In the desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century and overcome historicism in architecture and decoration, Art Noveau appeared in a wide variety of strands worldwide, most popular between 1890 and 1910. The movement is also known as the Glasgow Style, in the German-speaking world, as Jugendstil, or as Stile Liberty in Italian.
Enthusiasts in the decorative and graphic arts as well as in architecture wanted to overcome the common notion of the academic system that painting and sculpture were superior to crafts and design. Among the key leading proponents were the Austrian Artist Gustav Klimt, French architect and designer Hector Guimard, Scottish painter and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, British textile designer and poet William Morris, British illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley, and Belgian architect Victor Horta.
With industrial production being widespread at that time, decorative arts were increasingly dominated by inferior design imitating earlier periods. Art Nouveau artists sought to raise the status of craft, revive good workmanship, and produce a genuinely modern design to reach the ideal of “the Gesamtkunstwerk” – a “total work of the arts”. Buildings, interiors, and objects were consequently designed in a way in which every element worked harmoniously according to a coherent visual vocabulary in the effort to narrow the gap between the fine and the applied arts.
In finding the modern design language, Art Nouveau artists overthrew the excessively ornamental forms of their time, drawing inspiration from both geometric and organic forms resembling the structure of plants and emphasizing linear contours. Paving the path to the BauhausThe Bauhaus movement originated as a German school of the arts in the early 20th century. Founded by German architect Walter Gropius in 1919, the school was dedicated to uniting all branches of the arts under one roof. The Bauhaus acted as a hub for Europe's most experimental creatives, with well-known artist instructors like Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, and Paul More style, the artists evolved the belief that the function of an object should dictate the form of its design.
With the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted and to be replaced as a dominant style by Art DecoArt deco, with its sleek geometry and vibrant colors, epitomizes elegance and sophistication. Originating in the early 20th century, it marked a significant departure from the flowing lines of Art Nouveau to embrace industrial progress and the modern age. This style isn't just about aesthetics; it's a reflection of cultural evolution, blending functionality with opulence in a way that continues More and consecutively ModernismThe term Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture which sought the departure from traditional forms of thinking in favour of the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, and social organisation. Reflecting the transformations in western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the newly emerging industrial world provided the impetus to depart More. Since the 1960s, Art Nouveau has received more positive attention from critics and is highly cherished internationally today.