The First Moderns: Art Nouveau, from Nature to Abstraction - Press information

4th Feb 2012 - 21st Dec 2013

On Saturday 4 February 2012 the Sainsbury Centre’s new Modernisms display opened with a spectacular exhibition that explores the influence of nature on early Modern design, and the move over years to abstract and geometric forms.

Emile Gallé Vase ‘blow-out’ cameo glass Read more »	Reissner Stellmacher und Kessel Figure of Loie Fuller Read more »	Josef Hoffman Adjustable lounge chair Read more »
René Lalique Hair ornament with a cypripedium orchid design Read more »	Loetz (attrib). Vase: with combed blue decoration Read more »	Gustave Serrurier Bovy Vase Read more »

The First Moderns: Art Nouveau, Nature to Abstraction features spectacular works from the Sainsbury Centre’s seminal collection of Art Nouveau and is the first in a new series of exhibitions that place the collections in the context of social and cultural issues.

Art Nouveau developed in the decades after Charles Darwin published his seminal ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859) and during the period that saw the rise of industry, commerce and the city. The age also saw changing attitudes towards sex and sexuality. The exhibition includes masterpieces by the great Art Nouveau designers: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Emile Gallé Louis Majorelle, René Lalique, Josef Hoffmann, Alphonse Mucha and many more. It culminates with those designers who moved from natural forms to geometric ones: Gerrit Rietveld, Vladimir Tatlin and Marcel Breuer. The exhibition positions these designers as the First Moderns.

The First Moderns features loans from public insititutions such as the V&A and Glasgow School of Art, and a number of private collections. It will include the first display of new acquisitions to the Sainsbury Centre collections including a significant work by Josef Hoffmann.

The exhibition is on the mezzanine level of the museum overlooking the new Modern Life café-bar and Next Modern contemporary art exhibition. First Moderns hosts a trial of a new form of interpretation for the Centre, using QR codes to add multimedia content.