History Of Graphic Design
Posted on November 15th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Posted in Art Noveau
If you’ve ever been to Paris, and even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar withat least some of the work of one of the most prominent representative’s of the French Art Nouveau movement, Hector Guimard. Guimard was an architect who lived from 1867 to 1942. During his lifetime he was not widely heralded. It’s only in the time after his death that many have come to realize the value of his work.
Guimard designed the Castel Beranger in 1898 (pictured on the left) and it made him famous. Some of his contemporaries called it “deranged” though today it is considered by many to be his masterpiece. The building was a crazy mix of different styles. But, it brought him many new commissions including the Hotel Guimard which was built in 1909 (which was a wedding present to his wife). He worked in the Art Noveau style (especially interested in its ideal of harmony and continuity) and he even began to take over the interior decoration of the buildings he designed.
Guimard is credited with undertaking astonishing and unique experiments with space and volume as well as radical demonstrations of what some called asymmetrical “free plan.” His art objects (including sketches, vases and other items) have the same formal continuity as his buildings.
One of his biggest successes was the famous entrances to the Paris Metro he designed based on the ornamented structures of Viollet-le-Duc, an earlier French architect who worked in a very “gothic” style. The image on the right is of the Porte Dauphine station, the only surviving enclosed design of his for the Paris Metro.
Despite his many talents and innovations Guimard fell out of favor with the press and the public. When he died in 1942 he had been completely forgotten. Many of his buildings were destroyed after his death, the in the 1960s his work began to be rediscovered. Today many scholars have reconstructed his career and he continues to be the subject of much interest and research.
Posted by Steve
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