Modern: Klimt, Gaudí, Mucha

At the end of the 19th century in various parts of Europe, a young and energetic generation of designers and artists aimed to rid themselves of the historicism and eclecticism that had dominated art for almost half a century, and to create a new distinctive style, a different artistic form that would correspond to modernity. These efforts were most successful in the fields of architecture, interior design, applied arts, book design, and poster art, and of course, in painting. The new movement in art was called modernism. There were many artists, architects, and designers who represented modernism in European art and American art. Among the most famous were the Czech theater artist and illustrator Alphonse Mucha, the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, and perhaps the most original Spanish architect Antonio Gaudí.