Art Nouveau: Politics and Style

This month sees the opening at the V & A of ‘Art Nouveau 1890-1914’, the largest exhibition of this artistic and decorative movement since it exploded onto the European scene in the early 1890s. In the midst of a plethora of socio-cultural debates, Art Nouveau immediately became a dominating subject. The direction of European civilisation, the meaning of progress, the social function of art, the nature of subjective consciousness, the role of technology in culture and the position of women were all abrasively current issues in the leading centres of art.

By fashioning themselves creators of a style that simultaneously engaged with the individual and the collective, and attempting to address the issues presented by both, the creators of Art Nouveau made it a cause to be argued over during its life and on through the twentieth century.