Art Nouveau was an international decorative style that flourished roughly from 1890 to 1910, taking its French name from a Paris gallery, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, that showcased it, while carrying different local names elsewhere: Jugendstil in Germany, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernisme in Catalonia. It drew on organic, whiplash-curved plant and floral forms in a deliberate rejection of the historical revival styles, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, that had dominated nineteenth-century design, and it was unusual for its era in treating architecture, furniture, jewelry, glasswork, graphic design and illustration as a single, unified decorative program rather than separate disciplines. Its best-known figures worked across these different forms: the graphic artist Alphonse Mucha in poster design, the architect Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, and the designer Victor Horta in Brussels town-house architecture and interiors. Art Nouveau's largest exhibition moment came at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, after which the style declined rapidly in fashion through the 1910s, giving way to the more geometric, machine-age aesthetic of Art Deco.
Facts
Founded In PlaceNo single point of origin: developed nearly simultaneously in Paris, Brussels, Vienna and Barcelona through the 1890s, taking its French name from a Paris gallery 1 Key PrincipleOrganic, plant-derived curved line applied as a single unified decorative program across architecture, furniture, graphic design and the applied arts alike 1 Disputed
End YearSources vary on the closing date by a few years depending on the country and form considered; the style faded gradually rather than ending at a single sharp point. Connections
Associated With
Symbolism, Movements Symbolism's decorative, sinuous visual vocabulary fed directly into Art Nouveau's applied and decorative arts a few years later, without the two movements being the same thing.
Source Symbolism, Art Movement (Britannica)
Expressed In
Influenced
Art Deco, Movements Art Deco emerged directly out of Art Nouveaus decorative vocabulary, streamlining its organic curves into more geometric, machine-age forms.
Influenced By
The Arts and Crafts Movements revival of decorative craft and organic ornament directly fed into Art Nouveau across Europe.
Movement Members
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Defining British Art Nouveau illustrator.
Gaudi's Catalan Modernisme is classed under the atlas's Art Nouveau movement.
Leading figure of the Glasgow Style, closely tied to Art Nouveau.
French Art Nouveau glass and furniture designer.
Faberge's Imperial Easter eggs are canonical examples of Russian Art Nouveau jeweled decorative art.
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
American Art Nouveau glass designer.
Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning- chapter on Art Nouveau
- Movement Members: Alphonse Mucha, chapter on Art Nouveau, section on Alphonse Mucha
- Movement Members: Job (cigarette paper poster), chapter on Art Nouveau, section on Alphonse Mucha
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationArt Nouveau, Naming sectionQuote, Art Nouveau, Naming section
Art Nouveau is known by different names in different languages: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme in Catalan, and also known as the Modern Style in English.
Symbolism, Art Movement (Britannica)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Art Nouveau go by different names in different countries?
Art Nouveau spread as an international style roughly from 1890 to 1910, but it took root separately in each country's own design culture, so it kept a local name in several of them: Jugendstil in Germany, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernisme in Catalonia. The French name itself comes from Maison de l'Art Nouveau, the Paris gallery that showcased it. Everywhere it appeared, it shared the same organic, whiplash-curved plant and floral vocabulary, deliberately rejecting the historical revival styles that had dominated nineteenth-century design.
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