How does the multimedia nature of Art Nouveau influence the nature of the exhibition?
Well, this is a philosophical question, but it also has practical implications. Our design department, led by Mark Leithauser, is so experienced that the staff knows instinctively that a multimedia exhibition can’t be just a series of masterpieces–especially a show like Art Nouveau, because decorative arts by their very nature are utilitarian. One has to sit on the chair as well as admire it. One has to be able to open a glass-fronted vitrine and see some of the spectacular works behind the glass doors. The exhibition becomes complicated when one is choosing artworks by disparate artists that all have to harmonize. It is a philosophical conundrum in that many of these ensembles never would have been seen together–we have made them up. One would never see Frank Lloyd Wright in juxtaposition with Louis Sullivan in “the real world.” One would never have seen a great painting by Fernand Khnopff over a Henry van de Velde table, as we show here. Yet because of their similar artistic sensib
