Episode Details

How Art Nouveau transformed Parisian Architecture.  In this episode we travel to France to meet Hector Guimard the father of French Art Nouveau and the sweeping organic forms that came to define one of the most exciting eras in European culture.
We’ll be exploring how ceramic tiles became a  key element in the architecture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and we venture underground, down into the Paris Metro where to this day tiles continue to reign supreme.

Ceramics and artwork in this week’s episode include:

Hector Guimard, 1867–1942

Café-Restaurant Au Grand Neptune, 1888, Hector Guimard

Tassel House, Brussels, 1892—93,  Victor Horta
Photo: kat_hly.1608 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Illustrations to Salome by Oscar Wilde,  Aubrey Beardsley

The Art Nouveau Bing Pavilion, Paris Exposition, 1900, Siegfried Bing
Courtesy of V&A Museum

Castel Béranger, 1895—98, Hector Guimard
Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 1.0)

Alexandre Bigot, 1862—1927
Photo: Absecon 59 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Inside Castel Béranger, 1895—98, Hector Guimard

29 Avenue Rapp, Paris, 1899—1901
Photo: marsupilami92 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Photo: Pline / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Maison Coilliot, 1898—1900

Illustrations to Salome by Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley

Porte Dauphine Metro Station, Paris, 1900
Photo :Jean-Pierre Dalbéra / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Abbesses Metro Station, Paris, 1913
Hector Guimard — Andrzej O / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Thesupermat / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Porte Dauphine Metro Station, Paris, 1900

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Hosts: Paul Greenhalgh & Stephanie Rozene
Additional Research: Catherine Ingram
Editor: Alessandro  Ruocco
Executive Producer: Emma Cahusac

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction: Hector Guimard and French Art Nouveau
00:25 Tile as Architecture: The Third Component of Ceramics
03:57 Guimard's Early Life and Training in the Decorative Arts
08:34 The 1889 Paris World's Fair and New Technologies
10:38 Travels to London and Brussels: Discovering Art Nouveau
12:54 Defining Art Nouveau: Curvilinear Lines and Organic Forms
18:06 Art Nouveau as the First Modernism
19:48 Castel Béranger: Guimard's First Major Building
22:03 The Golden Age of Tile: Technology and Innovation
29:43 Alexandre Bigot: The Chemistry Teacher Turned Ceramic Artist
36:17 Maison Coilliot: Ceramic Architecture in Lille
43:51 The Paris Metro Commission: Art for the People
46:55 Designing the Metro Stations: Cast Iron and Subway Tile
52:38 Controversy and Politics: Art Nouveau Under Fire
55:20 The Decline of Art Nouveau and Rise of Nationalism
1:00:23 Guimard's Later Years and Legacy