The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture will host the UK's Premier of the Art Nouveau exhibition, taking place 16 October – 24 December, 2015.

“The Nature of Art Nouveau” explores nature’s temple, as celebrated by Charles Baudelaire; a world incorporating symbols, scientific discoveries, new technologies such as the microscope/camera and influences from faraway lands. This exhibition features a number of artefacts from ‘Glasgow Style’ designers and architects, including Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Ian Elder, The Lighthouse said: “The Lighthouse joined the Réseau Art Nouveau Network (RANN) two years ago, recognising the link between Art Nouveau and Mackintosh.

“Mackintosh was the main ‘representative’ of Art Nouveau in the UK. Art Nouveau in Glasgow, known as Glasgow Style, is the paradigm of the meaning of class that this new style adopted in the context of a major industrial metropolis. Glasgow in the 1890s was a financially rich city but one that had many social problems.”

At the end of the 19th century, a far-reaching movement, which brought about an artistic regeneration, emerged in Europe, with Nature as its chief source of inspiration. From Barcelona to Helsinki and from Glasgow to Nancy, nature shaped this new aesthetic and gave life to forms, which revolutionised lifestyles, as science and art were united in the drive for modernity.

Conceived by the Catalan art historian Teresa-M. Sala, The Nature of Art Nouveau is an exhibition commissioned by the RANN based on encyclopaedic information and individual experimentation. Using photographs and documents, together with a dynamic scenography created by Antoni Garau, it offers a concise view of Art Nouveau yet also aims to bring vividly to life the “perfumes, sounds and hues”of the natural world.

Anne-Lise Alleaume, RANN, said of the exhibition: “The goal of the exhibition is to draw visitors into an original discovery of Art Nouveau and its relation with nature, showing the evolution of artistic work from the idea to final products in Art Nouveau style, thanks to a richly documented iconography. The exhibition gives the general public and Art Nouveau lovers the opportunity to understand the role of nature in art, especially during the Art Nouveau period.”

The Lighthouse (Gallery 1, Level 1)
Open Daily 10.30am – 5pm (12.30 – 5pm on Sundays)

Free Entry

More info about the exhibition via this link: The Nature of Art Nouveau

Gallery: Opening Night of the Exhibition