Siegfried Bing Notes

• In 1854, Siegfried Bing went to Paris where he developed an interest in ceramics.
• In 1863, he and his family created a porcelain manufacturing company.
• He received a Gold Medal from the French government.
• This showed he was a master of porcelain techniques and a professional production company.
• This also showed Bing was able to work with artisans to create beautiful pieces.
•  In the 1870s, Japan oped it's trading to the East, causing more Japanese items and prints to be available around the world. 
• Bing collected Japanese art and items to draw inspiration from.
• He was a great advocator of Japanese art and Japanism. 
• He was such a huge promoter of Japanese art, he went to Japan for a year, leaving family and friends.
• When he  returned to France, he brought loads from Japan "like a hurricane."
• He had several items, ranging from ordinary to extraordinary.
• Bing came to the conclusion that Japanese art revolves around geometry and nature.  
• Le Japon Artistique was a magazine had a broad target audience.
• In 1894, Bing travels to the United States.
• Here, he discovers opaque material that he used to create vases and bowls.
• With his travels to the United States, he decided to bring together American and French artists.  He mainly did this to use Americans to inspire French art.  
• Large stained glass windows came from this integration/mingling. 
• With his return to France, he decided to redo the U.S. gallery/studio/shop he set up in the U.S. in France.  
• Louis Bonnier was the artist for this new construction.  He submitted 10 sketches for approval.  
• It used stencils and ceramics as inpsiration.
• It was named L'Art Nouveau.
• Henri Vande Velde designed the metal work throughout L'Art Nouveau.
• L'Art Nouveau exhibitied Edvard Munch, which was a big publicity move.
• Defeur was one of the lead artisans.  He created beautiful works and was a major asset to L'Art Nouveau and Bing's reputation.
• Bing ends up becoming sick and gives up his gallery.  He dies about a year after on September 7th, 1904.