Hauntings of Art Nouveau: Decoration, Impulse and Suggestion
Lecture by Cyril Barde
The ambiguous and suggestive forms of Art Nouveau inspired writers around 1900 to create fantastic and unsettling atmospheres populated by malevolent objects and enchanted interiors, swept away by the frenzied rhythm of epileptic curves. This lecture will analyze the deeper stakes of such representations by situating them in the context of the emergence of psychoanalysis, at a time when artists like Henry Van de Velde theorized ornament as the manifestation of an unconscious impulse. The aim is to consider Art Nouveau as a true revolution in the relationship between interior and interiority, plastic forms and psychic forces.
Cyril Barde holds an agrégation in modern literature and a PhD in French literature. He is the author of Littérature et Art nouveau. De Mallarmé à Proust (Classiques Garnier, 2023) and L’Art nouveau dans le musée imaginaire des écrivains (Éditions Perret, 2025).
Lecture in French.