the Art of Life: Nouveau Posters and Visual Culture Hungarian Secession (1895 1914)

The Art of Life presents the first golden age of Hungarian poster art, in an international context, which developed at the turn of the twentieth century in the Art Nouveau style, including works by great artists of the genre Mucha, Klimt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Moser and others. They are joined by iconic works by well-known Hungarian artists, including Faragó, Bíró, Helbing, Tuszkay, and works by artists who have been undeservedly forgotten. This book offers insight into Art Nouveau posters and other graphic design work, along with objects of applied art and architecture which also play a role. The posters advertise a wide variety of phenomena, newspapers, theatres, cabarets, amusement parlours and commercial products, etc., thus recalling the era in which they were created. The Art of Life reveals the world of bourgeois homes, urban nightlife at the turn of the century, the atmosphere of cafés, the dress and habits of urban women, the leisure activities popular at the turn of the century, cycling, visits to spas and glittering balls. The posters, with their subtle painterly solutions or decorative line, promote the Art Nouveau idea of beauty, delight or humour. They recreate the atmosphere of the last happy years of peace before the First World War.