The strains of European Art
Nouveau soon found their way into American culture principally through ceramic
and glass designs. The fondness for Orientalism, especially Japanese prints and
ceramic glazing effects,
influenced such leading figures as Louis Comfort Tiffany (his glass became a revered
hallmark of Art Nouveau), Jacques Sicard, Artus Van Briggle, William Gates, among
others, who introduced highly individualized interpretations of the style to America.
Their work did much to blur the old distinctions between fine art and applied
or decorative art. Architect
Louis H. Sullivan and his master ornamentalist, George Elmslie, introduced the
Art Nouveau aesthetic to America's heartland by integrating floral ornaments with
cubic mass, a fusion of organic
and inorganic superbly realized in The National Farmer's Bank, now Norwest
Bank Owatonna.
