| Popis: |
The years previous to WWI were a time of crisis for the Flemish artist, architect and designer Henry van de Velde: as one of the founding fathers of Art Nouveau he noticed that its time had passed. His search for alternatives included regionalism, cyclopean classicism or retreat into neo-rococo aestheticism – all of which were not satisfactory and far away form his avant-gardism of around 1900. In addition he felt isolated in the provincialism of Weimar, ridden by sorrows over his underfinanced School of Applied Arts, offended by intrigues at the Grand-Ducal court, and disillusioned by the growing chauvinism. Yet with the Theater for the first Werkbund exhibition in Cologne 1914 he demonstrated his ability to combine functional considerations and new technologies with plastic organic form and merge them into a synthesis of the arts. And despite of what has been written by modernist protagonists about the Werkbund debate with Muthesius, he achieved a considerable point win within the institution. But all of his hopes for rejuvenation were shattered with the outbreak of WWI in August 1914. |
