Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau

Episode 2

British Cities

London didn’t embrace the erotic curves of Art Nouveau quite as rapturously as Paris. But Oscar Wilde did, especially the drawings of daring young Aubrey Beardsley. Then Wilde was carted off to jail for “gross indecency”, leaving both their reputations in tatters and straitlaced Victorians with a deep mistrust for this continental smut masquerading as art. Stephen Smith examines the influence art nouveau had on British art and design in the early part of the 20th century. He explores the work of illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as well as delving into the careers of less celebrated figures, including Mackintosh's wife Margaret MacDonald and artist and craftswoman Mary Watts. Smith also considers how entrepreneur Arthur Liberty helped popularise the art nouveau style through his London department store.

Episode 3

Vienna

In a story that combines scandal and revolution, cultural correspondent Stephen Smith explores how Vienna's artists rebelled against the establishment in the late 19th century and brought their own highly-sexed version of Art Nouveau to the banks of the Danube. Looking at the eye-watering work of Gustav Klimt, Smith discovers that Viennese 'Jugenstil' was more than just a decorative delight, but saw artists struggle to bring social meaning to the new style. Revealing the design genius of Josef Hoffman, the graphic work of Koloman Moser and the emergence of the enfant terrible Egon Schiele, Smith unpacks the stories behind a style that burned brightly but briefly at the fin de siecle.