CHAPTER IX

NEW STYLES APPLIED TO FAMILIAR USES, AND OLD STYLES APPLIED TO NEW USES. "L'ART NOUVEAU," THE "SECESSIONISTS" AND "MODERNISTS." THE CITY HOUSE, THE OFFICE BUILDING, THE LOFT BUILDING, THE MODERN HOTEL, THE APARTMENT HOUSE AND THE GREAT RAILROAD TERMINAL

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study of stylistic expressions in architecture would be complete without some acquaintance with certain schools of design which exist outside the pale of the historic periods. It is the purpose of this chapter, therefore, to discuss certain "new" styles, and certain new applications of old styles which have been added to the history of architectural development in modern times.

One of the first secessions from historic precedent in design appeared about 1896 in the form of a movement which was known as "L'Art Nouveau." This new art, originating, as its name would indicate, in France, threw design in general into convulsions which, at the time, seemed likely to entirely transform all previous ideas of Classic or academic design in architecture and furniture. L'Art Nouveau, furthermore, assumed, temporarily, an absolute dominance of feeling in the design of jewellry, ceramics, bookbinding and other crafts, as well as in the graphic arts.

The style, however, could not last beyond the first bloom of its novelty, because it was illogical and basically unsound. It sought to mould form to accommodate decoration, instead of accommodating decoration to form. In two respects, it was a highly naturalistic sort of art, employing as motifs plant forms, and render

ing these in a naturalistic manner. "L'Art Nouveau' was a style of flowing and sinuous lines, often graceful, but too frequently bizarre and "forced," and although naturalistic, it was also highly artificial, in that the natural forms employed were forced into illogical uses.

It is true that no previous school of design had produced works in any way similar to the creations of the "art nouveau" enthusiasts, even though there might be traced an accidental similarity in some free Gothic renderings of leaves or fruit. The style reached its height in France and found its most ready outside acceptance in Belgium, being too "French" for the Germans and too "emotional" for the English. It was copied, in America, solely by reason of its novelty, and without any understanding whatever of the intention of its French creators.

As a style, "L'Art Nouveau" comes to us to-day sometimes as a sort of joke, and nearly always as a misguided and ephemeral fantasy. This, perhaps, is not altogether fair, because, with all its faults, "L'Art Nouveau" had some occasional flashes of real inspiration. If it had done nothing more, it awakened an appreciation of graceful form, and of the inexhaustible possibilities of deriving decorative motifs from plant forms. One of the illustrations shows a Parisian shop front-the style, perhaps, exemplified at its best, for of all buildings, a hat shop, or a candy shop, or a small theatre, may permissably indulge in architectural frivolity. One cannot imagine a courthouse or a post-office designed along "art nouveau" lines, but one can readily think of instances in which the style might be acceptable and pleasing. To-day, however, it is to all intents and purposes a "dead" style, excepting in the imprint which it left on the previously Classic archi

tecture of the Beaux Arts, For it was from the brief but intense enthusiasm over the "new art" that French architects received the idea of rendering in a naturalistic vein much of their ornamental detail, as well as their tendency to give many architectural forms a certain sinuosity and often a certain frivolity.

As early as 1870 a few restless Austrian designers were experimenting in strange furniture and architecture dangerously like that of the "art nouveau. Gradually, however, their efforts began to take a definite form, and in the late '90's the "Viennese Secession" became an actual school of design-the forerunner of the "Modernist" school of to-day. The secessionists, as their name would imply, rebelled against what they regarded as the slavish copying of archæological forms, and sought new means of expression. Their art, perhaps, might be considered to some extent as a creed, or a declaration.

While it was a creed based on simplicity, it was a weird and strange kind of simplicity, very unlike that of William Morris, and very difficult to compare with any other art movement of any other land or period. The secessionists were as nearly "original" as it is possible to be, and their works suggest but remotely certain elusive elements of things Japanese and Egyptian. Secessionist architecture is a very different kind from "art nouveau" architecture; in the first, decoration is regarded as an accessory to design as a whole, while in the second, the whole design was regarded (quite illogically) as subordinate to its decoration. Radical as much secessionist work may seem, it is, in reality, distinctly conservative, for decoration is used both sparingly and cleverly, with due appreciation of the fact that its value is most emphatic when it is made