For my final project, I am creating a range of cosmetic products for women that is influenced by the ideals of Art Nouveau, specifically focusing on the concept of the femme fatale.
Art Nouveau (“New Art”) was the first style of art to be world-wide. It embraces a wide range of fine and decorative arts, including architecture, painting, graphic design, furniture, interior design, jewelry, textiles, and metal work. Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously been popular. This desire to abandon those historical styles was an important aspect of Art Nouveau, and it was what established the movement’s modernism. However, artists following the Art Nouveau style did not actually achieve in creating completely “new art,” and instead most Art Nouveau pieces still show influence by other historical movements. Another important aspect of Art Nouveau was the commitment to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of art, which viewed the liberal arts, such as sculpture and painting, as superior to craft-based decorative arts. Practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship and combine it with the liberal arts in order to achieve “Gesamtkunstwerk,” or in other words “total works of art.” Art Nouveau was strongly influenced by the natural world. Its designs were characterized by asymmetrical lines that often take the form of flower stalks and buds, vine tendrils, insect wings, and other natural objects. The designs also feature metamorphosis as a recurring theme as well as the femme fatale. Although international in scope, Art Nouveau was a short-lived movement. By 1910, it was already out of style and later replaced by Art Deco and then Modernism.
For my final project, I am focusing on the femme fatale, a concept that portrays the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman who achieves her goals through using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Other aspects of the femme fatale include promiscuity and the “rejection of motherhood.” In order to reflect these aspects of the femme fatale in my project, I created a cosmetics brand that is about empowering women, making them feel confident in expressing their sexuality. I started my project with making illustrations for the different products. The first illustration was influenced by Alphonse Mucha’s Job Cigarette Papers. During the time of Art Nouveau, it was very unusual to see a woman smoking. In Mucha’s design, smoking is portrayed as a sexual reference. I wanted to reflect this in my illustration as well as making it more extreme through the woman’s nudity, displaying her idealized beauty and open sexuality.
My second illustration was influenced by hysteria, a mental disorder attributed to women (and only women). Symptoms include nervousness, hallucinations, emotional outbursts and various urges of the sexual variety. In order to portray this illness invented by men, my illustration is depicting a woman that looks like she is going insane, surrounded by an almost hypnotizing pattern. This pattern was inspired by the interior design of Hotel Tassel, specifically the use of iron in a very organic and vine-like way.
The last illustration is reflecting one of Art Nouveau’s most important themes: Metamorphosis. The character I created is half female, half butterfly, which was inspired by Rene Lalique’s Dragonfly corsage ornament. Metamorphosis can be perceived in two different ways. It can be seen as embracing the female powerfulness, which is something that’s feared by men. At the same time, the woman in this drawing can also be perceived as a scary and inhumane monster.
Originally I was planning on only redesigning one object. However, it made sense to redesign a range of products in order to create “gesamtkunstwerk,” through using more than just one form of art. The four final products show the different illustrations as well as typography that was inspired by Art Nouveau. The products are meant empower women in a way that they will feel comfortable to express powerfulness and sexuality without having to fear of oppression by men.
