The Art Nouveau Center

From the early 1800s to WWI, Art Nouvou appeared in many major cities throughout Europe. One of its European centers was Munich, by far the German leader in this movement known as Jugendstil, or youth style. The term Jugendstill came from the weekly Munich art and lifestyle magaizine, Jugend. Art nouveau embraced all forms of art and design: architecture, furniture, glassware, graphic design, jewellery, painting, pottery, metalwork, and textiles. And today, you can find remnants of it scattered around the Altstadt and places like Schwabing. The style is characterized by organic, floral and high stylized curving forms. The artform is considered an important bridge between Neoclasicism and modernism, despite going out of fashion around the beginning of the 20th-century. Ironically, throughout most of the world you are more likely to see art nouveau influences in the psychedelic art movement of the 60s and 70s. But in Munich, you can see it everyday – just walking down the street.