Le décor du livre dans les concours organisés par les revues d’art décoratif entre 1893 et 1912

Abstract

Book decoration in the decorative art competitions organized by art magazines between 1893 and 1912. From 1893 until 1912, the major art magazines in France (Art et décoration, L’art décoratif and, on a lesser scale, La Revue des Arts décoratifs), in England (The Studio) and in Germany (Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration) organized a series of decorative art competitions. Their themes were most varied (interior decoration, miscellaneous objects, textiles, ceramics, etc.) : they aimed at compensating the weaknesses of the education given to young artists by allowing them to be confronted with the restraints of industrial production. The graphic arts, in their most varied aspects, formed the subject of nearly half the opened competitions — of which about fifty concerned book decoration. Illustration — ornaments for chapter heads and tails, or tailpieces and full-page images — were the Studio's special field ; ex-libris being shared between German and English magazines. On the other hand, letter design, flyleaf papers and cover’s composition for these very magazines were also proposed by the French magazines, and the winning projects were more often than not used by the periodicals. The number and diversity of these competitions shows the important place taken by the books in Art Nouveau’s decorative research.