Art Nouveau was a highly decorative art movement started by the new middle-class, which established itself in cities throughout Europe and the United States at the turn of the century.
It was a genuinely cosmopolitan project of modernity that existed in all sorts of media, forms, scales, and geographies. Everything from architecture, interior design, decorative arts, fashion and graphic design was influenced by this new art. It was literally new since the term Art Nouveau is a French word for "new art."
