Live Lectures for January- February 2024

Paris

Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modernism

The spotlight falls on Paris in 2024 with the Olympics imminent.  This is far from the first time that Paris has been the centre of attention. Taking on the staging of the International Exhibitions, pioneered in London in 1851, Paris built its reputation as the leading player in art and design innovation. Held every 11 years, the legacy of the 1889 exhibition still dominates the Parisian skyline: the wonderful Eiffel tower.  Attracting some 50 million visitors, more visitors than any other World’s Fair, the legacy of Paris 1900 can be seen in the Petit Palais, now the City of Paris Museum and the Grand Palais, which following a total restoration, will be used for the Olympics. A technological marvel, with 6,000 tonnes of steel used to build the glass vaulted nave, the Grand Palais will be the jewel in the crown.

The legacy of Paris 1900, the Pont Alexandre III and the Grand Palais

You are likely to travel to the Gand Palais by the Paris Métro, another technological marvel completed in July 1900. What makes the Métro unique are its entrances created by the Art Nouveau master Hector Guimard. Remarkably eighty-six have survived. Using cast iron, glass and ceramic panels, the lamps, orange globes hanging from sinuous plant-like stalks, created a distinct identity quickly dubbed style Métro. All the components were standardised, including the railing cartouches which incorporate the letter M for Métro.

This was not the first time Guimard has stunned Parisians with his audaciously curvilinear, ‘whiplash’, style. For the capricious Castel Beranger apartment block (1895-98), his masterwork on the rue de la Fontaine, Guimard applied organic linearity with fervour. The whiplash is seen at its most extreme in the metalwork of the entrance lobby. The 16th arrondissement, along therue Jean de La Fontaine and rue Mozart, remains an enclave of Style Guimard.

The First World War marks the close of the Art Nouveau era. Its successor, Art Deco was born at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Paris 1925. Attempting to keep its cutting-edge reputation, the French government showcased the new moderne style of architecture and interior design: furniture, glass, ceramics, and jewellery. Glass maker Rene Lalique sold the show with his amazing fountain Source de la France, celebrating the many rivers of France. With the jets of water arching to the sides, Source de la France inspired the motif the ‘Frozen Fountain’. However, amongst all the designer names and luxury products was an exhibit that really shocked the visitors, Le Corbusier’s starkly Modern, Pavilion de l‘Esprit Nouveau, heralded as ‘a machine to live in’.

Over three lectures I will illustrate the evolution of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modernism across Paris, from the Metro to the Musée des années 30, Boulogne-Billancourt, which, boasting some 800 sculptures, 2,000 paintings as well as furniture, ceramics, and architectural models of the 1930s, deserves to be better known!

Art Nouveau Paris

To be given on Wednesday 31st January 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

Although Style Guimard dominated, there were many other architects and designers who changed the face of Paris at the close of the 19th century. In a bid to attract clients, many department stores and restaurants opted for opulent and audacious facades and interiors. Amazingly several restaurants have survived two World Wars: Bouillon Julien, Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse, and Brasserie Mollard opposite the Gare Saint-Lazare train station. The Bouillons offer a set menu, making them both beautiful and affordable.

Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse

Bouillon Julien

The owners of La Samaritaine’s, Ernest Cognacq and Marie-Louise Jaÿ, hired Frantz Jourdain to upgrade their department store. The flamboyant exterior decoration was devised by his son, decorator Francis Jourdain, painter Eugène Grasset, metalworker Edouard Schenck and ceramist Alexandre Bigot. Standing empty for over ten years, La Samaritaine’s reopened in 2021, having been completely renovated by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The Peacock Gallery is truly awesome! Enjoy this virtual walk around Paris and its museums, discovering the best of Art Nouveau.

Art Deco Paris

To be given on Wednesday 7^th February 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

Perhaps the most recognisable style, with its mechanical geometric forms and bold colours, Art Deco triumphed at Paris 1925, a thoroughly French affair.  Showcasing high fashion, the Pavilion of Elegance was dominated by famous couturiers Jeanne Lavin and the Callot Sisters, the fantastic interiors created by Armand-Albert Rateau. The great Parisian department stores, Galeries Lafayette, Primtemps, and Magasins du Louvre, built pavilions on the Grand Esplanade to entice their customers.

The transatlantic ocean liner SS Normandie inspired the Paquebot, or Ocean Liner style, as seen in Pierre Patout’s apartment block (1934-35), 3 boulevard Victor, 15th arrondissement and Georges-Henri Pingusson’s, apartment block (1936), 5 rue Denfert-Rochereau, Boulogne-Billancourt.

While the Decorative Arts Museum holds a stellar collection, one should overlook the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, housed in the Palais de Tokyo, built for Paris 1937, or the Musée des années 30.

Modernism

To be given on Wednesday 14th February 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

In 1929 the Moderne movement in France was split asunder by the breakaway of the Union des Artistes Moderne (UAM) from the more traditional Société des Artistes Decorateurs (SAD). The new group advocated functional architecture and furniture, mass production rather than luxury handmade products, simpler and cheaper materials and a little or no decoration at all. Membership included René Herbst and Robert Mallet-Stevens, its first president, who had been prominent contributor to Paris 1925. Architect/designers Le Corbusier, Pierre Chareau, and Eileen Gray also promoted these modernist ideals, shaped by the ethos of the German Bauhaus. Mallet-Stevens’s Paris houses, on what is now Rue Mallet-Stevens, in the 14th arrondissement (1927–29), illustrate the new aesthetics as does the Villa Roche (1923-25), now the Fondation Le Corbusier. However, what really sounded the dead knell for luxurious Art Deco was the global economic depression that followed the Wall Street Crash in 1929.

Please join me to travel virtually from Art Nouveau to Modernism and explore the architecture and collections of Paris.

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 31st January 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

Wednesday 7th February 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

Wednesday 14th February 2024 at 11am and repeated at 7pm BST

How to book

You can book this live lecture for either the morning or the evening presentation.

Please state your preferred time, Morning Lecture or Evening Lecture, for the zoom link as they different codes.

Once you register and pay, you will be sent a separate email with your link. You will need this link to access the lecture on the day so please do not delete it.

As the lectures will be delivered live by Zoom, you will be able to ask your questions in person at the end. You can also use the ‘Chat’ function.

After the lecture you will be sent another private link so you can access the lecture on my YouTube Channel.

To book your place please email Susan Branfield at  susanbranfield77@gmail.com

You can pay by cheque or BACS (details will be supplied). Cheques should be made payable to ‘Anne Anderson’.

Or you can pay by PayPal