Art Nouveau - Chaucer Library of Art Author:Derek Avery Art Nouveau flourished throughout Europe and North America from the 1880s until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Characterised by asymmetry, sensuous lines, and flowing surface patterns, Art Noveau was often tinged by fin-de-siècle decadence. Typical motifs include the romanticised, elongated female figure with swirling tresses and d... more »raperies and the fantastic curves of stylised flowers. In Britain, Art Nouveau followed on from the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, and tended to be more restrained, even geometric, than in continental Europe where it became Jugendstil in Germany and Stile Liberty (after the London department store) in Italy. Exponents included the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, the architect and furniture designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and the glass and jewellery designer René Lalique. The style was ideally suited to a world of ever-expanding consumption, feeding the imagination of designers in the new fields of advertising and marketing. Art Nouveau was the first conscious attempt to create a modernist aesthetic based on decoration - it was also to be the last.« less