Dr. Betsy Tumasonis

March 8 | 2-4pm
From Arts & Crafts to Art Nouveau and Modernism 

The Arts and Crafts Movement, founded by William Morris in England in the middle of the 19 th century, had a great deal of influence in continental Europe between 1890 and 1910. Architects and designers like Victor Horta in Belgium and Hector Guimard in France developed the curvilinear style that came to be called Art nouveau. In German-speaking countries, the style was known as Jugendstil (Youth-style). Morris’s ideas were particularly well received in Vienna, where Kolomon Moser and Josef Hoffmann established the Wiener Werkstaette (Vienna Workshop) aimed at promoting excellence in the design of furniture and household objects. The more rectilinear and geometric style of the Viennese influenced in turn the style of the Bauhaus art school (established in 1919) which laid the foundations for modernism in architecture and design.

About Dr. Betsy Tumasonis

Dr. Betsy Tumasonis, Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, received a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Virginia; an M.A. in Art History from New York University; and a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of California at Berkeley. After teaching in the United States, she immigrated to Canada in 1981 and joined what is now the Department of Art History and Visual Studies at UVic. Besides being chair of the department, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the art of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, receiving a UVic teaching award and one in a national competition for professors in all disciplines. Since retirement, she has returned to her first love, the practice of art.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Betsy Tumasonis.