Gallé, Daum, Lalique… THE POETS OF GLASS

22 January 2014 – 15 June 2014

Art Nouveau, rooted in the Arts & Crafts movement centered in Britain, was a decorative art movement that impacted Europe in the beginning of the 20th century. Art Nouveau was grounded on progressive form and thought, especially in the fields of architecture and decoration, serving to make more creative and high-quality pieces of furniture, objects, and glass, of high functionality. It has been considered as an art movement that employed botanical knowledge in addition to aesthetically decorative ornaments.

Floral motifs and figurative ornaments, frequently used in façades and doors, were also employed in designs of textile, furniture, and jewelry. Firms and designers who were recognized as pioneers of this movement quickly became famous. Émile Gallé, Daum Brothers, and René Lalique were appreciated in Europe, while Tiffany was popular in the United States with design objects and the art of furniture. Vases, lamps, tables, glass panes, car mascots, jewelry and even perfume bottles were foregrounded as products that were enriched by creativity.

Émile Gallé, a French designer who was a pioneer and an important representative of the Art Nouveau movement, received an education of philosophy, literature, and botanics. The artist, who was working in the fields of glass art and furniture design, researched techniques of glass decoration and was a pioneer in new era glass art. Gallé, Daum, and Lalique glasses are outstanding products that reflect the spirit of this era. After the 1920s, there was a transition to Art Deco with a cubist influence, mysterious and ambiguous, to a style with sharp lines and geometry.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the integration of personal creativity with the possibilities offered by science and technology, enabled the production of beautiful objects that made people happy, by expert artists and craftsmen. Production in the studio of the “one and only” was followed by a time period that moved towards serial production. This process resulted in the absolute victory of industrial production today. Art Nouveau and Art Deco objects, which were products of special and extraordinary design, have been receiving increased attention and demand.

With this exhibition of 160 works, you will get an idea of the progressive sensibility in the glass art of Emile Gallé, who was an important representative of decorative arts. You will also have a chance to see various examples of the works by Daum Brothers, who were important representatives of École de Nancy, and by René Lalique, famous designer.