College introduced me to art nouveau..or I should say, I knew beforehand I liked it, but I never knew what it was until I started on my art courses. I've never found it ugly at all, but sublimely beautiful in it's organic design, complex and compelling. As you say, it seems 'alive'. I can't really put into words well what it is about it that I love, I simply do.

What do I love about Art Nouveau?
For me, it's sentimental, but also so much more. As a kid my mother had this new-agey friend, Chandra (who has since changed her name and current incarnation about 3 times!) and her home was overflowing with Nouveau pieces. She had Mucha prints everywhere, interesting tapestry's on the ceiling, tables, on windows, everywhere! She had Lalique style jewelry and Tiffany style lamps (not sure if they were original's) and many long gowns with a dazzling aray of deep, earthy tones in the most bizarre patterns. Similar to Klimpt's work. She and her home always smelled of sandelwood and myrhh. She had zodiacs depicitng nude bodies in odd contortions and everywhere I looked there was some fascinating something or other to take in visually, olfactorily, texturally, etc.

So, when I got my first apartment I set out to recreate a similar feeling. A few years later I happened to work in an art print and framing shop and spent most of every paycheck there! I began with Mucha prints (many of which are now out of print), then Klimpt, then Beardsley and discovered i also loved the pre-Raphealites and began collecting Waterhouse. My current home was built in 1934, and the architecture is a little confused- part deco, part nouveau. Lots of arches and arched doorways coupled with odd angles. I haven't done much to it other than paint and accesorize. But, I continued with that odd combination in my decor. I have an area rug with dizzying geometrical designs all in deep, earthy and also jewel tones, but I have furniture and pillows with beads, velvets and luxurious throws and such.

Somehow or another, it all works- for me, anyway.

There's just something about that time period that speaks to me. The art, of course, but everything else too.... Maybe I was there. Who knows?

what is it we love about art nouveau?
The organic shapes, art over design, the energy in it of breaking out of a mental mold of the time with creativity. To see craftsmanship taken entirely into the realm of making art while still having drawers that can open and chairs which don't collapse.
I think the wood is the best of it for me but I do have a taste for just about everything else done in the style.
mike

Art Nouveau makes me think of paris in the 1920's, capturing romance and sincerity wrapped in metaphors...it just rings a certIain note in my self.

It tastes like jazz, and when it passes through me, I shit butterflies.

It's the line,the flowing lines,movement,passion,"visible waves of erotic vertigo" to quote Robert Melville.
It reaches back and embraces Celtic and Nordic Design too,not to mention Islamic Calligraphy.

it just radiated poetry...it was easy to relate, even though half of it was for advertisement.
Plays, booze, and what have you, it still had like a secret that the editors and the printers couldnt hear...