Daily Management Review

Ernst Haeckel, the Zoologist Who Inspired 20th-Century Art


05/15/2021


The 19th-century German scientist, who coined the word "ecology," is one of the heroes of Laura Bossi's exhibition "Origins of the World" at the Musée D'Orsay in Paris, awaiting its reopening since December. We look at the role his Art Forms in Nature plays in the decorative arts, from Art Nouveau to design today.



by Jean-Louis Gaillemin

Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, plate 8, Leipzig, Vienna, Bibliographisches Institut, 1899-1904. ARR
Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, plate 8, Leipzig, Vienna, Bibliographisches Institut, 1899-1904. ARR
"Which style is this: enameled cooking-pot, saucepan or diving suit?" pondered the French symbolist writer Remy de Gourmont standing in the Place de la Concorde before the monumental portal of the 1900 Universal Exhibition, flanked by two "jigsaw cut phalluses". More forgiving critics evoked Byzantium, Persia and India, but far from being an Orientalist , its creator René Binet was actually inspired by the illustrations found in a scientific work for laymen, Kunstformen der Natur (Artistic Forms in Nature), published in 1904 by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel... read more



Tags : Architecture, Art, Contemporary Art, History, Science