St. Augustine, FL —The Lightner Museum is excited to announce the opening of a major touring exhibition, The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art. The exhibition marks the culmination of the Lightner’s 75th anniversary celebration and will be on view from November 17, 2023 through March 15, 2024.
The Lightner Museum will celebrate the opening of this landmark exhibition from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, November 17 with a spectacular soirée inspired by all things Art Nouveau. Guests will get an exclusive first look at the exhibition while enjoying craft cocktails curated by The Treasury on the Plaza, delicious hors d’oeuvres served by Chef’s Garden, and live music by Miami’s French Horn Collective, all while immersed in lavish decor inspired by the era in our historic Alcazar Casino. Tickets for the event are available on lightnermuseum.org
Featuring the organic furniture of Louis Majorelle, the alluring posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the luminous works of Louis Comfort Tiffany, The Triumph of Nature presents a dazzling selection of ceramics, furniture, glass, jewelry, paintings, posters, prints, sculpture, and textiles from one of the finest and largest US collections of Art Nouveau. The exhibition will be displayed in the Lightner Museum’s Grand Ballroom Gallery. Completed in 1889, the space is contemporary with the origins of Art Nouveau and provides an ideal context for these remarkable works of art.
Art Nouveau was an exuberant, radical style that blithely trampled many of the Victorian era’s traditions of art and design. Celebrating beauty and nature while embracing new technologies and incorporating international influences, Art Nouveau exploded age-old orthodoxies with its fanciful approach to art, architecture, and design. Art Nouveau flourished during a period of rapid social and technological change in Europe and America. Taking inspiration from the vitality of nature, the pioneers of Art Nouveau created sensuous, decadent works of art dominated by sinuous, undulating lines, stylized organic forms, and bold asymmetric compositions. On the brink of a new century, these visionary artists and designers rejected slavish adherence to past styles, challenged social and cultural norms, and sought to create a vocabulary of design for the modern age.
The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art is organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
About the Lightner Museum
The Lightner Museum is dedicated to enriching the lives of visitors through its extraordinary collection, historic building, and dynamic exhibitions and programs. Founded in 1948 by Chicago publisher and collector, Otto C. Lightner, and housed in the former Hotel Alcazar, a Gilded Age resort hotel built by Henry Flagler, the museum offers an immersive experience of art, architecture, history, and design. The Lightner Museum is open seven days a week, 363 days a year from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 75 King Street St. Augustine, Florida 32084. Visit lightnermuseum.org or call 904-824-2874.
About the Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of the Chrysler’s collection comes from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of objects from his private collection to the Museum. For more information on the Chrysler Museum of Art, visit chrysler.org.
About International Arts & Artists
International Arts & Artists in Washington, DC, is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally, through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, arts institutions and the public. Visit www.artsandartists.org
