Art Nouveau - by Arnold Schwartzman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This richly illustrated book of over 200 photographs offers a fascinating guide to the Art Nouveau movement. The style known as Art Nouveau emerged at the close of the 19th century, a period known as the fin de siecle. It was a time of new ideas and inventions, such as the flying machine, automobile, Cinematographe, telephone, and the talking machine. The term Art Nouveau is derived from La Maison de l'Art Nouveau, a shop opened by dealer Siegfried Bing in Paris in 1896. Its aesthetic was established by the British Arts and Crafts movement founded by William Morris in 1861 as a handcraft reaction to the mass-production ethos of the Industrial Revolution. Art Nouveau is based on plant forms and fantasy shapes, and embraces all forms of art and design including architecture, metal work, tiles, furniture, graphics, textiles and jewellery. The style soon became popular throughout Europe as well as the United States"--

Book Synopsis

A beautifully illustrated exploration of the world's most sensuous architecture of the 1890s and 1900s.

The third volume of Arnold Schwartzman's photographic trilogy explores the world's most sensuous architecture of the 1890s and 1900s. The author has selected from his vast archive of photographs that he has captured during the past fifty years, to present a stunning collection of over 350 images from the South Pacific to the cusp of Asia, from South America to Europe, from Spain to Hungary and beyond of the architectural style known as Art Nouveau.

Following the publications of Art Deco City and Arts & Crafts, Schwartzman turns back the clock to the fin de siècle, a romantic time when the Art Nouveau style burgeoned and flourished.

This movement was known by several other names, among which were Jugendstil, Secession and Liberty. Its origins stem from the Arts and Crafts Movement (Schwartzman's second volume of this series) of Great Britain's William Morris, Rennie Mackintosh, and architects including Guimard and Lavoretti in Paris, Horta and Van de Velde in Brussels, Wagner and Hoffmann in Vienna, Gaudí in Barcelona and Tiffany in New York, each contributing their own unique interpretation of the style. Remarkably many of their structures have survived the destructive havoc of two World Wars.

The reader can turn page after page of this diversified collection of images extolling the globe's rich heritage from the Belle Epoque.

About the Author

Arnold Schwartzman is an Oscar-winning filmmaker, a noted graphic designer, and the author of a score of books. He was the Director of Design for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and for many years has designed many of the key graphic elements for the annual Academy Awards. In 2010, he created the two murals for the Grand Lobby of Cunard's Queen Elizabeth.