Art lovers easily confuse Art Nouveau with Art Deco (the French abbreviation for decorative art).
Drawing inspiration from nature, the Art Nouveau movement flourished around the turn of the twentieth century (ca. 1894 - 1914), before disappearing at the time of World War I.
First coined by several Belgian art critics at the end of the 19th century, the term “Art Nouveau” became popular in Paris when the famous German art dealer Siegfried Bing opened his Maison Art nouveau art gallery there.It was succeeded by Art deco, a style that reached its height in the mid 1920s. In contrast to Art Nouveau, the aesthetic emphasis here was on straight lines, right anglesor circles.
The term “Art deco” derives from the Paris International Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925, the year that also marks the style’s zenith (Fine Arts Museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1923-1925).
