Notes from "Mr. Bing" Documentary

Mr. Siegfried Bing & L'Art Nouveau

•  rejuvenated the decorative arts
• He died alone, possible no one attended his burial.
• import/export store
• ceramics - father Jacob Bing's shop in France - Louisya Fese & Bing
• Gold medal awarded from the French government for success as a manufacturer of ceramics & porcelains.
• decorative objects made by industrial means
• He was a very secretive man.
• During the 1870's , Japanese objects began leaving Japan.
• 1876 his 1st auction sale of Japanese art/objects
• Exposition Universelle of 1878
• Opened 1st shop for the sponsorship & promotion of Japanisme.
• 1880 he took a trip to Japan for 1 year.
• A photographer named Craft created a Japanese garden steeped in enchantment.
• Bing was the mysterious art collector.
• Le Japon Artistique was a magazine publication to promote Japanese art, created by Bing.
• brings glimpse of endless horizons & total freedom
• Ecole des Beaux Arts Exposition - large show of Japanese prints
• Edmond Michotte collected from Bing's collection.
• A working relationship between Bing & Vincent Van Gogh allowed for a Japanese influence on Van Gogh's work.
• @ end of 1880's Bing was more interested in the dynamism of the USA. (Achievements in decorative arts & promotion of Japanese art to the USA)
• Louis Comfort Tiffany - filaments & thin streaks of color characterized his glass work. He employed an army of craftsman of every sort. Allowed French painters to create stained glass panels in the Tiffany studio (among the 4 painters, Toulousse-Lautrec was included). 
• Brussels- Maison D'Art - inspired the remodeling of Bing's shop
• named term L'Art Nouveau
• stencil designs placed randomly on the facade
• Henry Vandevelder - the architect
• 1895 L'Art Nouveau Exposition - received negative press attention because not enough French artists were featured, the art was bundled together without taste.
• Bing didn't give up, he became more determined to streamline the exhibition & what was presented.
• Bing displayed Edvard Munch's artwork.
• Bing decided not to just show other artists' work, that he wanted to show his own style.
• Eugene Galliard - furniture designer Bing employed
• Limoge (GDA) - production relationship
• whiplash curves & embeded motifs are added to the ceramic decoration
• 1900 World's Fair: Bing had own pavillion designed by Galliard, Cologna, & Defer. The outside was like an elaborate advertisement poster. Each room had a different ambiance.
• Cologna's designs were: fluid, graceful, slender, & had a homogenaity.
• Defure's boudoir furniture
• How many of the prototype models were ever recreated from the ateliers?
• 1904 bankruptcy
• Bing died 12/6/1905, on his 75th birthday. A defiinitive close of Art Nouveau.
• He was a popular dealer for museum directors.
• Bing combined the refinement of the far east with the best of western tradition.