Nature and the Art Nouveau

Abstract

THE Art Nouveau is usually approached warily by historians. It is given a place in most recent surveys of architecture, but it is treated as an ornamental style and its influence deprecated. The fact that it was the most widespread expression of the period 1890–1910, which were two of the most experimental and decisive decades in the background of contemporary architecture, must somehow be explained. The style was accepted by dilettantes and by serious designers. The publicity it received was enormous. It formed the basis for much pseudo-philosophizing, and never until perhaps the Bauhaus has an art movement been so thoroughly explained and interpreted by its disciples and so strongly attacked by its critics. Today we are removed from the Art Nouveau by half a century and are perhaps able to judge whether it was a worthless, frivolous interlude or a valid expression which contributed a new viewpoint to the aesthetics of its period and left examples of value to contemporary developments.