A beautifully illustrated retrospective of Art Nouveau architect and designer Hector Guimard, positioning him at the forefront of the modernist movement The aesthetic of architect Hector Guimard (1867-1942) has long characterized French Art Nouveau in the popular imagination. This groundbreaking book showcases all aspects of his artistry and recognizes the fundamental modernity of his work. Known for, among other things, the decorative entrances to the Paris Métro and the associated lettering, he often looked to nature for inspiration, and combined materials such as stone and cast iron in unique ways to create designs composed of curves and waves that evoked movement. Guimard broke away from his classical Beaux-Arts training to advocate a modern, abstract style; he also pioneered the use of standardized models for his design objects and experimented with prefabricated designs in his social housing commissions, advancing the technology of the time. With copious, beautifully reproduced illustrations of his architectural drawings as well as his furniture, jewelry, and textile designs, this volume explores Guimard's full oeuvre and elucidates the significance of his work to the history of modern art. Essays by an international group of scholars present Guimard as a visionary architect, a shrewd entrepreneur, an industrialist, and a social activist.

The result of years of research, this epic volume shows the global reach of the Art Nouveau idiom Modernismo, Jugendstil or Art Nouveau--the different names given to Art Nouveau in different geographical contexts highlight the territorial scope and diversity of the style, but also its common features: it was new, modern, young and groundbreaking. Whether in Austria, Spain, Denmark or Russia, Art Nouveau defined itself as something that opposed tradition and broke with the past. Rejecting a classicizing academic grammar, and reaching deep into the fantastical for inspiration (from the imagined history of the medieval to the Orientalist exotic), artists and architects such as Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, Viollet-le-Duc, William Morris, Otto Wagner, Samuel Bing and the Goncourt brothers created a new style with a holistic vision, embracing architecture, painting, graphic art, interior design, textiles, ceramics and metalwork. Imaginative form was matched by innovative building techniques. The architects of Art Nouveau were some of the first to experiment with building with iron, glass, pottery and prefabricated concrete; their buildings offer instructive models of industrial development and collaborative design. Beautifully illustrated and exhaustively researched, The World Atlas of Art Nouveau Architecture brings together a selection of key Art Nouveau buildings in a truly global survey that includes, for the first time, examples of the style outside of Europe. Exemplars of the form were chosen through a rigorous selection process involving a panel of expert advisors with specialist input from each world region. A general introduction to the style grounds the selection, and short essays explain how Art Nouveau differed in different cities and countries. The World Atlas of Art Nouveau Architecture honors one of the world's first truly global modern art movements.

An expertly written and exquisitely photographed study of the buildings of Victor Horta, a central figure of Art Nouveau whose work was fundamental to modernist architecture In the decade following the success of his design for the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1893, Victor Horta, the creator of Art Nouveau architecture, produced more than forty buildings—and a movement. Prepared in close collaboration with the Horta Museum, Brussels, Victor Horta: The Architect of Art Nouveau discusses the many influences on Horta’s designs and his legacy. The richly ornamental style of Art Nouveau, characterized by fluid lines based on natural forms, expressed a desire to abandon the historical styles of the nineteenth century and to develop a language that was beautifully crafted and thoroughly contemporary, laying the foundations for the development of modernism in architecture and interior design. Detailed descriptions of nineteen projects representing the full range of Horta’s work—including Edicule Lambeaux, Hôtel Autrique, Hôtel Max Hallet, and the Brugmann Hospital, are illustrated with Horta’s original drawings and specially commissioned photographs by award- winning photographer Alastair Carew-Cox. Extensive photographs of Hôtel Solvay—to which access had been denied for twenty years before Carew-Cox was granted special access, in recognition of his and David Dernie’s significant contribution to the study of Horta—are also included.