The grand opening in 1895 of Siegfried Bing’s gallery, "L’Art Nouveau," was a major event on the Parisian calendar. For Bing, a renowned dealer in Japanese art and Europe’s leading exponent of Japonisme, the beautifully designed furnishings and objects he collected—and in many cases commissioned—fulfilled his vision of a new design aesthetic that promoted harmony and elegance. Overnight, Bing’s emporium for new art became a symbol for, and the name of, an artistic movement known around the world.
Illuminating Bing’s role as a creative entrepreneur and the principal creator of the new style, this book explores his sponsorship of Japanese art; his close ties to such painters as Bonnard, Munch, and Toulouse-Lautrec; and his collaboration with Louis Comfort Tiffany and leading design studios in America and Britain. Bing’s work as an interior decorator at the Paris World Fair of 1900 demonstrated the ability of one man to influence the arts worldwide.
The Origins of L’Art Nouveau, which features three hundred gorgeous color illustrations, reveals anew how one visionary individual shaped the tastes of a generation by effectively uniting Asian, European, and American styles, techniques, and sensibilities.
