all sources of dyes, but most dyes came from plants. Vegetable dyes combined with mordants such as iron, ash lye, plum vinegar, or alum. These mordants, applied before or after dyeing, fixed the color on the fabric and at the same time controlled the resulting hues. Several colors can be obtained from one dye source depending on the choice of the mordent. Vegetable dyes are still used today, mostly by crafters rather than being the base load for industry.

Making natural dyes with fruits.

One of the most characteristic of Japanese dyes is indigo or ai. Indigo was brought to Japan from China some time before the third century. At first it was applied to the fabric by rubbing the leaves of the mountain indigo, yama ai, over material or by immersing the fabric in a dye solution made by soaking the cut leaves of the plant in water. By the Nara period, yama ai had been replaced by 'buckwheat indigo' or made ai, and the method of fermented dyeing used today had been mastered. From the Edo period, with the widespread cultivation of cotton, indigo-dyed fabric became an important product. Today, the number of traditional dyers has been diminished, but fortunately the interest in natural dyes has not totally disappeared and indigo blue, in all its shades, is still very popular in Japan.

A collection of Kanji Hama’s beautifully hand-patterned and indigo-dyed fabrics along with tools of the craft.
Credit: Photograph by Kyoko Hamada. Styled by Theresa Rivera. Photographer’s assistant: Garrett Milanovich. Styling assistant: Sarice Olson. Indigo pieces courtesy of Kanji Hama.

Another group of coloring agents, pigments, has been used to dye fabrics in Okinawa and as a fill-in color for small motifs on textiles on the mainland. These pigments, organic and inorganic, are combined with liquid soybean extract. They do not penetrate the fabric, but the protein in the soybean liquid hardens, bonding the pigment to the material.

Pigment colored Ryusou kimono, referred to as ‘ushinchi’ in the local language, are easily distinguished from the iconic Japanese kimono in a number of ways. First and foremost, the sleeves of Okinawan kimono are much more open, allowing for a tropical breeze to flow through. Also, the fabric, made from fibers of the native bashofu plant, is much thinner than most mainland kimono.

Representative dyeing processes and techniques have flourished over the years in the Japanese textile history. These include tie-dyeing and paste-resist dyeing, both of which make extensive use of the indigo dye. Below color samples shows the wide range of vegetable dye plalettes that can be produced.

Reference:
[1] S. Yang and R. ZM. Narasin, Textile Art of Japan, Tokyo (1989).

Diversity of African Textiles[1]ArtClothMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Yoruba: Machine-Stitched Resist Indigo-Dyed Cloth
Yoruba and Baulé Warp Ikat

Diversity of African Textiles [1]
African textiles have been the subject of much study over the last few decades. The approaches of investigation have varied from: (i) studying aesthetics of African design; (ii) to framimg them in an anthropological approach; (iii) to responding to the visual stimulus and excitement of their patterns, design and combination of colors; (iv) to uncovering their techniques associated with the making and the decorating of African cloth.

A hint of the diversity of African textiles.

This series on African textiles be will organized on a regional basis; that is, the handmade textiles of West, North, East, Central and Southern Africa.

Hence we shall outline the techniques used to make them, some of which - such as strip weaving and cut-pile raphia embroidery - are virtually unique to the continent.

African textiles: strip weaving (Ghana).

Mid-20th century. Raffia cloth panel flat-weave and cut-pile.
Note: The traditional textile techniques and what ceremonies they were used for, have been maintained in many areas, whilst they have died out in others.

In Africa job demarcation between the sexes is the norm. Usually men dominate the commercial market whereas women dominate the domestic production of textiles. However, there have always been exceptions to this general rule. In more recent times, women in countries such as Nigeria have become commercial weavers on looms hitherto the domain of men.

Strip weaver in the village of Sulgo, Burkina Faso, 2007.
Photograph courtesy of K Ladd.

Ancient Egyptian Women Weaving.

A visit to any African marketplace provides an assault on one's visual senses. Market women dressed in brightly colored machine prints bustle through, carrying baskets of vegetables or bales of cloth. Villagers come to the market wearing either the same colorful garb or more sober handwoven cloth, and very often a mixture of the two.

Typical gathering at a Market place in Africa.

Northern Togo (a country in West Africa).

Africa's people are of varied origin, from Arab and Berber descent in the north, Khoisan speakers and European colonists in the extreme south. There are Nilotic speakers in the north-east, but the vast majority of the population south of the Sahara belong to the Bantu language group.

Language Groups.

Tobr Left: Warrior from Biskra, Algeria.
Top Center: Swahili family group East Africa coast. The women are wearing machine printed kangas in pairs.
Top Right: Warriors adorned with body paint parading before battle, Congo.

All of Africa's population have the same basic clothing needs as the rest of humanity. They need an array of materials to protect themselves against the elements and usually a piece of fabric to cover the genitalia of both sexes in order to ensure modesty in the public arena. Special garments are required for different stages of life such as birth, circumcision, first menstruation, marriage, birth of a child or death.

Hizam bridal girdle, woven on draw looms in Fez, using the highly complex lamps technique.

North Africa is part of the Mediterranean world. Though inhabited for millennia by Berbers, it has been influenced by invasions of the Maghreb by Arabs and Turks. Egypt, which was always the gateway for Asian cultural and religious influences to enter the continent, has experienced the same invasions, but, due to its geographical proximity to Europe, it has adopted Levantine ways. The Maghreb has a great tradition of weaving, with the Berbers and Arabs using horizontal, ground and vertical looms.

Primitive vertical loom for weaving.

Embroidery is used for decoration in those areas because it was subject to Arab, Turkish or European immigration or influence.

Appliqué embroidered Egyptian silk coat, late 1920s.

Historically, North Africa was cut off from the habituated regions to the south by the vast Sahara desert. Though it is inhospitable, it is nevertheless home to nomads like the Tuareg and some groups of Arab pastoralists. Crossed by caravan routes such as those linking Timbuktu in modern Mali to Gabes in Tunisia, North Africa experiences heavy trading in such highly saleable products as precious metals, spices, dyes, salt, leather, ivory, beds and slaves.

Islam came to West and Central Africa, largely by these caravan trade routes. It was brought to East Africa, relatively close to Arabia, by sea, but trade was again the primary force. It was very much to the advantage of the newly arrived Muslim merchants to convert the locals, so that they all would be working with the same code of ethics, a fact that was not lost on Christian missionaries when they arrived in Africa.

Major Trade Routes.

Conversion to Islam or Christianity had a profound effect on the clothing of sub-Saharan Africa. The Muslim faith had strict requirements with respect to the modesty of men and especially, of women. People whose clothing needs in a warm and humid climate had been minimal before the arrival of Islam. Now men wore gown-like shirts, turbans and baggy trousers which still can be seen in modern Nigeria, both in the Muslim north and in the Christian south. Hence, weavers, dyers, tailors and embroiderers were now required.

Nigerian Native Attire Styles for Men.

The influence of the Europeans trading on the west coast from the mid-15th century on, was also of great importance in encouraging the demand for textiles, which was partially satisfied by foreign imports. There was also a market for African woven cloth from a different region, which could be bought from the sea-borne traders.

Prestige cloth consisting of tripod-loom woven cotton strips made for a British official in Sierra Leone.

In many places this demand encouraged the weaving of 'country cloths' in the West African interior. They were taken up to the coast to sell to the Europeans, who would trade them along the coast.

Basket design tie-dyed indigo cotton wrapper from Yorubaland, Nigeria.
Sold as curtain material in Brixton market, London.

Traditionally made textiles have in many parts of Africa been superseded by factory-made cloth, which is often preferred for its brightness of color and ease of washing. It is considered fashionable and modern, and can be tailored easily to create clothes on the Western model.
Nevertheless, there are two main factors in preserving the African handcrafted cloth making tradition. First, it is still considered essential that traditional cloths are worn at change-of-life ceremonies in general and at funerals in particular.

Tanshifa 18th-century Algiers counted thread embroidered scarf with motifs of wild flowers.
Worked in silk on linen.

Woven raphia woman's wrap of the Bunda people, Idiofa region, Congo.

Second, fashion has an important role to play. When textiles such as bogolanfini mud cloths from Mali becomes fashionable in the West, this trend influences the clothing habits of the local élite.

Fine fabrics will continue to be produced by African weavers, dyers and embroiderers as long as there is a local market for them. Although export orders and tourist-orientated production help to keep these craftspeople in work, it is essential, if standards are to be maintained, for there to be a local demand for their products. However, traditional beliefs are still very strong in many places and so it is hoped that traditional textile producers will be kept in work for the foreseeable future.

The two slides below are an arid chest or bed cover embroidered in silk on linen from Chefchaouen, northern Morocco. Both this urban style and examples in more free-form rural design were, by the beginning of the 20th century, but a distant memory in their place of origin.

I hope you will enjoy this series!

Reference
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).