Waldflechte (Forest Lichens), Karl Kröner

Archive Label 2003: The art nouveau movement in Germany was known as Jugendstil (Youth Style). The graceful curvilinear arabesques in the designs of Waldflechte could be a primer on art nouveau. They show how an organic form, like the forest lichens in the upper left, can inspire design. Belgian Victor Horta (1861-1947) spearheaded the art nouveau movement. Its focus on the beauty of organic forms was an effort to be modern without submitting to encroaching industrialism. Archive Label: In an effort to revitalize the arts, especially the decorative arts, art dealers, critics, and artists declared nature the source for artistic rejuvenation. Nature was the artist’s inspiration both in the rococo of the eighteenth century and in the art of Japan. Both were frequently invoked as models for the contemporary artist. Plants and flowers, both described literally and abstracted, were a basis for art nouveau design and embellished everything from table settings to architecture. The manner in which artists stylized nature into art nouveau patterns is evident in Karl Kröner’s Waldflechte, probably a student exercise in design. Nature’s abstract dynamism can be found in the decoration of a coffee service, a table cover, a decorative panel for a department store baluster, and even in Henry van de Velde’s advertisement for the nourishing food, Tropon-Eiweiss Nahrung.