| Designers
rejected the inspiration of classical European art and instead looked
to Japanese, Celtic and other folk art as a basis for their work.
This can be seen in works by artists such as Gustav Klimt.
 Typical
motifs come from nature: flowers, insects and birds. Lines curve
and wind, straight lines were scorned by art nouveau designers.
Symbolism is important in the designs. For example a leaf may be
just a leaf or perhaps it is part of the female body. Designers
used forms from the natural world in ways that suggested they might
represent human limbs. They used traditional materials like wood,
glass, and pewter.
The style, which literaly means "new art," gets its name
from a design shop, La Maison de l'Art Nouveau, which German entrepreneur
Siegfried Bing opened in Paris in 1895.
The shop was one of the major outlets for the glass of Emile Galle,
the art glass of Louis Tiffany, the jewellery
of Rene Lalique, and the furniture
of Eugene Gaillard and George DeFeure. All signature artists in
the art nouveau tradition. These artists were largely reacting against
the Victorian aesthetic, a style described by Arlie as often fussy
and inhibited.
A favourite art nouveau
theme was a nymph with flowers in her abundant streaming hair. She
appeared on the posters of Alfons Mucha and among the opals and
moonstones of René Lalique's jewelry.
Other favourites were peacocks, dragonflies, and moths. In brilliant
enamels and gold filigree, they were worked into combs, brooches,
and other adornments. Morning glories glimmered through the stained
glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Irises were inlaid in the marquetry
cabinets of Louis Majorelle (1859-1926). Cresting waves broke and
seaweed clustered around Art Nouveau vases. A dish might be an unadorned
lotus leaf. 
Other botanical forms were arranged in abstract patterns and were
symmetrically arrayed around mirror or picture frames or repeated
on fabrics and wallpapers or in mural decorations.
Art Nouveau was out of fashion before World War I had begun.
From the 1920s to the 1950s it was considered by critics as a moribund,
and even ugly, style.
However, Around 1960, a revival began. In reaction to the unimaginative
glass-and-steel rectangular architecture of the 1950s and the british
'Utility Scheme'.
Critics began to turn back to the style of the 1900's. Numerous
exhibitions were held, scholarly publications on art nouveau began
to appear, and prices for art nouveau objects soared.
Art Nouveau was incorporated into the rebellious psychedelic style
of the 1960s and finally achieved its place as a significant style
in the history of modern art.
 It
is only comparatively recently that art
nouveau was accepted as a 'style' and accorded any real recognition.
It had been seen as a collection of different styles with little
in common except, perhaps, a taste for excess and flamboyant decoration.
Not only is there no consensus on exactly what art nouveau is,
there is even some argument over the period it covered although
generally it is thought to cover the 1890s through to around 1910.
Art nouveau was not universally acclaimed, particularly in England.
Many critics of the period saw it as decadent and self indulgent.
For example, the sculptor, Sir Alfred Gilbert who created Eros
in Piccadilly Circus, once said ;
“L’Art Nouveau,
forsooth. Absolute nonsense. It belongs to the young lady’s
seminary and the duffer’s paradise."
 In
London, the famous Liberty department store had been instrumental
in encouraging and promoting arts and crafts but Arthur
Lasenby Liberty, its proprietor, knew many of the art nouveau
designers and, in the 1890s, he promoted art nouveau in both the
London and Paris stores. 
In Italy, art nouveau was known as 'Stile Liberty' because it was
linked so closely with Liberty
& Co.
Liberty sold work by designers like Lindsay P. Butterfield, who
produced textiles and wallpaper and Archibald
Knox who designed a wide range of pewter, jewellery, carpets
and clocks.
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