In the wake of the widespread emergence of Art Nouveau as the favored style for many international expositions around 1900, its Italian variant, called the Stile Liberty among other names, was quickly adopted as a kind of corporate emblem by the nascent Turin-based automobile company Fiat (originally FIAT). Fiat employed the style in all aspects of its design over the next two decades, from its graphics in advertising and communication to its exposition stands to its first factory in Turin as well as the garages that it began building around the country. Fiat's liberal use of the Stile Liberty spurred the adoption of the style by many executives in the automotive and other industries, such as agriculture, shipping, textiles, utilities, and railways, who used it for pavilions and graphics at nearly all Italian expositions preceding World War I and even their own private residences. The association of the Stile Liberty on such a massive scale with critical sectors of the developing Italian economy thus ensured its unusual survival as an emblem of Italian modernity to rival Futurism until the advent of the Fascist era in the 1920s. 

 

Dr. Clericuzio has served as the MSc Programme Director, Architectural History & Theory at the University of Edinburgh and presented the paper “A Synecdoche of Empire: International Expositions and the Great Mosque of Djenné” at the 2022 ISIE Symposium.