The Art Nouveau style appeared in the early 1880s for a relatively short period of time – up until WW1. The style of the, it’s impact was evident across urban centres throughout Europe and North America. Permeating art, craft, design and architecture, it could be recognised in buildings and advertisements, inside homes and outside street cafés.
Despite only lasting a short period of time in the late 19th/early 20th century, it experienced a popular revival in the 1960s and today its motifs are returned to again and again in visual communications.
It is regarded as an important predecessor of Modernism. this movement was in response to the technological advances and the industrial revolution. These developments lead to contemporary life appearing to become ‘standardised’, an a resulting sense of alienation; a loss of people's sense of ‘self’ lead to artists seeking new forms of expression. For some, this led to an emphasis on subjectivity or ‘interiority’, and a search for spirituality.
