The Next NOUVEAU

THEATRICAL BOTANICALS MAKE A SWEEPING COMEBACK, IMMERSING INTERIORS IN FLUID PASTELS, AIRY FOLIAGE, AND TITAN SCALE

- ALICE WELSH DOYLE

THE PAINTERLY CURVES OF ART NOUVEAU WERE revolutionary. The sinuous botanical motifs that arose in rural England at the turn of the 20th century lifted the unruliness of nature to "new art," a powerful antithesis of the rising industrial order and mass production of goods. Art Nouveau sprung from its more pragmatic cousin Arts and Crafts, the handcraft revival led by William Morris, but its luminaries, such as architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and A.H. Mackmurdo, sought to he