Art Nouveau artists embraced these ideas and added a return to the observation and imitation of nature and the use of organic and botanical forms. There was also their refusal to maintain the long-standing distinction between the fine and decorative arts. Art Nouveau practitioners wanted to create a new, broader-based aesthetic that would beautify everyday surroundings.

Glass and ceramics were ideal media for Art Nouveau artists. Their plasticity enabled artists to create shapes that evoked the flowing natural forms that distinguish the style. The materials could also be readily decorated, and each artist established signature surface treatments and decorative patterns. In America, Louis Comfort Tiffany had become interested in glass-making techniques in the mid-1870's. His collection of glass from the East and North Africa, with its freedom of form and often unintentional irregularity, appealed to him at a time when designers were attempting to escape from Western conventions. Tiffany was fascinated with the possibilities of incorporating decoration within the glass itself, and the iridescence of the antique glass he found on his travels inspired his best-known range of glassware, the gold and peacock lusterwares. During the centuries it had remained buried, the ancient glass had reacted with the surrounding soil, taking on an iridescent appearance. This natural process led Tiffany to set up 'controlled accidents' for his own glass. In his so-called 'Jack in the Pulpit' vases, with their bulbous base with a long stem culminating in a large lily-like trumpet, he found the ideal shape to display the shimmering iridescent effects he had perfected.

Despite the fact that Tiffany had acquired followers in America, like Martin Bach of Quezal glass works in Brooklyn and art glass manufacturer Victor Durand in New Jersey, for most Americans Art Nouveau remained an exotic, and predominately French, import. Perhaps the best known of the French designers was Emile Gallé. In 1874, Gallé took over his father's firm, building it into the largest manufacturer of luxury glassware in Europe, and producing some of the most brilliant Art Nouveau pieces ever made.

This exhibition, organized by Syracuse University, also featured works by Frenchman Clément Massier, Austrian Max Ritter von Spaun, American Frederick Carder of Steuben Glass Works, and Frenchman Jacques Sicard.