Art-Nouveau

VISITING Huddersfield recently I was greatly struck by the ingenuity and beauty of Lindley Clock Tower to such an extent that I sketched it (right) and investigated the work of its radical art-nouveau, modernist-inclined architect Edgar Wood (1860-1935).

This Collette bed from Zocalo's new Belle Noir collection is Art-Nouveau inspired and features rich onyx patina, contrasted with antique pewter hardware.

If you take a walk around this neighborhood you will be able to admire architectural masterpieces such as the Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera, among other wonders inherited from Antoni Gaudi - don't miss his Parc Guell - and the other architects of the city's homegrown art-nouveau movement, modernisme.

The modern movement's curious authoritarianism is exemplified in a 1930 poster from the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels telling us what is good taste (a modern kitchen with its hard-edged surfaces) and bad (an old-fashioned, rather art-nouveau drawing room).

In On Burning Mirrors, 1992, a fluid design that seems half art-nouveau and half Mayan is superimposed on a gray and turquoise ground like shot silk.

It focuses on the architect of the Palais des Beaux Arts, Victor Horta, who created buildings that are the embodiment of art-nouveau architecture in Belgium.