London
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is planning an ambitious exhibition on Art Nouveau to open in April 2000. “Decadence and Dreams: Art Nouveau 1890-1914” will focus on art and design in thirteen key cities (Barcelona, Brussels, Budapest, Chicago, Glasgow, Helsinki, Moscow, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Turin and Vienna). Organiser Paul Greenhalgh promises that it will be “the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Art Nouveau ever staged”. Artists and designers will include Beardsley, Gauguin, Gallé, Gaudi, Mackintosh, Mucha, Munch, Tiffany and Toulouse-Lautrec. The V&A hopes that the show will travel to America. After this a smaller version of the exhibition may go to Japan and to Copenhagen’s Kunstindustrimuseet. The V&A is also planning a companion exhibition for London, to be shown immediately after “Decadence and Dreams”. This second show, provisionally entitled “Complexity and Chaos”, will focus on design in the year 2000 and beyond. Another exhibition covering the Art Nouveau period is being planned by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It will deal with the period 1895-1905, although the primary focus is likely to be on painting and sculpture. Glasgow Museums is holding an exhibition on “Creative Cities” in summer 1999, as part of Britain’s Year of Architecture and Design. The show at the McLellan Galleries will cover ten cities, focusing on them when they were at their height of architectural glory. These include Glasgow in 1899 and Budapest in 1910.