Vital Art Nouveau 1900 presents a selection of the most outstanding works of Czech and European Art Nouveau style from the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, all of which are on permanent display at the Prague Municipal House. This volume establishes the Art Nouveau arts and crafts as part of the forward-looking trends and emancipation efforts that evolved in the late nineteenth century; as a reformist art movement, Art Nouveau strove to achieve a unity between art and life, aspiring to overcome the Romantic duality of beauty versus reality, or "the truth of life." These rebellious artists not only forced a break with the rigidity of existing art practices, but also regenerated forms of artistic expression that many considered to be stagnant. Infused with the popular aesthetic theories of the times, such as Vitalism and Spiritism, the Art Nouveau aesthetic answered and responded to the new zest for life that swept nineteenth-century society as a whole. Masterpieces of decorative art exhibited at the famous Paris World's Fair of 1900 are reproduced in this volume in color, alongside a variety of works ranging from paintings, poster art, magazines and ceramic works to jewelry, glassware and furniture.

Winner, 1990 Berkshire Conference Book Award Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siecle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style explores the shift in the locus of modernity from technological monument to private interior. It examines the political, economic, social, intellectual and artistic factors, specific to late 19th century France, that interacted in the development of art nouveau.

First published in 1998. Design reform in the fields of architecture and the decorative or applied arts became objectified through writings published during the period of 1885 to 1910. This investigation includes, but is not limited to, Art Nouveau in France and Belgium, and the arts and crafts movement in England and the United States. Even though the similar processes of creativity and shared goals of Art Nouveau and the arts and crafts movement have long been recognized, attempts to explore their origins and their points of interrelation with the broader scope of art history have been largely unsuccessful—until now.

Rarely has a subject been served by a book of this stature. Five years in the making, it covers all aspects of Art Nouveau in France in 624 authoritative pages and 740 illustrations. Arwas traces the evolution of the movement as it developed, primarily in Nancy and Paris, with the help of carefully chosen illustrations, many never published before. Ranging from the 1900 Paris exhibition to paintings, graphics and posters and such collecting fields as furniture, jewellery, ceramics, book bindings and sculpture, the informative, witty text ranges over architecture, haute couture, and the role of women in Art Nouveau with a particular look at such theatrical icons as Sarah Bernhardt, Loïe Fuller and the Grandes Horizontales. Destined to become the standard book on the subject, both content and design will appeal widely to the connoisseur, the specialist and the collector, as well as to the novice who will be introduced to the magical wonders of the style.

Tracing Behind the Image: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Visual Literacy, discusses how our relationship to images, collectively and individually, is constantly shifting, as we adapt to the evolving image economy of our increasingly screen-based world. This volume offers pedagogies, analyses and strategies for developing visual literacy across education and industry. The language of images embodies highly complex and nuanced statements and readings, the ability to invent and reinvent, it is bursting with opportunities to be lyrical, satirical, rhetorical, to unravel meanings, and to pose as many questions as it answers. It is a language of investigation and experimentation, it both constructs and shatters cultural expectations, and is constantly and rapidly transforming as forced by current social and political climates.

This critical survey of the Art Nouveau movement reveals the diversity of this style across the breadth of the European continent. With the inclusion of Eastern Europe and the full range of artistic media, the book shows how this movement changed the face of European art and design from Paris to Prague. Clearly structured by country, it traces the emergence of Art Nouveau, highlighting the particular interpretations of the style in each country. Countries covered include: Belgium; Spain; Britain; Austria; Hungary; and Russia. Each chapter contains sections on political and cultural contexts, specific visual characteristics and key artists and designers. It analyzes the contribution of both well-known artists and designers such as Gaudi; Van de Velde; Mackintosh; and Mucha, and brings to light many others whose contributions have been largely inaccessible. With a bibliography and glossary, this text should provide a useful introduction to this subject.

Art Nouveau was a style for a new age, but it was also one that continued to look back to the past. This new study shows how in expressing many of their most essential concerns – sexuality, death and the nature of art – its artists drew heavily upon classical literature and the iconography of classical art. It challenges the conventional view that Art Nouveau's adherents turned their backs on Classicism in their quest for new forms. Across Europe and North America, artists continued to turn back to the ancient world, and in particular to Greece, for the vitality with which they sought to infuse their creations. The works of many well-known artists are considered through this prism, including those of Gustav Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley and Louis Comfort Tiffany. But, breaking new ground in its comparative approach, this study also considers some of the movement's less well-known painters, sculptors, jewellers and architects, including in central and eastern Europe, and their use of classical iconography to express new ideas of nationhood. Across the world, while Art Nouveau was a plural style drawing on multiple influences, the Classics remained a key artistic vocabulary for its artists, whether blended with Orientalist and other iconographies, or preserving the purity of classical form.

Gathers hundreds of art nouveau-style alphabets and discusses the development of these typefaces