Christie's Art Nouveau

Book excerpt: Christie's Art Nouveau is the story of an artistic movement that thrived at the turn of the century, and whose name derived from the vision of one man, Siegfried Bing. The boundary-shattering wares that he displayed in his Paris shop after a visit to Japan, flowing, curvilinear abstract lines with pale, elegant colours - stunned contemporary critics and provided the focus for a whole generation of applied artists. The highly individualistic styles, from the sinuous and vibrant designs of van de Velde to the more abstract idioms advocated by Rennie Mackintosh, are all detailed. Each chapter concentrates on one particular discipline within the movement, whether it be on the iridescent glassware of Lalique and Tiffany or the stirring graphic design of Toulouse-Lautrec. Illustrated with images from Christie's archives, Christie's Art Nouveau brings across exactly how important the movement was in throwing off the shackles of the past for artists, architects and designers alike and how it was a period that witnessed great beauty, startling originality and clearness of vision. This is a book for art-lovers, historians and collectors and enthusiasts of an art movement that changed the fac