Avant-Garde Movements

Arts & Crafts movement ideas began flourishing in Europe since the second half of 19th century. They do not only informed the aesthetics of this prosperous time but also deeply affected the concept of art in itself, opening the door to the development of design and mass production, bringing together fine art and applied arts. In Britain, Germany, France and Austria, these ideas were spreading and becoming catalyst for artistic gatherings and groups, from which the names Jugendstil, Vienna Secession and Art Nouveau originated and grew at the turn of the century. They all shared the same desire of searching beyond the traditional and established art, welcoming innovations and progress and democratising and integrating different art forms. William Morris, Gustav Klimt, August Endell, Henry Van de Velde, Viktor Horta were among the artists, architects, designers, writers of this Europe-wide movement that spread in the whole intellectual community until the First World War, before handing over to the Art Deco period just after the conflict and still passing its legacy to the modernism and Bauhaus.