Exploring <i> Jugendstil</i> at County Museum

Art Nouveau is well known as a late 19th-Century movement that attempted to revive the decorative arts by creating a new vocabulary of linear, undulating forms. At its zenith, around the turn of the century, Art Nouveau wrapped wavy leaf and vine motifs around everything from Belgian staircases to French mirror frames and lamp shades. This international movement reached far and wide, influencing Antoni Gaudi’s architecture in Barcelona, Charles Rennie Macintosh’s buildings in Glasgow and Hector Grimard’s designs for Paris’ Metro stations.

In Germany, Art Nouveau was called Jugendstil (style of youth), and it’s this aspect of the movement that will be examined in “Art Nouveau in Munich: Masters of the Jugendstil,” an exhibition opening Thursday at the County Museum of Art. About 150 pieces of furniture, ceramics, jewelry, glass, textiles, metalwork and graphic design will demonstrate the impact of Art Nouveau on designers in one of Germany’s most cultured cities.

Munich’s Jugendstil was actually composed of two movements. One concentrated on decorative items and individual expression, the other on functional objects. Among those who took the ornamental approach, Otto Eckmann designed animal-motif tapestries, including “Five Swans” in the exhibition. Richard Riemerschmid’s furniture, created for the villa of Hermann Obrist, is typical of Jugendstil’s functional products.

In general, German Art Nouveau has a heavier, more substantial look than the delicate, predominantly floral style that prevailed in other countries. Though Art Nouveau has been discounted as a frivolous chapter in the history of art, Jugendstil influenced international modernism and led to the highly regarded modern design that emerged later at the Bauhaus.

The exhibition (through Feb. 19) was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show will travel to the St. Louis Art Museum and the Stadtmuseum in Munich after leaving Los Angeles.

FOR THE RECORD: “Money for Artists: A Guide to Grants and Awards for Individual Artists” may be ordered from the American Council for the Arts, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd floor, New York, N.Y., 10019, (212) 245-4510. An incorrect publisher and phone number were listed in a recent Art News column.

BENEFIT: Friends of artist Amy Goldman are holding a series of events to help raise funds to pay Goldman’s medical bills following surgery for brain cancer.

The 37-year-old artist, who has works in the County Museum of Art’s collection, was left partially paralyzed after brain surgery last August and is undergoing rehabilitation therapy at the Villa Serena head injury center in Orange County.

As Goldman’s $250,000 insurance policy approached its limit in October, her parents called friends together to look into ways to pay rehabilitation expenses, which run around $15,000 a month at the center.

Two fund-raising events, an exhibition of Goldman’s work and a concert in a private home were held earlier this month. Upcoming projects, organized in association with the Rehab Hope Fund, a nonprofit organization offering financial consulting to trauma victims, include a tour of the print studios at Gemini G.E.L. on Jan. 13 and an “art in chocolate” auction at the home of artists Paul and Eva Kolosvary on Jan. 22.

For more information: Wilda Spalding, Rehab Hope Fund, (213) 925-8522.

BOUND FOR BRAZIL: Chicago sculptor Martin Puryear will represent the United States at the 1989 Sao Paulo Bienal. Known for abstract, open forms of natural and man-made materials, Puryear has shown his work in Southern California at the Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.

Kellie Jones, visual arts director of the Jamaica Arts Center in Queens, will curate Puryear’s show in Brazil, selecting about 10 examples from his public art projects, site-specific installations, wall pieces and independent sculptures. The Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions, a group of museum professionals organized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Information Agency, recommended Puryear.

ACQUISITIONS: The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego has received 39 photographs by Arnold Newman as a gift from the artist. Valued in excess of $44,000, the collection consists of three large color images and 36 black and white portraits of artists, writers and politicians.

An exhibition of 165 photographs, “Arnold Newman: Five Decades,” opened at the San Diego museum in 1986 and is presently on a nationwide tour. Plans are under way to send the show to Europe, according to Arthur Ollman, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition.