Art Nouveau Architecture Quotes

He said he liked the way Budapest was beautiful and elegant and crumbling, decaying, plucky and sad, but when he spent too long there, everything started to depress him. And he said he had meetings, lunches, dinners, and he began to feel crumbling, decaying, and sad. He told us he sat in a warm hot spring that exploded from the ground, the way he had as a young man, surrounded by art nouveau architecture, it was like bathing in a cathedral. The sky was pink. The scent of lilacs filled the air. Fat Russian gangsters in tiny bathing suits played chess while their bleached blond wives hung scowling from their necks and arms festooned with gold and silver. Barbarians! Claudio spoke English well, only a faint trace of his Italian accent. Those Russians are the descendants of the guys who slaughtered the Mennonites, I thought. Now they wear bikini trunks. Then he told us he had been standing on one of the bridges over the Danube and looking down he saw a guy sitting on the riverbank. Is it blue? I said. No, it’s filthy I’m afraid, and not at all blue. Is it beautiful? I asked. Well, yes, it could be described as beautiful.

Les grands édifices, comme les grandes montagnes, sont l’ouvrage des siècles. L’art nouveau prend le monument où il le trouve, s’y incruste, se l’assimile, le développe à sa fantaisie, et l’achève s’il le peut. La chose s’accomplit sans trouble, sans effort, sans réaction, suivant une loi naturelle et tranquille. C’est une greffe qui survient, une sève qui circule, une végétation qui reprend. L’homme, l’artiste, l’individu s’effacent sur ces grandes masses sans nom d’auteur : l’intelligence humaine s’y résume et s’y totalise. Le temps est l’architecte, le peuple est le maçon.