Word: nouveau
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...preferred American grain elevators to Gothic cathedrals, but only because they were trim manifestations of a man-made world long removed from the saintly preoccupations of the medieval age. He ridiculed the beaux-arts esthetic that caused designers to disguise railway stations as Roman temples and believed that art nouveau's attempt to doll up houses with plantlike curlicues was a sham...
...turn of the century, European taste makers found themselves caught up in the snaky tendrils of a self-conscious style called art nouveau. Not only candlesticks and furniture, but whole buildings were designed to flow with floral grace. From the Paris Métro stations of Hector Guimard to the décor of Maxim's, symmetry was out, organic flow was in, and nothing from the insect or aquatic world was too exotic. La Belle Époque lasted little more than a couple of decades (1880-1905), but in that brief span produced a series of small masterpieces...
Hugo could not know that, for all their sentiment, Sarah found diamonds a mite conventional. Her taste tended to more sensuous things-she could not resist the sinuous ruby-eyed snake bracelet and ring designed by Art Nouveau Painter Alphonse Mucha and crafted by Jewelsmith Georges Fouquet for her première in Cleopatra, went in hock (she was frequently broke, though her earnings topped $9,000,000) for about $2,000 to have it. To make sure she paid, Fouquet turned up at the theater box office regularly each week to collect his share of the receipts...
...shortcomings, Circle of Love is worth seeing if only for its breathtaking color decor. The camera wizardry of Henri Decae produces acres of gauzy portraiture, plus one exquisite vignette in the style of Lautrec, and nearly always the film glows in a red, green and golden wash of art-nouveau elegance. Against such sumptuousness, Vadim's elementary lechery seems to be the only thing out of place...
...crumbling worldliness and gooey sensuality of a Linzertorte. Like his native city, which lies on the fringes of the Western world, his work flirts with the Far East, draws from such predecessors as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt as well as the tendrilous enticements of Jugendstil or art nouveau. He mingles oils and tempera with gold and silver foil, beeswax, and bits of peat moss and sand to make his almost bitter, labyrinthine pastries...