Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Nouveau Railing


Balcony Railing, 1907-1912
Hector Guimard
patinated cast-iron
35.5 x 64 x 7 in.

I'm currently working through the Toledo Treasures catalog of art for my museum to become more familiar with the collection. While I won't be sharing specific works from the TMA's collection I am using it for inspiration and plan on sharing many artists new to me.

TMA has an amazing fireplace mantel that I can't help but fawn over whenever I wal
k through the gallery it lives in. I hadn't until now made a point in noting the artist. Hector Guimard is most well known for his Paris Metro cast-iron subway entrances (image: parisbuscards.com )

Guimard was part of the Art Nouveau movement whose aesthetic revolved around undulating lines and flower motifs. The decorative style was popular at the turn of the century. Guimard brought more of an element of abstraction to his art nouveau works.






2 comments:

Karolyn said...

This piece is beautiful (and it made me nostalgic for Paris even before I mentally made the connection to the Metro entryways).

A.L. said...

we have one of the metro entrances at our museum here too... It is an entrance to nowhere but pretty cool in front of the museum...