Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau presents a new overview of the international Art Nouveau movement. Art Nouveau represented the search for a new style for a new age, a sense that the conditions of modernity called for fundamentally new means of expression. Art Nouveau emerged in a world transformed by industrialisation, urbanisation and increasingly rapid means of transnational exchange, bringing about new ways of living, working and creating. The book is structured around key themes for understanding the aesthetics and contexts of Art Nouveau, including form and ornament, symbolism and psychology, new forms of transport and communication, colonialism and imperialism, the rise of the 'modern woman' and the role of the patron-collector and the professional designer. Ashby explores the movement through 65 varied case studies of architecture, interiors, paintings, furniture, graphic arts, glass and ceramics by artists and designers, drawn from eighteen countries from a wide range of countries.