DOI issue:
Nr. 224 (October, 1915)
DOI article:Hellmann, Anton: European influences in modern interior decoration
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43459#0305
European Influences in Modern Interior Decoration
ENTRANCE HALLWAY
BY P. T. FRANKL
European influences in mod-
ern INTERIOR DECORATION
BY ANTON HELLMANN
Fifteen years ago Friedrich Nietzsche
said: “An aye, a nay, a straight line and a
goal,” and Art all over the world responded
to that cry. It was an appeal for something
direct. It registered the existence of a need,
and an attempt was then made to satisfy that
need. When this discovery was made, art in all
of its manifestations showed that the time had
come to throw off the shackles of artificiality
and to become sincere. The photographic in
pictorial art and over-ornamentation in the dec-
orative arts had run their course. The effect of
the Nietzschean aesthetics on the art impulse of
the world has been, no doubt, more or less prob-
lematic; the fact remains, however, that under-
neath all of the modern art forms there is to be
felt, unmistakably, an attempt to strike out
directly for a goal. An effort is being made to
see an object and to see its essence, and then to
interpret that object and its essence exactly as
they are. In a word, whether we are considering
sculpture or painting, architecture or interior
decoration, the demand of the modern spirit is
directness, sincerity.
Interior decoration, like every other expression
of art, has felt the effect of this revolution. It
is more than a hundred years since the room
has been considered as a unit. Plan and harmony
of colour or design apparently did not enter the
minds of the men who furnished and decorated
the rooms produced between the time the First
Empire ended and the beginning of the nineteenth
century. A room is really a success from an artistic
standpoint only when it expresses to its full
extent, and in a beautiful way, the functions of
that room and no other functions. A living-
room that has more of the characteristics of a
drawing-room or reception-room than of a living-
room is not a successful interpretation, excepting
in the rare instances where such a room might
be designed for people of very stiff and formal
natures, to whom no other surroundings would
be amenable. A dining-room, crowded with
superfluous furniture and useless ornaments,
dishes, silverware, and what not, must necessarily
be robbed of much of its directness, and conse-
LXXXIII
ENTRANCE HALLWAY
BY P. T. FRANKL
European influences in mod-
ern INTERIOR DECORATION
BY ANTON HELLMANN
Fifteen years ago Friedrich Nietzsche
said: “An aye, a nay, a straight line and a
goal,” and Art all over the world responded
to that cry. It was an appeal for something
direct. It registered the existence of a need,
and an attempt was then made to satisfy that
need. When this discovery was made, art in all
of its manifestations showed that the time had
come to throw off the shackles of artificiality
and to become sincere. The photographic in
pictorial art and over-ornamentation in the dec-
orative arts had run their course. The effect of
the Nietzschean aesthetics on the art impulse of
the world has been, no doubt, more or less prob-
lematic; the fact remains, however, that under-
neath all of the modern art forms there is to be
felt, unmistakably, an attempt to strike out
directly for a goal. An effort is being made to
see an object and to see its essence, and then to
interpret that object and its essence exactly as
they are. In a word, whether we are considering
sculpture or painting, architecture or interior
decoration, the demand of the modern spirit is
directness, sincerity.
Interior decoration, like every other expression
of art, has felt the effect of this revolution. It
is more than a hundred years since the room
has been considered as a unit. Plan and harmony
of colour or design apparently did not enter the
minds of the men who furnished and decorated
the rooms produced between the time the First
Empire ended and the beginning of the nineteenth
century. A room is really a success from an artistic
standpoint only when it expresses to its full
extent, and in a beautiful way, the functions of
that room and no other functions. A living-
room that has more of the characteristics of a
drawing-room or reception-room than of a living-
room is not a successful interpretation, excepting
in the rare instances where such a room might
be designed for people of very stiff and formal
natures, to whom no other surroundings would
be amenable. A dining-room, crowded with
superfluous furniture and useless ornaments,
dishes, silverware, and what not, must necessarily
be robbed of much of its directness, and conse-
LXXXIII