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Jugendstil, Art Nouveau, or the Age of Doodlingby Traute Klein, AKA biogardener
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f you are not one yourself, then you probably know one and have watched designs appearing out of nowhere.
ow about the child who insists on covering every blank piece of paper with designs? As long as a he has a pencil in his hand, he is happy and relaxed. Take his pencil away and he will become fidgety and be unable to concentrate. If he is fortunate, he has teachers who will encourage his artistic talents, and his doodling will blossom into some form of art or craft.
oodling develops a sense of design, and doodlers make the greatest craftsmen. European craftsmen reached the height of recognition in their crafts near the end of the 19th century. The style which evolved at that time shows the ultimate result of doodles, a flowing stylised depiction of the world in a pleasing presentation. It has remained popular to this day.
sually, art styles are associated with wellknown names of the artists of the period. The same cannot be said for this turn of the century period, because the doodling style was not developed in a gallery or in some famous architectural movement. It evolved in the workshops of craftsmen who practiced the art of the common people for the common people. There is no one name which characterizes this art style, because it is a universal expression of folk art. This folkart started in many countries independently but concurrently, and every country found a name for the artform in her own language.
ooking at the names which the turn of the century art style received in various countries, we find a wide variety, and all of them came about in different ways. In Germany, a Munich magazine, "Münchner Jugend" (Munich Youth), was richly illustrated with this doodling style. It was therefore nicknamed "Jugendstil" (Youth Style), and the name has stuck. In France, the style was simply described as "Art Nouveau" (New Art), because, like every other style, that is exactly what it was, "new." Similarly, it is called modernismo in Spain.
he British Isles gave several names to the movement. The English called it "Victory Style" and the Scottish called it "Edinborough Style" after the city in which it was first recognized.
uropean countries not mentioned above either developed similarly divergent names or borrowed the names from their neighbors.
hat about the United States? There it simply became known by the media which bore its decorations, the "Arts and Crafts movement." In Canada, this style is quite evident in the commercial art which was done by some of the members of the "Group of Seven."
ome of this art has become wellknown in North America and is fetching high prices in the antique market. The best known is probably the work done in glass, for example Tiffany. It is as pleasing to the eye today as it was a hundred years ago. The doodles of the craftsmen still charm us.
ollow your dream. Allow yourself to indulge in a pursuit you wish you had followed when you were a child. It is never too late to develop a hidden talent. Have the courage to find out what you can do. You may not want to doodle in public as I do, but there is no need to be shy about what you allow your pencil to do while you are listening to a boring telephone call. You might even enjoy the call more when you are concentrating on something enjoyable like doodling. Pretty soon you will want to keep a larger pad of paper by the telephone, and, who knows, you may even surprise people by doodling your way through the next sermon or business meeting which seems to drag on endlessly. :-)
