Exhibit - La Danse des Métaux
DeVos Exhibition Case
Richard M. DeVos Center, Building E Near the Loosemore Auditorium,
401 Fulton St W, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Artist Unknown, Austrian Art Nouveau Two Light Candleholder, brass, ca 1900, 2025.38.118.
Emerging just before the twentieth century, the Art Nouveau (New Art) movement transformed everyday materials into expressions of fluid beauty and imaginative design. Artists and craftspeople rejected rigid academic traditions. They embraced nature's wild forms—flowing vines, blooming flowers, undulating lines—and infused them into art, architecture, furniture, glass, jewelry, ceramics, and metalwork. In this spirit, metal evolved beyond being merely structural or functional, becoming a medium of movement and artistic expression.
La Danse des Métaux (The Dance of Metal) celebrates the extraordinary artistry of Art Nouveau metalworks, where iron, bronze, brass, copper, pewter, and silver were shaped into forms that appear almost alive. Through sinuous curves, intricate filigree, and graceful ornamentation, these works evoke the sensation of motion—like stems swaying in the wind or dancers caught mid-gesture. Artists and craftspeople transformed hard, unyielding materials into surfaces that feel supple and organic. They demonstrated both technical mastery and a deep sensitivity to natural form.
Drawn from the GVSU Collection, this exhibition highlights the ingenuity and imagination of the Art Nouveau movement, which blurred the boundaries between art and craft. It illustrates how everyday metal items, such as silverware, bowls, and candleholders, became opportunities for expression. These objects allowed one’s home to reflect a personal style previously reserved for the upper class. Additionally, this exhibition invites us to experience the poetic transformation of industrial material into lyrical form and to witness how the artisans of the Art Nouveau era turned metal into a medium that moves, flows, and—quite literally—dances.
This exhibition was created by students in a History 415 class who worked alongside GVSU Art Museum staff to bring a new exhibition to life. The project centered on a collection of decorative metal art objects recently loaned to the Museum by Charles Schoenknecht and Ward Paul.
The students began by helping catalog the objects, recording details such as descriptions, measurements, dates, and makers. As they explored the collection, they chose Art Nouveau as the theme for their exhibition. From there, they developed their ideas into a full exhibition proposal, selecting objects and creating text panels, object labels, and a layout plan.
After presenting their proposal to the GVSU Art Museum team, the students received an enthusiastic response, and their vision became an exhibition!
Exhibition case layout created by HST 415 students.
Artwork Highlights
Ansonia Clock Company, Art Nouveau Spelter Clock, metal, brass and glass, ca 1900, 2025.38.38.
Wurttemloergisch Mettal Warenfabrik (WMF), Art Nouveau Tray, silver-plated, 1905, L11.2022.596.
Artist Unknown, Belgian Art Nouveau Letter Holder, brass, ca 1900, 2026.12.35.
Exhibition Images
Want to learn more? Check out these resources available at the GVSU Libraries!
eBook: Art Nouveau
by Jean Lahor, 207
Art Nouveau gives a name to the decorative and architectural style developed in the 1880s and 1890s in the West. Born in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and to the creative vacuum it left behind, Art Nouveau was at the heart of a “renaissance” in the decorative arts. The primary objective of the movement was the creation of a new aesthetic of nature through a return to the study of natural subjects.
ebook: Art Nouveau: Art, Architecture and Design in Transformation
by Charlotte Ashby, 2022
This book is structured around key themes for understanding the contexts behind Art Nouveau, including new materials and technologies, colonialism and imperialism, the rise of the'modern woman', the rise of the professional designer and the role of the patron-collector. It also explores the new ideas that inspired Art Nouveau: nature and the natural sciences, world arts and world religions, psychology and new visions for the modern self.