Auburn Hills, Mich. - The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund is pleased to announce its support of Art Nouveau: 1890-1914, which will be on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from Oct. 8, 2000 through Jan. 29, 2001. DaimlerChrysler's support of this exhibition reinforces the company's commitment to supporting important art exhibitions.

Organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art, Art Nouveau: 1890-1914 is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever organized which examines the movement that swept across Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Over 350 works by 200 artists will be on view representing loans from private and public collections in Europe and the United States. Prior to its opening in Washington, the exhibition will remain on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum through July 30.

Beginning in the 1890s and ending during World War I, Art Nouveau (French for "new art") captures the prevalent themes of the age. It came to be as a result of urbanization and modernization, spanning all art forms including architecture, painting, sculpture, furniture and jewelry. Art Nouveau's success and dissemination depended on a new society committed to buying and selling modern luxury goods. But it was the technological advances of the Industrial Age that made the production of furniture and other Art Nouveau objects possible.

"This exhibition is a reflection of the spirit in the world during a very pivotal time in our history," said Robert G. Liberatore, Senior Vice President of External Affairs and Public Policy. "Like the artists of the time, DaimlerChrysler looks for design inspiration from around the world, then adds technological expertise and elegance to create products with global appeal and application. With corporate roots that reach back to the beginning of the movement, DaimlerChrysler is pleased to bring this important exhibition to our nation's capital."

The exhibition focuses on turn-of-the-century cities including Paris, Brussels, Munich, Vienna, Glasgow, Turin, New York and Chicago. Represented artists include Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Rene Lalique.

The Art Nouveau exhibition is the latest in a series of major exhibitions that have been supported by the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund.

In 1997, DaimlerChrysler sponsored the Splendors of Ancient Egypt at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), which was followed in 1998 by The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican, a collection of art treasures from the Vatican.

Currently on view at the DIA through June 2, 2000 is the most recent exhibition to be sponsored by the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, van Gogh: Face to Face, the first comprehensive exhibition of portraits by one of the best-known painters in the history of Western art.

"DaimlerChrysler supports exhibitions of this caliber because we are committed to adding to the cultural and educational richness of areas in which our customers and employees live and work," said W. Frank Fountain, President of the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund. "We are pleased to be associated with the Art Nouveau exhibition and to help visitors understand, through various forms of art, the impact these artisans had on twentieth-century art and design."

The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund is the primary source of charitable grants made by DaimlerChrysler Corporation. Since its founding in 1953, the Fund has contributed more than $250 million to charitable organizations throughout the United States and, increasingly, the world. During 2000, the Fund will contribute more than $31 million to charity.

(April 25, 2000)