The New Art in Architecture

At the turn of the last century a new approach to artistic expression in architecture flourished across Europe and North America. The Art Nouveau movement arose out of a critical response to the industrialization of cities and the authoritarian dominance of neo-classical designs that pervaded the Victorian world view. The organic motifs and sweeping lines of this new art evoked a longing for the natural world, a world which seemed lost in pillars of factory smoke. During the transcendence of the Art Nouveau, buildings were decorated with elegant, stylized flowers eternally blooming in tile and stone. Doorknobs and cabinet handles became billowing ribbons of handmade cloth. Archways looked like the bending boughs of sapling trees and stained glass windows encased the essence of a bountiful field or a forests canopy. The coming of the Great War signaled the end of the Art Nouveau movement and the return of an industrialized approach to architecture and the decorative arts.