Newsletter

New Nouveau: Turn of the Century Wonders


Christian Maycheck
Christian Maycheck’s piece, seen at Pulse Art Fair last weekend.

Artist Scott Waterman, one of my flickr buddies, put a one-word comment on my picture of Christian Maycheck‘s blobosaurus–“nouveau.” I totally didn’t get what he meant so I answered something non-sequitor-like back, and Scott, sensing my lack of “getting it” clarified. He was calling Maycheck’s piece something from the Art Nouveau tradition of opulently corpulent renderings of drapery with arabesque curlicues gone wild. Well I think that is pretty interesting–and right on the money. Check out Scott’s discussion of his own Nouveau awakening on this flickr page and follow the links for a discussion of Art Nouveau at Wikipedia.

Poster by Alfons Mucha
Alfons Mucha poster

Scott mentions Aubrey Beardsley‘s Peacock Skirt as a point of comparison. I think that Alfons Mucha‘s poster is good, too.

Hunter Stabler
Hunter Stabler, who hand-cuts paper arabesques and whirligigs into his haunting, dark works.

I’m rethinking my take on Hunter Stabler and think he fits into this New Nouveau category as well.

And, of course, Scott Waterman!

Scott Waterman
Scott Waterman, Mirror. watercolor, charcoal. This is atypical work. Check Scott’s flickr sets to see his generally looser, more surreal and arabesque-ful works.

Any other New Nouveau artists anybody can think of?

sponsored
sponsored