Collecting my attempts to improve at tech, art, and life

Art Nouveau, Psychedelia, and a Kalevala tangent

Tags: watch art history i-knew-this thanks-to-mom kalevala

No object was too mundane to be beautiful.

Probably my favorite comment about Art Nouveau.

Whoa. The Wikipedia entry mentions that it was called “Kalevala style” in Finland. Which — looking elsewhere — might be a little off. I mostly see references to National Romanticism, which is a bit of a mixed bag historically speaking. For Finland it was an urge to assert itself as a nation and not just some dirt swapped back and forth between Russia and Sweden. Writing down the Kalevala was a part of that same movement.

And yeah JRR Tolkien loved the Kalevala, tying in another piece to hippy culture. I think every bookshelf I saw as a kid had a copy of The Lord of the Rings.


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