Meissen bowl “Landscape with Angler”

A pair of 19^th century French artists who worked with glass and crystal are in the Okinawa spotlight as Ryubo Hall presents the Galle & Daum Exhibition beginning Tuesday.

Emile Galle, born in 1846, was a French artist considered a major force in the French Art Nouveau movement because of his work with glass.  The Daum Crystal Studio based in Nancy, France, where Galle was born and raised, was founded in 1878 by artisan Jean Daum, who together with sons Auguste and Antonin spearheaded growth during the burgeoning Art Nouveau period.

Daum is now the only commercial crystal manufacturer using the pate de verre, a glass paste process, for art glass and crystal sculptures, a technique in which crushed glass is packed into a refractory mould and then fused in a kiln.  The technique burgeoned during the end of the 19^th

Galle vase “Christmas Rose”

Wrought iron table lamp

century and continued receiving praise for another century, as art nouveau increasingly used glass during the Industrial Revolution, where it was termed ‘new art’.

The Daum brothers and Galle played an active role in French Nancy, and since their technique isn’t manufactured any more, and recipes of those days don’t remain, the items created in the 1800’s are popular, and scarce.  The art nouveau age expanded then from France to Asia as national treasure Meissen in France became the pottery made into the persimmon Kakiemon style that spread from France.

The evolution of the art nouveau age grew as European art and Japanese art became mixed, and works other than oil paintings became conscious of space looked at by a Japanese painting, and the color scheme is actually carried out to Galle’s work to a degree.  The fire of art nouveau was extinguished as diplomatic friction became part of the process between western countries and Japan, and then World War 2.

In the 1970’s, art nouveau saw a resurgence in the United States, and then in Japan.  Now, art nouveau popularity in Japan is for work previously called japonaiserie, and Europe and Japanese art became reunited.

The exhibition at Ryubo Hall in Kumoji in Naha City, is free.  The glass of the art nouveau continues to receive praise.  Galle, the Daum brothers, and antique accessories have been brought together for this exhibition.  In this case, there will be an exhibition sale, and an European antique bazaar held simultaneously.

The Galle & Daum “Brightness of New Art” exhibition runs daily 10:30 a.m. ~ 8 p.m. through February 24^th.

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