Art Nouveau: The World’s Most Beautiful Buildings from Guimard to Gaudi

The third volume of Arnold Schwartzman’s photographic trilogy explores the world’s most sensuous architecture of the 1890s and 1900s. The author has selected from his vast archive of photographs that he has captured during the past fifty years, to present a stunning collection of over 350 images from the South Pacific to the cusp of Asia, from South America to Europe, from Spain to Hungary and beyond of the architectural style known as Art Nouveau.

Following the publications of Art Deco City and Arts & Crafts, Schwartzman turns back the clock to the fin de siècle, a romantic time when the Art Nouveau style burgeoned and flourished.

This movement was known by several other names, among which were Jugendstil, Secession and Liberty. Its origins stem from the Arts and Crafts Movement (Schwartzman’s second volume of this series) of Great Britain’s William Morris, Rennie Mackintosh, and architects including Guimard and Lavoretti in Paris, Horta and Van de Velde in Brussels, Wagner and Hoffmann in Vienna, Gaudí in Barcelona and Tiffany in New York, each contributing their own unique interpretation of the style. Remarkably many of their structures have survived the destructive havoc of two World Wars.

The reader can turn page after page of this diversified collection of images extolling the globe’s rich heritage from the Belle Epoque.

Arnold Schwartzman is an Oscar-winning film-maker, a noted graphic designer, and the author of many books including London Art Deco, Art Deco City and Arts & Crafts. He began his design career in British television before moving to Hollywood in 1978. He was the Director of Design for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and for a number of years has designed many of the key graphic elements for the annual Academy Awards. In 2001 he was awarded an OBE and in 2006 he was appointed a Royal Designer by the RSA.