Art Nouveau: Dreaming the World from Art to Advertising

A deliberate break with academic orthodoxy and artistic values, Art Nouveau echoed the impulse of the age. Its determination to give equal weight and status to all branches of creative endeavour challenged the traditional privilege of the fine arts; a popular stance in a time when society at large was becoming more fluid.

The market for luxury goods was expanding rapidly: sold through specialist shops such as Liberty’s and Siegfried Bing’s Maison Art Nouveau and in the burgeoning department stores such as Selfridges, which attracted customers from a far wider spectrum of society. In a world ever more urban-centred and consciously commercial, the style also found a natural niche in the expanding world of advertising. In fact, by the mid-1900s there was virtually no area of visual experience the ‘Modern Style’ had not reached, from buildings to biscuit tins, postcards to porcelain, light shades to lingerie.