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a new style | world's fair | sources | nature | the city
The World's Fair (Exposition Universelle) held in Paris in 1900 announced
Art Nouveau as a significant new style in architecture and design. Visited
by fifty-one million people, the fair included Art Nouveau architecture,
furniture, jewelry, ceramics, posters, glass, textiles, and metalwork.
While some pavilions were state sponsored, others were private. The greatest
achievements of the new style were shown in the pavilion organized by
Siegfried Bing, the art dealer and entrepreneur who in 1895 opened a shop
and art gallery in Paris called L'Art Nouveau, which gave the movement
its name. In his pavilion, visitors could see interiors by Georges de
Feure, Eugène Gaillard, and Édouard Colonna, in which the
furniture, fabrics, and decoration were all part of a "total work
of art" unified by the same design. A pavilion designed by French
architect Henri Sauvage housed the performances of the American dancer
Loïe Fuller, whose wild dance with veils, in which she transformed
herself into a flower, inspired many Art Nouveau artists. Jewelry by René
Lalique was also exhibited at the fair. His famous dragonfly woman brooch,
the most talked-about creation in his display, demonstrates the
French jeweler's fascination with the world of nature and the theme of
metamorphosis. |
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