Many artists of the Art Nouveau movement showcased their work in Paris.
From 1890 to 1914, artists worked in a range of media in large cities around the world to introduce a new style of art, Art Nouveau. These artists sought freedom from past art forms. Although it was a short-lived form that left international marks, Art Nouveau helped set the stage for forms to come, including modernism and Art Deco.
Origin of Movement
The Art Nouveau Movement began during the Industrial Revolution, when new technologies and machinery made it possible to create art in new ways. The form has roots in both Europe and North America, but gets its name from one art dealer's gallery, L'Art Nouveau, which was opened in Paris in 1895. Paris was also the foundation for the Movement's first major exhibition. The 1900 World's Fair in Paris offered the first major display of various forms of the artwork.
Art Form
Where many art forms only applied to painting or sculpture, many artists of the Art Nouveau Movement believed that the form should apply to every medium of art and everyday objects, including buildings, clothing, jewelry, textiles and furniture. This desire to create harmony among all these media was called "a total work of art," or Gesamtkunstwerk.
Influences
While artists from different media and even locales worked in the style, many of them shared the common influence of nature as a subject. Some artists rendered a straightforward interpretation of nature, while others applied a less conventional approach, using whiplash curves, linear and geometric lines.
Style
Art Nouveau work was indisputably modern. Signature pieces decorated modern interiors as well as streetscapes. There were five major cities that embraced the work: Paris, Brussels, Glasgow, Vienna, New York, Chicago, Munich and Turin. Artists developed their own interpretations of the style, but all shared the same goal of used their geographic and nationality for inspiration. For example, French artists were heavily influenced by the French rococo style, while Norwegian artist Henrik Bull drew from his native Norwegian Viking art for his creations.
