Art Nouveau

Full-color and black-and-white works by virtually every key artist of the Art Nouveau movement, including Mucha, Seguy, Beardsley, and Verneuil. Includes material from rare books, portfolios, and major periodicals, plus bibliographies and artist biographies.

Art Nouveau gives a name to the decorative and architectural style developed in the 1880s and 1890s in the West. Born in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and to the creative vacuum it left behind, Art Nouveau was at the heart of a “renaissance” in the decorative arts. The primary objective of the movement was the creation of a new aesthetic of nature through a return to the study of natural subjects. In order to achieve this, artists such as Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Antoni Gaudí, Jan Toorop, and William Morris favoured innovation in technique and novelty of forms. After its triumph at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900, the trend continued and has inspired many artists ever since. Art Deco, the successor of Art Nouveau, appeared after World War II.

An expertly written and exquisitely photographed study of the buildings of Victor Horta, a central figure of Art Nouveau whose work was fundamental to modernist architecture In the decade following the success of his design for the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1893, Victor Horta, the creator of Art Nouveau architecture, produced more than forty buildings—and a movement. Prepared in close collaboration with the Horta Museum, Brussels, Victor Horta: The Architect of Art Nouveau discusses the many influences on Horta’s designs and his legacy. The richly ornamental style of Art Nouveau, characterized by fluid lines based on natural forms, expressed a desire to abandon the historical styles of the nineteenth century and to develop a language that was beautifully crafted and thoroughly contemporary, laying the foundations for the development of modernism in architecture and interior design. Detailed descriptions of nineteen projects representing the full range of Horta’s work—including Edicule Lambeaux, Hôtel Autrique, Hôtel Max Hallet, and the Brugmann Hospital, are illustrated with Horta’s original drawings and specially commissioned photographs by award- winning photographer Alastair Carew-Cox. Extensive photographs of Hôtel Solvay—to which access had been denied for twenty years before Carew-Cox was granted special access, in recognition of his and David Dernie’s significant contribution to the study of Horta—are also included.

This critical survey of the Art Nouveau movement reveals the diversity of this style across the breadth of the European continent. With the inclusion of Eastern Europe and the full range of artistic media, the book shows how this movement changed the face of European art and design from Paris to Prague. Clearly structured by country, it traces the emergence of Art Nouveau, highlighting the particular interpretations of the style in each country. Countries covered include: Belgium; Spain; Britain; Austria; Hungary; and Russia. Each chapter contains sections on political and cultural contexts, specific visual characteristics and key artists and designers. It analyzes the contribution of both well-known artists and designers such as Gaudi; Van de Velde; Mackintosh; and Mucha, and brings to light many others whose contributions have been largely inaccessible. With a bibliography and glossary, this text should provide a useful introduction to this subject.

London is famous for Big Ben; Paris for the Eiffel Tower; Rome for the Colosseum. Barcelona, on the other hand, is not identified by one or two famous buildings as these other European cities, but rather by an entire movement of turn-of-the-century architecture known simply as "Modernisme." Familiar to Americans as art nouveau, its most famous practitioner was the artist and architect Antoni Gaudi. But the city is filled with superb examples of art nouveau in vivid color in "Barcelona Art Nouveau." This book offers a tour of 46 houses, public buildings, and monuments in the art-nouveau style, including brand-new photographs of the work of Gaudi. Visit the famous literary cafe Els Quarte Gats, which was once patronized by Pablo Picasso, who also designed the menu. Lose yourself in the whimsical curves of Casa Josep Batllo, a wonderful example of the combination of artisan tradition and richness that exemplifies art nouveau. These structures, fully restored to pristine condition for the 1992 Olympics, have been rediscovered by both foreigners and Barcelonans alike, and are captured inside and out in this fascinating record of the adventurous, undulating designs of an exciting era.