Dave's Art Nouveau page

September 21, 2002 8:54 PM

Dave's Art Nouveau page - Very cool Art Nouveau themed sketches and paintings by comic and fantasy artists. My faves are Batgirl, Cherry Poptart, and Vampirella. (Some of these aren't safe for work.)
posted by RylandDotNet (13 comments total)

I like real art nouveau better, but then again fantasy and comic art usually leaves me pretty cold so that may just be personal bias. There's so few artists in comics that push boundaries these days, and all the drawings on that page seem so sterile.
posted by atom128 at 9:36 PM on September 21, 2002

Oh. My favorite is concrete. While technically the drawing is nothing special, the character just has such honesty it makes me smile.
posted by atom128 at 9:38 PM on September 21, 2002

Ooh Ooh! Which ones!?
posted by Satapher at 9:45 PM on September 21, 2002

Which ones push boundaries? The first 3 that spring to mind are Ashley Wood, Mike Mignola, and Mobius who did an amazing book called 40 days in the desert I think, and who I also can't find a link for.
posted by atom128 at 9:53 PM on September 21, 2002

Very nice stuff, and I really hate to rank on somebody's site when, after all, it's *free*, but a thumbnail page would do wonders for usability.

Anyways, I was lucky to catch a Mucha exhibition in Frisco about a year or so ago. Great, great work. Really a treat if you ever get a chance to see the work in person. Plus, there's an Art Nouveau museum in Vienna that's well worth a visit.
posted by Ayn Marx at 1:11 AM on September 22, 2002

It's times like this that I remember why I love metafilter.

I had this url about two years ago, but lost it, and didn't manage to find it again.

What a lovely treat for a Sunday morning.

Thanks for posting!
posted by pixeldiva at 1:36 AM on September 22, 2002

Some nice stuff here, indeed. I like "concrete" too, atom128. I'd never seen Ashley Wood's work before. Reminds me a lot of Jeff Jones' work.
posted by realjanetkagan at 6:25 AM on September 22, 2002

Interesting gallery - some of these illustrations seem to be art nouveau meets anime and the furries.

Couldn't help but think of Aubrey Beardsley of the British Nouveau school. And if it's boundary-pushing and fantasy you want, some of his erotica may fit the bill but are definitely not work safe!
posted by madamjujujive at 6:30 AM on September 22, 2002

Hmm, maybe you mean Moebius?
posted by realjanetkagan at 6:31 AM on September 22, 2002

realjanetkagan- yes! thanks. *bookmarks*
posted by atom128 at 7:09 AM on September 22, 2002

I like Beardsley, but I'm an ever bigger fan of Kay Nielsen
posted by atom128 at 7:15 AM on September 22, 2002

I've always been a fan of Stan Sakai's work, meself
posted by jazon at 8:27 PM on September 22, 2002

M.W. Kaluta uses a lot of Art Nouveau elements in his works. Comic art and Art Nouveau can go together quite nicely, but I think a lot of the artists on the site are copying motifs without really studying why they work. They just throw in this odd little design frills without making them integral to the piece, and they don't seem to care much about composition. As an artist, two of the technical aspects of art that I think are most important are composition and balance. Kaluta and Beardsley can (often) make pieces that really sing because of the wild but flawless compositional balancing acts they've created.
posted by picea at 8:12 AM on September 23, 2002