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Art
Nouveau exploded onto the art and design scene
in the early 1890s and spread rapidly throughout
the Western world. This lush volume - created
to accompany a major museum exhibition that
opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London,
before moving to the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., in October 2000 - is the most
beautiful, complete, and wide-ranging study
ever published on this enormously popular and
influential style. A wealth of lavish illustrations
and rare period photographs showcase masterpieces
in all mediums—from Tiffany lampshades, Mucha
posters, Klimt paintings, and Lalique jewelry
to architecture by Victor Horta, Antoni Gaud,
and Louis Sullivan. The text, by 20 leading
scholars, is a timely reappraisal of a style
that flourished at the turn of the last century,
in a world grappling with new ideas and rapid
social change. They explore this international
phenomenon in all media of the decorative and
fine arts, including wood furniture, metal,
textiles, glass, ceramics, jewelry, posters,
prints, and architecture. Most interesting are
the first chapters by editor Greenhalgh, head
of research at the Victoria & Albert, who demonstrates
how Art Nouveau drew from the vocabulary of
such historical styles as classicism, the Baroque
and Rococo, Islamic and Japanese forms, and
folk art in a way that subverted and reordered
these styles into a completely modern and eclectic
language. Decadent yet popular, both loved and
hated, Art Nouveau gave rise to the concept
of an all-encompassing "lifestyle environment"—a
total work of art designed to appeal to the
broadest possible audience. Period photography
provides a visual context for the individual
works, and the book contains 507 illustrations
including 407 color plates.This catalog is the
definitive book on Art Nouveau to date.
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