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Everything
from the aesthetic movement to neoclassicism and swedish modern
to minimal and the vienna secession.
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NOTE
:
A period term can be used in reference to items dated to a specific time.
Those items are considered to be 'of the period.'
If
a period is used to reference an item it should actually have been made
during the period indicated. A Victorian vase, for example, should have
been made between 1837 and 1901.
Also,
most periods have recognisable design styles or motifs associated with
them and, an item that clearly exhibits specific design characteristics
reminiscent of a period or style may be described as, 'Victorian / Art
Deco / Art Nouveau Style', but may not date from that particular period.
If
nothing about an item is reminiscent of a particular period, then using
the phrase Victorian / Art Deco or other style, to describe it would be
incorrect.
Aesthetic
Movement
An
English literary and artistic movement of the late 19th century
founded on the ethos of "art for art's sake". The group
was dedicated to the ideal of beauty and rejected the idea that
art should have a social or moral purpose, in contrast to the Arts
and Crafts Movement.
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| Anti-design
movement
A
movement that emerged in Italy during the later 1960s, following
Ettore Sottsass's 1966 exhibition of furniture in Milan. The group
rejected the formalist values of the neomodern design movement in
Italy and sought to renew the cultural and political role of design,
believing that the original aims of Modernism had become no more
than a marketing tool. In contrast to Modernism, the movement was
founded on a belief in the importance of an object's social and
cultural value as well as its aesthetic function. Employing all
the design values rejected by Modernism, it embraced ephemerality,
irony, kitsch, strong colours and distortions of scale to undermine
the purely functional value of an object, and question concepts
of taste, and "good design". Sottsass spearheaded the
activities which were carried out in individual groups; these were
to consolidate as the Memphis group in the 1980s.
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Anti-Modernism
A
movement originating in Italy through the activities of the Italian
"Anti design" movement. By the end of the 1960s it had
become an international concept as increasing numbers of designers
rejected the formalist values of the Modern Movement.
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| Art
Deco
The
term widely used to describe the architectural and decorative arts
style that emerged in France in the 1920s. It took its name from
the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels
Modernes in Paris. Geometric forms and patterns, bright colours,
sharp edges, and the use of expensive materials, such as enamel,
ivory, bronze and polished stone are well known characteristics
of this style, but the use of other materials such as chrome, coloured
glass and Bakelite also enabled Art Deco designs to be made at low
cost.
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Art
Nouveau
A
style of decorative art and architecture popular in Europe in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries which is characterized by stylised
curvilinear designs and organic forms. In Germany the style was
called Jugendstil. Art Nouveau developed along two distinct lines:
the rectilinear style pioneered by C. R. Mackintosh and seen in
the work of the members of the Vienna Secession, and the intricate
curvilinear style of French and Belgian designers, such as Hector
Guimard. Mackintosh's style of Art Nouveau was to influence the
Wiener Werkstatte.
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Arts
and Crafts Movement
An
English aesthetic and social movement of the later 19th century,
led by John Ruskin, William Morris, C. R. Ashbee and others, which
sought to revive the importance of craftsmanship in a time of increasing
mechanization and mass production. The ideal of the movement was
to make well designed and crafted objects available to all people,
but because the objects were made by hand in workshops only wealthy
patrons could afford to buy them. However, the movement did stimulate
a drive for better standards in mass production at the time, while
its belief that good art and design could reform society, and its
practice of rejecting showy decoration to concentrate on the simplicity
of an object was to have a significant influence on exponents of
the Modern Movement, such as the designers associated with the German
Bauhaus. The movement also influenced some 20th Century designers
in Sweden, Finland and Germany to revive their own national styles.
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Baroque
A
term used broadly in art and literature, it primarily refers to
the style of art practised widely in Europe in the 17th and early
18th centuries during the Catholic Counter Reformation. It is a
highly ornate style that in design and architecture is characterized
by a lavish and dynamic use of materials.
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| Bauhaus
A
German school of design founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius,
an architect-designer. The Bauhaus aimed to produce prototype designs
for everyday, mass-produced items. It explored the amnufacturing
processes and new materials of the machine age such as stainless
steel and plastics, and coordinated the skills of architects, engineers,
painters, sculptors and designers. The school was closed by the
Nazis in 1933, but revived in the German city of Ulm after the war
and inspired industrial design in the mid-20thC.
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| Biedermeier
A
style of decorative arts popular in Germany and Austria in the 1820s
to 1840s. Characterized by refined neoclassical shapes, that display
a simplicity of design and clean lines, the style was popular with
the emerging middle class. Austrian exponents of the Modern Movement,
such as the designers associated with the Wiener Werkstatte, were
influenced by Biedermeier designs.
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Celtic
style
The
artistic style of the people of Western Central Europe during the
Iron Age. The highly accomplished metal work and the pottery are
distinctive for their stylised, curvilinear surface decoration.
Celtic motifs, with their curvaceous line patterns and stylised
animal and human forms, were absorbed into English and Irish art,
and were revived at the end of the 19thC by art nouveau artists,
and particularly the glasgow school The style influenced Charles
Rennie Mackintosh and his gang of four in the later 19th century.
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Classical
A
term used broadly to describe a style of architecture, art and design
that is created in, or that follows, the restrained style of classical
antiquity and its adherence to accepted standards of form and craftsmanship.
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Classicism
A
style of architecture, art and design that is modelled on the ideals
and style of the art of ancient Greece and Rome, displaying the
qualities of restraint, harmony, proportion and reason, and adhering
to accepted standards of form and craftsmanship. In the 18th century
the style was interpreted as the movement known as neoclassicism.
The formal values of classicism have remained a constant source
of inspiration for designers, particularly for those of the Modern
Movement.
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Constructivism
A
Russian movement of artists, architects and designers who abandoned
fine art traditions after the 1917 Russian Revolution in order to
create art to serve the new social and political order. The exponents
linked their work with mass production and industry, but although
they designed furnishings and objects their ideas were never put
into mass production. The main artists were Alexander Rodchenko,
EI Lissitzky and Kasimir Malevich. Avoiding the use of traditional
art materials, they strove to make new art works by bringing different
elements together, seen to strong effect in their posters created
out of photomontage. The movement was to have a strong influence
on groups within the Modern Movements, such as De Stiji and the
Bauhaus.
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| Contemporary
style
A
style of modern furniture and furnishings made after World War 2
that was lighter, more expressive and playful than that of the pre-war
Modern Movement, and which reflected the greater optimism of the
time. Characterized by organic shapes and greater use of colour,
the exponents of the style made use of technological advances and
strove to make the designs more democratically accessible, as seen
in the plywood chairs of Charles Eames.
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Cubism
An
artistic movement developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
about 1907, in which the artists rejected traditional techniques
for representing three-dimensional forms on a two dimensional surface,
such as canvas. Instead of using perspective and foreshortening
to represent an object Picasso and Braque depicted many different
aspects of it simultaneously, creating an image of differing planes
that represented the object as seen from a variety of viewpoints.
Cubism greatly influenced the ceramics, wallpapers and textiles
of the art deco movement
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Danish
Modern Movement
A
term used to describe the modern movement as it emerged in Denmark
after 1945, which was developed by designers such as Hans Wegner
and Arne Jacobsen Although the designers adopted many of the ideas
of the German and French Modern Movements, they created works that
were distinctive for their natural finishes and their traditional
references.
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De
Stijl
A
group composed of architects, designers, painters, thinkers and
poets founded in the Netherlands around a magazine of the same name
in 1917. Under the leadership of the painter and architect Theo
van Doesburg, the group aimed to break down the divisions between
fine and applied arts in order to create a pure style of art, design
and architecture that rejected natural forms in favour of abstract
geometric forms.
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Deutscher
Werkbund
An
organization formed in Germany in 1907 to bridge the gap between
industry and design. Composed of manufacturers, architects, designers
and politicians, it campaigned for a style of design that it believed
to be appropriate to the new industrial age, and argued for the
moral and aesthetic importance of design, underlining its belief
that practicality was the basis for expressing contemporary cultural
values. It carried through some of the ideas of Art Nouveau and
applied them to industrial design.
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Eclecticism
A
term used to describe the practice of designers finding and incorporating
ideas and influences from various styles and tastes into their work.
In the 20th century it is a distinctive feature of Postmodernist
design, allowing a freedom that has proved attractive to many designers.
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Empire
style
A
style of decorative arts and dress that emerged in Paris in the
early 1800s, at about the time Napoleon 1 became Emperor, and spread
through Continental Europe. It reflected an interest in ancient,
particularly Egyptian, motifs.
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Functionalism
A
term used broadly to refer to the principle that nothing is included
in a design that does not enhance the object's purpose. The American
architect Louis Sullivan is usually cited as the founder of Functionalism
with his maxim form follows function.
The
movement's ideas were best expressed in the book Ornament and
Crime (1908), by architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933). Functionalism's
impact on industrial design was particularly effected through
the bauhaus school.
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Futurism
An
Italian art movement founded in 1909 by the writer Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti, which aimed to celebrate the machinery, speed and violence
of the modern age. The paintings are characterized by a sense of
movement and abstract, geometric forms. In book design the movement
rejected traditional forms of typography and page design, seeking
to find new forms to reflect their ideals.
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Gothic
A
style of architecture and decorative arts, which developed in France
in the mid-12th century to become the dominant style of Western
Europe until the 16th century. The architecture is characterized
by the use of pointed arches, rib vaults and flying buttresses in
combination, while the decorative arts are distinctive for their
lightness, elaborate forms and intricate surface decoration. It
was a style that linked itself with the principles of Christianity
and retained a strong spiritual content in its many revivals.
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High-Tech
style
A
style of architecture and design that emerged in the 1980s, inspired
by and embracing modern technology. It is characterized by visual
simplicity, elegance and the use of industrial to refer to the development
in the Modern Movement when designers began using new materials,
such as glass, bricks, metals and plastics in favour of traditional
materials; this is sometimes called the "industrial" style.
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Industrial
style
A
term used broadly to refer to the development in the Modern Movement
when designers began using new materials, such as glass, bricks,
metals and plastics in favour of traditional materials. In the 1980s
and 1990s the style was interchangeable with that referred to as
High-Tech.
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Jugendstil
The
name of the German and Scandinavian Art Nouveau movement, which
was characterized by its use of rectilinear forms. The name came
from the Jugend magazine.
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Kitsch
A
term used to describe garish, pretentious or sentimental art and
design. In the 20th century it has been seen to be the opposite
of "good design". Since the 1960s some designers, such
as Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis group, in rejecting the Modern
Movement, have deliberately incorporated kitsch elements into their
work. The use of kitsch became widespread in the popular design
styles of 1970s and 1980s.
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Minimal
A
descriptive term for designs of the Modern Movement that are characterized
by a rejection of ornamentation in favour of simple elemental forms
and structures.
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Modern
Movement
A
general term originally used by the architectural historian Nikolaus
Pevsner in his influential book Pioneers of the Modem the 20th century.
It was originally underpinned by a desire for a design ethos that
reflected ideals of democracy and social reform, and a belief that
the world of art and the manufacturing industry could be reconciled
in order to provide all levels of society with well designed, mass
produced goods. Early groups that were instrumental in the development
of the Modern Movement include the Deutscher Werkbund in Germany
before World War 1, and the De Stijl group in the Netherlands after
1917. These principles were put into practice most notably, and
with the most lasting influence, at the Bauhaus in Germany in the
1920s and early 1930s. The movement rejected the use of historical
styles and unnecessary decoration, instead adhering to the principle
"form follows function". It is more or less interchangeable
with the term "Modernism".
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Neoclassicism
A
style of decorative arts and architecture that originated in the
second half of the 18th century. With its rejection of the earlier
Rococo, it marked a revival of interest in the art and design of
Classical antiquity and the qualities of restraint, harmony, proportion
and reason. It is distinctive for its simple geometric forms, subdued
colours and restrained decoration. The term is sometimes used broadly
to describe designs that are created in, or that follow, this style.
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Neofunctionalism
A
design style of the post World War 2 period the ethos of which emphasised
geometrical simplicity and the removal of unnecessary detail. As
expressed through the work of Hans Gugelot it was to lead on to
a new visual minimalism in design. Its proponents claimed it to
be styleless or beyond style.
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Neo-Liberty
An
Italian style of design that emerged in the late 1950s with the
aim of reviving Italian Art Nouveau. Through designing furnishings,
lighting and interior design, exponents of the style such as Carlo
Mollino sought to apply Art Nouveau to mass produced objects and
at the same time reintroduce a craft tradition to undercut the machine
aesthetic of the Modern Movement.
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| Neomodernism
An
Italian design movement that emerged in the 1950s.Inspired by 1930s
Rationalism, it is characterized by minimal forms, but, unlike its
predecessor, it was also characterized by a new alliance with the
world of contemporary fine art, organic sculpture in particular.
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Novecento
movement
A
movement founded in Italy in the late 1920s which is characterized
by a simplified neoclassical style of design. Although it was influenced
by the decorative arts of France and Austria, it produced designs
that were more overtly nationalistic than those of its contemporary
architectural movement Rationalism. The movement superseded Rationalism
as the architectural style favoured by the Italian Fascists.
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Op
Art
A
style of abstract art of the 1960s. Through a variety of patterns
it exploits optical effects to create illusions of movement and
vibration. Leading exponents of the style were Bridget Riley and
Victor Vasarely. The style found its way into 1960s interior, fashion
and graphic design.
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Pop
An
art and design movement that developed during the 1960s responding
to the general level of economic and technological optimism and
finding inspiration in mass consumerism and popular culture. Rejecting
Modernism, it sought to express the democratic spirit of the age,
replacing Modernist values with its own aspirations of fun, change,
variety, irreverence, and disposability.
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Pre-Raphaelites
A
group of English artists and writers founded in 1848, who were united
by their dislike of the academic and neoclassical art of the early
19th century. They sought to return to the values of Gothic and
Early Renaissance painting. William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
and John Everett Millais were the chief painters in the group. They
often painted biblical and literary subjects, and their style was
characterized by strong colours and minute attention to detail.
Although the original group began to disband in the 1850s, the name
continued to be applied to the later pictures of Rossetti and the
work of Edward Burne Jones and William Morris, who used scenes from
medieval romances in his furniture designs. As a result the name
became associated with a kind of romantic escapism.
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Purism
An
artistic movement of the early 20th century, founded by Le Corbusier
and the painter Amedee Ozenfant. Arising out of a rejection of Cubism,
it drew inspiration from the mathematical precision of machinery.
It emphasized the purity of geometric form and marked a return to
the representation of recognizable objects.
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Rationalism
The
name of the Italian Modern Movement that emerged in 1926 in the
work of a group of architects known as the "Group of Seven"
and became popular in the 1930s. Influenced by Modernists in Germany
and France it sought to make the most economic use of materials
and space. For a short period the work of the movement reflected
the revolutionary and socialist aims of the early Italian Fascist
party, but it was to prove too radical and international in character,
and was superseded by "Novecento". Rationalism was to
influence Italian design in the years immediately following 1945.
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Retro
A
term used to describe designs that imitate or adopt characteristics
of earlier styles, as seen in the Sharp "QT50' radio cassette
player of 1986.
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Rococo
A
style of architecture and design that flourished in France, southern
Germany and Austria in the first half of the 18th century, which
is characterized by light colours, scroll work, shell motifs and
a sense of playfulness. It was to influence the French Art Nouveau
movement. |
| Secession
The
name taken by several groups of artists in Germany and Austria who
broke away from the official academies in the 1890s to pursue their
own artistic aims and organize their own exhibitions. The first
Secession was in Munich in 1892. This was followed by the Vienna
Secession in 1897, and by the Berlin Secession in 1899.
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Space-age
A
style that draws its inspiration from the field of space exploration.
It was a popular style in fashion, furniture and interior design
in the 1960s.
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Streamform
A
decorative style used by American designers in the 1930s and 1940s.
As for streamlining, streamform objects have an aerodynamic appearance,
whatever their function: they tend to be shaped into a teardrop
form and to have chrome highlight decoration. It was visible in
architecture, the decorative arts and products.
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Streamlining
A
form of styling that emerged in the 1930s, through the work of American
designers such as Raymond Loewy. It was used to make objects vehicles,
household appliances and electrical equipment appear unified and
modern and to increase their consumer appeal. Streamlined objects
are often characterized by an aerodynamic appearance, with blunt,
rounded and smoothly finished forms, and chrome highlight decoration.
The style remained popular through to the 1950s. Since this time
streamlining has sometimes been used to design vehicles that create
the least resistance to motion, as seen in the British 125 high
speed train designed by Kenneth Grange.
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Swedish
Modern
A
tradition based yet essentially modern style, it is characterized
by the use of natural materials in preference to those such as tubular
steel, a material synonymous with the Modern Movement. The objects
were well designed, inexpensive to manufacture and affordable for
most people. This style dominated international taste in domestic
interior design after World War 2.
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Vienna
Secession
A
group of painters, architects and designers in Vienna, headed by
Gustav Klimt, and including Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria 0Ibrich,
who broke away from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1897 to organize
their own avant-garde exhibitions. They aimed to break down the
divisions between architecture and the fine and decorative arts. |
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