The Art Nouveau style being also influenced by Celtic and Japanese designs. It was given a major boost by the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. before spreading across Europe and the United States.
Arising as a reaction to 19th-century designs dominated by historicism in general and neoclassicism in particular, it promulgated the idea of art and design as part of everyday life. About this time the term Art Nouveau was coined, in Belgium by the periodical L’Art Moderne to describe the work of the artist group Les Vingt and in Paris by Siegfried Bing, who named his gallery La Maison de l'Art Nouveau.
Art Nouveau artists, inspired by plant forms and nature, took organic subjects and flattened and abstracted them into sophisticated, sinuous and flowing motifs. William Morris (1834 - 1896), among various Art Nouveau stalwarts – including Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec and Oscar Wilde - is often said to be the philosophical forefather of the movement.
Art Nouveau style is inspired by the natural world, characterized by sinuous, sculptural, organic shapes, arches, curving lines, and sensual ornamentation. Common motifs include stylized versions of leaves, flowers, vines, insects, animals, and other natural elements.
The Art Nouveau style
