art nouveau
1
7.7
- noun
- /ɑːrt nuːˈvoʊ/
:
art nouveau
- Or my art nouveau flamingo salt and pepper shakers that were smashed in the pursuit of a fly.
- art nouveau style
- art nouveau movement
Examples
-
She has always reminded him of jonquils in spring, a fine porcelain, art nouveau.
Fiction book (1990) -
She was going for art nouveau, but I don't see it at all.
Blog text (4) -
Gold leaf, art nouveau, French, early nineteen hundreds...
Fiction book (2000) -
Benz's address was between two enormous houses done in coquettish Jugendstil, the German answer to art nouveau.
Fiction book (1992) -
In its origins and early development, Simplicissimus was intellectually very much part of the Vienna Secessionist art nouveau movement and visually very daring.
Academic text (2008) -
Synagogues in the area include the Synagogue de la Rue Pave, designed by Hector Guimard, the architect famous for his art nouveau Paris Metro entrances.
Blog text (7) -
According to Teyssot: "That art nouveau, modern style, and Jugendstil have placed the woman at the heart of the decoration of the house, hung its walls with the undulations of her lines, covered all of its furniture with the patterns of her hair, is no surprise" (86).
Fiction book (1992) -
It was strange to have a subway tunnel, all caves and darkness, under such a populated, treed, and flowered park, but it was New York, and even the entrance to those caves was arched, gated in art nouveau black metal.
Fiction book (1998) -
The museum features an art nouveau exhibit showcasing stunning furniture and decorative items.
-
Many tourists are drawn to the art nouveau architecture found in the streets of Paris.
How Functional
Surface Forms
Morphology
art + nouveau
The phrase combines English 'art' with the French loanword 'nouveau' (new), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer an approximate meaning like 'new art' or a modern style. However, Art Nouveau is the proper name of a specific historical/artistic movement with stylistic connotations that are not fully predictable from the words alone, so the term is only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Art nouveau comes from French and literally means art + nouveau ('new art'). One popular story says a Paris gallery called 'La Maison de l'Art Nouveau' showed these new, flowing designs, so people began to call the decorative style with plant-like lines and shapes art nouveau.