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Definition: Art Nouveau from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 a a style of art and architecture of the 1890s, characterized by swelling sinuous outlines and stylized natural forms, such as flowers and leaves b (as modifier): an Art-Nouveau mirror

[French, literally: new art]


ART NOUVEAU

From The Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism
Art Nouveau was, at least for a brief period of little more than a decade around the turn of the twentieth century, perhaps the most widespread and popular manifestation of a modernising spirit in architecture, design and the applied arts; to a lesser extent its influence extended to painting and sculpture too. Art Nouveau had a key moment of triumph with the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris where it appeared as a ubiquitous aesthetic innovation for manufacturers and artists alike, and even seemed – for example in buildings created for the Exposition such as the Grand Palais with its decorative ironwork – to bring art and industry together in a shared aesthetic language. Art Nouveau was also, however, often subject to strident CRITIQUE from contemporaries and successors who perceived it as a mistaken diversion from truly modernising or modernist principles. Known as ‘Jugendstil’ (‘Youth Style’) in Germany, and going by many other local names – some of them less than flattering – …
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Full text Article Art nouveau

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
(French, 'new art'). A decorative style of art flourishing in most of western Europe and the United States from the late 19th century to the outbreak of the First World War. As its name implies, it was a deliberate attempt to create a new style in reaction to the reproduction of historical forms…
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Full text Article art nouveau

From Philip's Encyclopedia
A decorative style from the turn of the 19th...
Ornamental style which flourished in most of central and W Europe and the USA from c .1890 to World War 1. The idea originated in England with the Arts and Crafts Movement . Focusing mainly on the decorative arts, its most characteristic forms come from sinuous distortions of plant forms and…
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Full text Article ART NOUVEAU

From The Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism
Art Nouveau was, at least for a brief period of little more than a decade around the turn of the twentieth century, perhaps the most widespread and popular manifestation of a modernising spirit in architecture, design and the applied arts; to a lesser extent its influence extended to painting and…
| 774 words
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Full text Article art nouveau

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(är´´ nōvō'), decorative-art movement centered in Western Europe. It began in the 1880s as a reaction against the historical emphasis of mid-19th-century art, but did not survive World War I. Art nouveau originated in London and was variously called Jugendstil in Germany, Sezessionstil in Austria, …
| 287 words
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Full text Article Art Nouveau

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Design Since 1900
Was a decorative arts style which developed simultaneously across Europe in the 1880s. It peaked in c. 1900, but petered out again before World War I. It was characterized by the conscious exaggeration of organic forms which ‘grew’, almost like ivy, over the basic structure; the whiplash curve was…
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Full text Article art nouveau

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Decorative style in the visual arts, interior design, and architecture that flourished from 1890 to 1910. It is characterized by organic, sinuous patterns and ornamentations based usually on twisting plant forms. In England, it appears in the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley ; in Scotland, in the…
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Full text Article Art Nouveau

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
Decorative style in architecture, furniture, consumer products, fashion and graphics throughout Europe and the US for two decades from about 1890. Known as jugendstil (‘young style’) in Germany and as ‘Stile Liberty’ in Italy (after the Liberty retail business in London). The significance of Art…
| 219 words
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The Art Nouveau style was in many ways a link between the 19th-century styles, which looked to the past and the 20th-century styles, which looked to the future. The sinuous, curving Art Nouveau line had its roots in the British Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts Movements; the stylized, geometrical, …
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The Arts and Crafts Movement, which emerged in the 1860s and endured until the late 1930s, and the Art Nouveau style, which blossomed from the early 1890s until the outbreak of World War I, were united in their rejection of the stylistic eclecticism and historicism, and the over-ornamentation and…
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Full text Article Art Nouveau

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
“The Whiplash,” Art Nouveau tapestry by Hermann...
Decorative style that flourished in western Europe and the U.S. c. 1890–1910. The term was derived in 1895 from a gallery in Paris called L’Art Nouveau. Characterized by sinuous, asymmetrical lines based on plant forms, the style was used in architecture, interior design, graphic art and design, …
| 131 words , 1 image
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