Fairground Arts

Fairground arts are rooted in popular arts, which are subject to preconceived notions and judgments that consider this art form minor. However, fairground performers conceive of their attractions as spectacles, calling upon renowned artists and all sorts of scenic and decorative techniques. In this sense, fairground art is a decorative art in its own right, designed to amaze the public and deliberately imbued with a great power of seduction.

Decorating is also about making things beautiful, adorning, embellishing, adding even more to attract and convince. Preceding all movements, fairground art finds its originality in the transposition and overlapping of styles: antique, neoclassical, baroque, romantic; symbolic, realist. Combining universality and local traditions, fairground art regenerates all styles. The result is an art of sublime excess that reinvents an extravagant and ultra-baroque atmosphere used by fairground performers to nourish a luxurious, flamboyant, subtly libertarian, and explicitly nostalgic artistic imagination.

Fairground architecture

The frequent assembly and disassembly of fairground attractions necessitates a specific architectural design: lightness, robustness, and simplicity of assembly. The structure and its mechanics must be concealed from the public, requiring carpenters, ironworkers, mechanics, sculptors, and painters to work in close collaboration. The result is an architecture that is both decorative and varied, blending techniques (sculptures, moldings, paintings) and materials in a kind of baroque accumulation. Constant references to classical architectural figures and various stylistic codes attest to the fairground builders' awareness of working towards a monumental art.

The fairground sculpture

Through its sheer size and abundance, fairground sculpture accentuates this trompe-l'oeil architecture and occupies a prominent place within the fairground arts. Indeed, the quality of the sculpted works contributes to giving the fairground arts their prestige. Fairground sculpture is always figurative, with more or less realistic representations of animal or human forms that can be real, mythical, or imaginary. Often composite and hollow, it is primarily made from soft, lightweight woods such as linden or fir, facilitating handling and transport. It can be polychrome, adorned with glass beads, or covered with gold or silver leaf, exacerbating the baroque and decorative aspect. The carved wooden decorations create a link between sculpture and painting. These elements frame painted medallions or mirrors, adorn facades in the form of columns with various capitals, and decorate the pediments of carousels. As with figurative sculpture, polychromy or gilding is often Applied to ornamental motifs such as shells, scrolls, and acanthus leaves, these woodworks contribute to the characteristic excess of fairground art.

Fairground painting

Painted decorations are ubiquitous on fairground rides and are very diverse: decorative or figurative, monochrome or polychrome, on wood, canvas or sheet metal, and adorn the ceilings, facades, pediments and mast towers of the carousels and booths. In most cases, the painting technique is similar to that of mural painting. The figurative themes evoke allegories or mythological figures, exotic landscapes or pastoral scenes. The painters work in the studio or directly on the fairground to create or retouch the works..

Schools and styles

Thanks to the talent of the sculptors, it is possible to identify perfectly recognizable stylistic characteristics, thus allowing the definition of true national schools of fairground art.

• The French style

The origin of the French school of fairground art is most often attributed to the sculptor Gustave Bayol, based in Angers. Animal sculpture was greatly influenced by his realism, and at that time presented balanced, harmonious lines of great classical style. This realism is also reflected in the simplicity of the decorations adorning the carousel figures; French wooden horses often wear only a simple collar and a flat saddle. Traditionally, the French carousel is designed around a scenario, with themed scenery and a cavalry often featuring only one type of ride; the Belle Époque saw the development of carousels with cows, pigs, cats, and even herrings. The architecture is decorated with classical, repetitive, and stylistically highly codified ornamental figures. The whole is executed with great attention to detail.

• The German style

As with the French school, the German style is primarily expressed through animal sculpture, of which Friedrich Heyn is the most representative artist. The animals featured in carousels, such as horses, cows, and exotic animals like lions and giraffes, share a certain nobility and highly elaborate ornamentation enhanced by vibrant colors. The German style develops the ornamental aspect with an extreme attention to anatomical detail, as evidenced by the visible musculature of the horses.

• Belgian style

Like Bayol in France, it was a sculptor of religious art who significantly influenced the Belgian school of fairground art in the 19th century: Alexandre Devos. Imbued with Flemish and Baroque culture and references to Antiquity, he excelled in monumental statuary, and his allegorical compositions adorned the facades of the gigantic carousels built from the 1890s onward. Devos's followers, such as Jules Moulinas, incorporated Art Nouveau elements into this Baroque exuberance. Van Guyse for Belgium and Henri Devos for France developed characters from cartoons or comic strips as early as the 1940s, creating subjects intended for both adults and children.

• The English style

The English style diverged from other European schools through a more pronounced stylization of motifs and greater graphic exploration. Savage developed steam-powered carousels in the 1850s, while Orton and Spooner founded a major factory producing a series of fantastical subjects, including the famous centaurs with politicians' heads in the 1900s. Anderson accentuated the Mannerist aspect of English art by creating large-scale subjects. From 1925 onwards, English artists, skilled in stylization, adapted the Art Deco style to fairground art. From then on, the reliefs of sculptures gradually gave way to flatter techniques derived from graphic design.