Recently Artsy featured an article exploring the origins of the Art Nouveau movement. Inspired by Japanese prints, Celtic graphic motifs, and the curving lines of Rococo, artists of the Art Nouveau period created works that featured flattened and abstracted forms from nature.
This style was prominent from the 1880’s through World War I and encompassed works of fine art, architecture, and decorative objects. English designer William Morris, one of the founding artists of the movement, defined the main goals of Art Nouveau as “to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration. To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it”.
Some of the leaders of Art Nouveau also include Gustav Klimt, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Alphonse Mucha. See the Art Nouveau Print Collection. To review Artsy’s article, click here.