Oxford University

Art Nouveau across Europe

From Paris to Moscow and from Glasgow to Barcelona, this course examines the richness and variety of European Art Nouveau.
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Length 1 to 3 months
Effort 10 hours per week
Price £ 280 - £ 300
Subject Art, Design
Level Intermediate
Languages English
Video Transcripts None
The years around 1900 were marked by an explosion of creativity as a new generation of artists and designers sought to invent a new style to suit a new century.From Paris to Moscow and from Glasgow to Barcelona, this course examines the richness and variety of European Art Nouveau. The years around 1900 were marked by an explosion of creativity as a new generation of artists and designers sought to invent a new style to suit a new century.

The appearance of this style differed hugely from city to city and from artist to artist, but shared a commitment to a varied and often contradictory set of principles. The creators of Art Nouveau looked simultaneously to the past and the future, to art for the people and art for art's sake, to social reform and luxurious decadence, to the national and the international. They sought both to change the world and to escape it. On this course we will explore the complex impulses, anxieties and hopes for the future that shaped the visual arts around 1900.

What you'll learn

By the end of this course:

  • Students should have gained familiarity with the general trajectory of evolving ideas and forms in art, design and architecture in Europe around 1900.

  • Students should understand how an art work or design can reflect the ideas and aspirations of an artist, a patron and the society for which it was produced.

  • Students should have developed a detailed understanding of selected national case studies or design fields based on their areas of interest.

By the end of this course students will be expected to have gained the following skills:

  • Visual analysis skills – looking at art and design and making connections to ideas raised in course material and readings.

  • Research skills – reading analytically and evaluating text and online learning material.

  • Self-expression of ideas through writing and discussion.

Course syllabus

Unit 1: Origins of Art Nouveau: Design Reform and Arts and Crafts
Unit 2: Brussels and the birth of Art Nouveau
Unit 3: The Art Nouveau city: Paris and Vienna

Unit 4: Art Nouveau: Entrepreneurs and the retail environment

Unit 5: Symbolism: Art Nouveau and fine art

Unit 6: The search for a national style: Russia and Poland

Unit 7: Art Nouveau Graphic Art: Posters and Magazines

Unit 8: The Art Nouveau object

Unit 9: The home as a work of art

Unit 10: The Strange Death of Art Nouveau

Meet the instructors

Mr Gordon Reavley
Gordon Reavley teaches topics in Art History and Visual and Material Culture for Oxford University's Dept of Continuing Education (OUDCE), and Critical Theory for the University of Nottingham. He has been widely published on American social and cultural history and on the history and theory of art and design.