Art Nouveau

The popularity of the Art Nouveau movement at the turnoff the 19^th century can be traced back to Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha. With a lithographed poster advertising the play Gismonda, that appeared on walls in Paris in1895, Mucha and his distinctive style were in the minds of the French public, and soon the movement spread, though it acquired different names depending on the country. In Prague for example, the style was incorporated into the local architecture and buildings designed in those years are still visibly encrusted with images of leaves and women that swirl across the facades. The movement was influenced by Japanese art, like wood block prints with their curves and use of colours, and similarities can be seen not in style as much as the techniques that were absorbed.

Art Nouveau was a short lived style, succumbing in the years leading up to the first world war, as it was one that explored sexuality as well, and this subversiveness and disregard for morality andsocial structure contributed to its downfall.