Featured Artists
Paul Hankar (Frameries, 1859 – Brussels, 1901) was one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau in Belgium. He held the belief that architecture constituted a synthesis of various means of expression and embraced the building, the interior decoration and the furniture. Decoration in Hankar’s work shows a definite link between construction and adornment: the decoration displays and, as it were, accentuates the various elements of the structure. A pronounced sobriety of line predominates – undeniably attributed to the manifest Japanese influence. Although it is a fact that Hankar had never been in Japan, he had undoubtedly acquainted himself via publications and Japanese objects with the rationalism of Japanese art. The functional and constructive logic in his work were pioneering efforts in Art Nouveau, which soon swept through the rest of Europe.
Architect Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (Liège, 1858-1910) has the distinction of being the first to bring both the artists and the general public into contact with the English Arts and Crafts Movement. His own work (especially the furniture) reveals a lively, constructive and architectural mind: balanced composition, harmonious proportions and equilibrated volumes. Here the intense integration of the decoration in the construction of the work as adopted by Van de Velde is not to be discerned. After 1901, Serrurier-Bovy’s work, under the influence of C.R. Mackintosh and the Vienna School, became still more constructive and free from decoration.
The work of Vic
tor Horta (Ghent, 1861 – Brussels,1947) is characterized, despite a marked predilection for decoration, by a fair degree of constructive cohesion. For Horta architecture was the most important goal, and accordingly he adopted, like his fellow-campaigners, an anti-historicizing and anti-eclectic approach. This involved the shunning of all elements which do not harmonize with nature. One of the major characteristics of Horta’s architecture is the spaciousness of the composition. The same is to be found in the furniture, which contributed a great deal to the spatial unity of his work.
The Art Nouveau oeuvre of Henry van de Velde (Antwerp, 1863 - Zürich, 1957) is characterized by an interplay of active dynamic lines. This serves to create a harmony between the constructive idea and the ornament. The ornament is not a décor in itself but performs an almost didactic duty as a functional element in space. In Van de Velde’s work there is a distinct reconciliation between functionalism and logical design, which sets him far apart from the floral symbolism of, for instance, the Nancy School.
Philippe Wolfers (Brussels, 1858-1929) started as a designer-silversmith in the workshop of his father Louis in 1874, which he took over with his two borthers in 1897. In the 1890s, in addition to earlier Japanese influences, nature became a significant component of Philippe’s repertoire: numerous studies of fauna and flora formed the precursors of the later Art Nouveau creations. Between 1897 and 1905, no fewer than 136 Art Nouveau works left his workshop. The success of these “pièces uniques” may be judged from the fact that of the 109 jewels, 17 vases in crystal or ivory and 10 articles of silverware with enamelling and precious stones, as many as 131 items were marked “Sold” in his painstakingly updated “Catalogue des Exemplaires uniques”. Since 1902 Philippe Wolfers had been gradually transforming the language of the Art Nouveau into a symmetrically and geometrically stylized composition; from 1905, he abandoned the Art Nouveau style, choosing to focus instead on his work as a sculptor, working in bronze, ivory and marble. After World War I he became the leading figure in the Belgian Art Deco scene.
Originally an impressionist painter, Alfred William Finch (Brussels, 1854 – Helsinki, 1930) turned to ceramics around 1890. He used the pointillistic ideas on colour in his experiments with earthenware and glazing. Wanting to free himself from commercial restraints, he worked for some time in the basement of Henry Van de Velde’s villa “Bloemenwerf”, until in 1896 he was able to open his own workshop in Forges-Chimay. The main production consisted of vases and dishes with rich shades of yellow, brown, red and deep black. In 1897 Finch moved to Finland, encouraged by Count Louis Sparre, where he led the ceramics department of the Iris factory. He became a teacher at the Helsinki School of Handicraft in 1902, strongly influencing future generations of Finnish ceramists.
