Guided visit
Belgium played a pioneering role in developing and propagating the new art that still characterises the architecture many major European cities today. Students learn to recognize the main characteristics of these art movements through key works, starting with the Style Congo as it was represented at the 1897 World Fair at the Cinquantenaire Parc, with flamboyant creations such as Philippe Wolfers’ The Caress of the Swan made of silver and ivory from Central Africa. Artists wanted to break with rigid academicism. They find a new source of inspiration in nature and embrace art nouveau. The...
Belgium played a pioneering role in developing and propagating the new art that still characterises the architecture many major European cities today. Students learn to recognize the main characteristics of these art movements through key works, starting with the Style Congo as it was represented at the 1897 World Fair at the Cinquantenaire Parc, with flamboyant creations such as Philippe Wolfers’ The Caress of the Swan made of silver and ivory from Central Africa. Artists wanted to break with rigid academicism. They find a new source of inspiration in nature and embrace art nouveau. The results are varied - look at Henry van de Velde's stylised candelabras, or Victor Horta's recognisable whiplash style - but clearly belong to the same art movement, namely art nouveau. This art sought to be social and appeal to everyone by bringing “beauty” into interiors through the development of the decorative arts, but it was a failure. A few years later, the lines become tighter and more horizontal: it is the period of art deco that will eventually evolve into the industrial design of modernism. An art form that will finally attract the interest of a much wider audience.
focus on the Wolfers frères shop and the international Art Nouveau and Art deco. Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Secession style. Whatever you call it, at the end of the 19th century, a new creative wave swept across Europe, leaving its mark on architecture, clothing, painting, and the applied arts. From jewellery by the French house Lalique to printed textiles from the Wiener Werkstätte: come and see it all in the exclusive setting of the original shop interior: le Magasin Wolfers frères, silent Brussels witness to a world in transition. Please mention this preference on the request form
