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Art Deco

October 26, 2023

This article is about the art style. For other uses, see Art Deco (disambiguation).

Art Deco, short for the French Arts Décoratifs, and sometimes referred to simply as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I),[1] and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look (clothing, fashion and jewelry), Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings (from skyscrapers to cinemas), ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners.[2]

Art Deco
Top to bottom: Chrysler Building in New York City (1930); poster for the Chicago World's Fair by Weimer Pursell (1933); and hood ornament Victoire by René Lalique (1928)
Years activec. 1910s–1950s
CountryGlobal

It got its name after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris.[3]

Art Deco combined the styles of early 20th century Modernist avant-garde, with the fine craftsmanship and rich materials of French historic design, but also sometimes with motifs taken from non-Western cultures. From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism and the Vienna Secession; the bright colours of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes; the updated craftsmanship of the furniture of the eras of Louis XVI and Louis Philippe I; and the exoticized styles of China, Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt and Maya art.

During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress. The movement featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, and exquisite craftsmanship. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and other skyscrapers of New York City built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments to the style.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Art Deco gradually became more subdued, paving the way for the International Style and Mid-century modern. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic. A sleeker form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, featuring curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces.[4] Art Deco was a truly international style, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the strictly functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed.[5][6]

Etymology Edit

Art Deco took its name, short for arts décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925,[3] though the diverse styles that characterised it had already appeared in Paris and Brussels before World War I.

Arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858 in the Bulletin de la Société française de photographie.[7] In 1868, the Le Figaro newspaper used the term objets d'art décoratifs for objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de l'Opéra.[8][9][10] In 1875, furniture designers, textile, jewellers, glass-workers, and other craftsmen were officially given the status of artists by the French government. In response, the École royale gratuite de dessin (Royal Free School of Design), founded in 1766 under King Louis XVI to train artists and artisans in crafts relating to the fine arts, was renamed the École nationale des arts décoratifs (National School of Decorative Arts). It took its present name, ENSAD (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), in 1927.

At the 1925 Exposition, architect Le Corbusier wrote a series of articles about the exhibition for his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau, under the title "1925 EXPO. ARTS. DÉCO.", which were combined into a book, L'art décoratif d'aujourd'hui (Decorative Art Today). The book was a spirited attack on the excesses of the colourful, lavish objects at the Exposition, and on the idea that practical objects such as furniture should not have any decoration at all; his conclusion was that "Modern decoration has no decoration".[11]

The actual term art déco did not appear in print until 1966, in the title of the first modern exhibition on the subject, held by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, Les Années 25 : Art déco, Bauhaus, Stijl, Esprit nouveau, which covered a variety of major styles in the 1920s and 1930s.[12] The term was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in The Times (London, 12 November), describing the different styles at the exhibit.[13]

Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on it, Art Deco of the 20s and 30s.[2] He noted that the term was already being used by art dealers, and cites The Times (2 November 1966) and an essay named Les Arts Déco in Elle magazine (November 1967) as examples.[14] In 1971, he organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book The World of Art Deco.[15][16]

It's also important to mention that, in its time, Art Deco was not only tagged with other names, like style moderne, Moderne, modernistic or style contemporain, but it was also not recognized at the theoretical level as a distinct and homogenous style.[17]

Origins Edit

Society of Decorative Artists (1901–1945) Edit

The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, who until late in the 19th century were considered simply artisans. The term arts décoratifs had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists), or SAD, was founded in 1901, and decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors. A similar movement developed in Italy. The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the decorative arts, the Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration and L'Art décoratif moderne. Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon d'Automne. French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts, as French designers felt challenged by the increasing exports of less expensive German furnishings. In 1911, SAD proposed a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912. No copies of old styles would be permitted, only modern works. The exhibit was postponed until 1914; and then, because of the war, until 1925, when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as "Déco".[18]

Parisian department stores and fashion designers also played an important part in the rise of Art Deco. Prominent businesses such as silverware firm Christofle, glass designer René Lalique, and the jewellers Louis Cartier and Boucheron began designing products in more modern styles.[19][20] Beginning in 1900, department stores recruited decorative artists to work in their design studios. The decoration of the 1912 Salon d'Automne was entrusted to the department store Printemps,[21][22] and that year it created its own workshop, Primavera.[22] By 1920 Primavera employed more than 300 artists, whose styles ranged from updated versions of Louis XIV, Louis XVI, and especially Louis Philippe furniture made by Louis Süe and the Primavera workshop, to more modern forms from the workshop of the Au Louvre department store. Other designers, including Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Paul Follot, refused to use mass production, insisting that each piece be made individually. The early Art Deco style featured luxurious and exotic materials such as ebony, ivory and silk, very bright colours and stylized motifs, particularly baskets and bouquets of flowers of all colours, giving a modernist look.[23]

Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstätte (1897–1912) Edit

The architects of the Vienna Secession (formed 1897), especially Josef Hoffmann, had a notable influence on Art Deco. His Stoclet Palace, in Brussels (1905–1911), was a prototype of the Art Deco style, featuring geometric volumes, symmetry, straight lines, concrete covered with marble plaques, finely-sculpted ornament, and lavish interiors, including mosaic friezes by Gustav Klimt. Hoffmann was also a founder of the Wiener Werkstätte (1903–1932), an association of craftsmen and interior designers working in the new style. This became the model for the Compagnie des arts français, created in 1919, which brought together André Mare, and Louis Süe, the first leading French Art Deco designers and decorators.[24]

New materials and technologies Edit

New materials and technologies, especially reinforced concrete, were key to the development and appearance of Art Deco. The first concrete house was built in 1853 in the Paris suburbs by François Coignet. In 1877 Joseph Monier introduced the idea of strengthening the concrete with a mesh of iron rods in a grill pattern. In 1893 Auguste Perret built the first concrete garage in Paris, then an apartment building, house, then, in 1913, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The theatre was denounced by one critic as the "Zeppelin of Avenue Montaigne", an alleged Germanic influence, copied from the Vienna Secession. Thereafter, the majority of Art Deco buildings were made of reinforced concrete, which gave greater freedom of form and less need for reinforcing pillars and columns. Perret was also a pioneer in covering the concrete with ceramic tiles, both for protection and decoration. The architect Le Corbusier first learned the uses of reinforced concrete working as a draftsman in Perret's studio.[25]

Other new technologies that were important to Art Deco were new methods in producing plate glass, which was less expensive and allowed much larger and stronger windows, and for mass-producing aluminium, which was used for building and window frames and later, by Corbusier, Warren McArthur, and others, for lightweight furniture.

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913) Edit

Main article: Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
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    Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, by Auguste Perret, 15 avenue Montaigne, Paris (1910–13). Reinforced concrete gave architects the ability to create new forms and bigger spaces.

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    Antoine Bourdelle, La Danse, on the façade of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1912)

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    Interior of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with Bourdelle's bas-reliefs over the stage

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    Dome of the Theater, with Art Deco rose design by Maurice Denis

 
Antoine Bourdelle, 1910–12, Apollon et sa méditation entourée des 9 muses (Apollo and His Meditation Surrounded by the 9 Muses), bas-relief, on the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. This work represents one of the earliest examples of what became known as Art Deco sculpture.

The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913), by Auguste Perret, was the first landmark Art Deco building completed in Paris. Previously, reinforced concrete had been used only for industrial and apartment buildings, Perret had built the first modern reinforced-concrete apartment building in Paris on rue Benjamin Franklin in 1903–04. Henri Sauvage, another important future Art Deco architect, built another in 1904 at 7, rue Trétaigne (1904). From 1908 to 1910, the 21-year-old Le Corbusier worked as a draftsman in Perret's office, learning the techniques of concrete construction. Perret's building had clean rectangular form, geometric decoration and straight lines, the future trademarks of Art Deco. The décor of the theatre was also revolutionary; the façade was decorated with high reliefs by Antoine Bourdelle, a dome by Maurice Denis, paintings by Édouard Vuillard, and an Art Deco curtain by Ker-Xavier Roussel. The theatre became the venue for many of the first performances of the Ballets Russes.[26] Perret and Sauvage became the leading Art Deco architects in Paris in the 1920s.[27][28]

Salon d'Automne (1903–1914) Edit

Main article: Salon d'Automne

At its birth between 1910 and 1914, Art Deco was an explosion of colours, featuring bright and often clashing hues, frequently in floral designs, presented in furniture upholstery, carpets, screens, wallpaper and fabrics. Many colourful works, including chairs and a table by Maurice Dufrêne and a bright Gobelin carpet by Paul Follot were presented at the 1912 Salon des artistes décorateurs. In 1912–1913 designer Adrien Karbowsky made a floral chair with a parrot design for the hunting lodge of art collector Jacques Doucet.[29] The furniture designers Louis Süe and André Mare made their first appearance at the 1912 exhibit, under the name of the Atelier français, combining polychromatic fabrics with exotic and expensive materials, including ebony and ivory. After World War I, they became one of the most prominent French interior design firms, producing the furniture for the first-class salons and cabins of the French transatlantic ocean liners.[30]

The vivid hues of Art Deco came from many sources, including the exotic set designs by Léon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, which caused a sensation in Paris just before World War I. Some of the colours were inspired by the earlier Fauvism movement led by Henri Matisse; others by the Orphism of painters such as Sonia Delaunay;[31] others by the movement known as Les Nabis, and in the work of symbolist painter Odilon Redon, who designed fireplace screens and other decorative objects. Bright shades were a feature of the work of fashion designer Paul Poiret, whose work influenced both Art Deco fashion and interior design.[30][32][33]

Cubism Edit

 
Joseph Csaky, 1912, Danseuse (Femme à l'éventail, Femme à la cruche), original plaster, exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne and the 1914 Salon des Indépendants, a Proto-Art Deco sculpture

The art movement known as Cubism appeared in France between 1907 and 1912, influencing the development of Art Deco.[26][31][32] In Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s Alastair Duncan writes "Cubism, in some bastardized form or other, became the lingua franca of the era's decorative artists."[32][34] The Cubists, themselves under the influence of Paul Cézanne, were interested in the simplification of forms to their geometric essentials: the cylinder, the sphere, the cone.[35][36]

In 1912, the artists of the Section d'Or exhibited works considerably more accessible to the general public than the analytical Cubism of Picasso and Braque. The Cubist vocabulary was poised to attract fashion, furniture and interior designers.[31][33][36][37]

The 1912 writings of André Vera, Le Nouveau style, published in the journal L'Art décoratif, expressed the rejection of Art Nouveau forms (asymmetric, polychrome and picturesque) and called for simplicité volontaire, symétrie manifeste, l'ordre et l'harmonie, themes that would eventually become common within Art Deco;[20] though the Deco style was often extremely colourful and often complex.[38]

In the Art Décoratif section of the 1912 Salon d'Automne, an architectural installation was exhibited known as La Maison Cubiste.[39][40] The façade was designed by Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The décor of the house was by André Mare.[41][42] La Maison Cubiste was a furnished installation with a façade, a staircase, wrought iron banisters, a bedroom, a living room—the Salon Bourgeois, where paintings by Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Marie Laurencin, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger and Roger de La Fresnaye were hung.[43][44][45] Thousands of spectators at the salon passed through the full-scale model.[46]

The façade of the house, designed by Duchamp-Villon, was not very radical by modern standards; the lintels and pediments had prismatic shapes, but otherwise the façade resembled an ordinary house of the period. For the two rooms, Mare designed the wallpaper, which featured stylized roses and floral patterns, along with upholstery, furniture and carpets, all with flamboyant and colourful motifs. It was a distinct break from traditional décor. The critic Emile Sedeyn described Mare's work in the magazine Art et Décoration: "He does not embarrass himself with simplicity, for he multiplies flowers wherever they can be put. The effect he seeks is obviously one of picturesqueness and gaiety. He achieves it."[47] The Cubist element was provided by the paintings. The installation was attacked by some critics as extremely radical, which helped make for its success.[48] This architectural installation was subsequently exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show, New York City, Chicago and Boston.[31][36][49][50][51] Thanks largely to the exhibition, the term "Cubist" began to be applied to anything modern, from women's haircuts to clothing to theater performances."[48]

The Cubist influence continued within Art Deco, even as Deco branched out in many other directions.[31][32] In 1927, Cubists Joseph Csaky, Jacques Lipchitz, Louis Marcoussis, Henri Laurens, the sculptor Gustave Miklos, and others collaborated in the decoration of a Studio House, rue Saint-James, Neuilly-sur-Seine, designed by the architect Paul Ruaud and owned by the French fashion designer Jacques Doucet, also a collector of Post-Impressionist art by Henri Matisse and Cubist paintings (including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which he bought directly from Picasso's studio). Laurens designed the fountain, Csaky designed Doucet's staircase,[52] Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel, and Marcoussis made a Cubist rug.[31][53][54][55]

Besides the Cubist artists, Doucet brought in other Deco interior designers to help in decorating the house, including Pierre Legrain, who was in charge of organizing the decoration, and Paul Iribe, Marcel Coard, André Groult, Eileen Gray and Rose Adler to provide furniture. The décor included massive pieces made of macassar ebony, inspired by African art, and furniture covered with Morocco leather, crocodile skin and snakeskin, and patterns taken from African designs.[56]

Cubism's adumbrated geometry became coin of the realm in the 1920s. Art Deco's development of Cubism's selective geometry into a wider array of shapes carried Cubism as a pictorial taxonomy to a much broader audience and wider appeal. (Richard Harrison Martin, Metropolitan Museum of Art)[57]

Influences Edit

Pre-WW1 past Edit

Art Deco was not a single style, but a collection of different and sometimes contradictory styles. In architecture, Art Deco was the successor to and reaction against Art Nouveau, a style which flourished in Europe between 1895 and 1900, and coexisted with the Beaux-Arts and neoclassical that were predominant in European and American architecture. In 1905 Eugène Grasset wrote and published Méthode de Composition Ornementale, Éléments Rectilignes,[59] in which he systematically explored the decorative (ornamental) aspects of geometric elements, forms, motifs and their variations, in contrast with (and as a departure from) the undulating Art Nouveau style of Hector Guimard, so popular in Paris a few years earlier. Grasset stressed the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements. The reinforced-concrete buildings of Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage, and particularly the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, offered a new form of construction and decoration which was copied worldwide.[60]

Ancient and non-European civilizations Edit

In decoration, many different styles were borrowed and used by Art Deco. They included pre-modern art from around the world and observable at the Musée du Louvre, Musée de l'Homme and the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. There was also popular interest in archaeology due to excavations at Pompeii, Troy, and the tomb of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Artists and designers integrated motifs from ancient Egypt, Africa, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Asia, Mesoamerica and Oceania with Machine Age elements.[64][65][66][67][68][69]

Early 20th century avant-garde movements Edit

Other styles borrowed included Futurism, Orphism, Functionalism, and Modernism in general. Cubism discovers its decorative potential within the Art Deco aesthetic, when transposed from the canvas onto a textile material or wallpaper. Sonia Delaunay conceives her dress models in an abstract and geometric style, "as live paintings or sculptures of living forms". Cubist-like designs are created by Louis Barrilet in the stained-glass windows of the American bar at the Atrium Casino in Dax (1926), but also including names of fashionable cocktails. In architecture, the clear contrast between horizontal and vertical volumes, specific both to Russian Constructivism and the Frank Lloyd Wright-Willem Marinus Dudok line, becomes a common device in articulating Art Deco façades, from individual homes and tenement buildings to cinemas or oil stations.[78][36][64][79][80] Art Deco also used the clashing colours and designs of Fauvism, notably in the work of Henri Matisse and André Derain, inspired the designs of art deco textiles, wallpaper, and painted ceramics.[36] It took ideas from the high fashion vocabulary of the period, which featured geometric designs, chevrons, zigzags, and stylized bouquets of flowers. It was influenced by discoveries in Egyptology, and growing interest in the Orient and in African art. From 1925 onwards, it was often inspired by a passion for new machines, such as airships, automobiles and ocean liners, and by 1930 this influence resulted in the style called Streamline Moderne.[81]

Style of luxury and modernity Edit

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    The boudoir of fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin (1922–25) now in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, France

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    Bath of Jeanne Lanvin, of Sienna marble, with decoration of carved stucco and bronze (1922–25)

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    An Art Deco study by the Paris design firm of Alavoine, now in the Brooklyn Museum, New York City, N.Y. (1928–30)

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    Glass Salon (Le salon de verre) designed by Paul Ruaud with furniture by Eileen Gray, for Madame Mathieu-Levy (milliner of the boutique J. Suzanne Talbot), 9, rue de Lota, Paris, 1922 (published in L'Illustration, 27 May 1933)

Art Deco was associated with both luxury and modernity; it combined very expensive materials and exquisite craftsmanship put into modernistic forms. Nothing was cheap about Art Deco: pieces of furniture included ivory and silver inlays, and pieces of Art Deco jewellery combined diamonds with platinum, jade, coral and other precious materials. The style was used to decorate the first-class salons of ocean liners, deluxe trains, and skyscrapers. It was used around the world to decorate the great movie palaces of the late 1920s and 1930s. Later, after the Great Depression, the style changed and became more sober.

A good example of the luxury style of Art Deco is the boudoir of the fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin, designed by Armand-Albert Rateau (1882–1938) made between 1922 and 1925. It was located in her house at 16 rue Barbet de Jouy, in Paris, which was demolished in 1965. The room was reconstructed in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. The walls are covered with moulded lambris below sculpted bas-reliefs in stucco. The alcove is framed with columns of marble on bases and a plinth of sculpted wood. The floor is of white and black marble, and in the cabinets decorative objects are displayed against a background of blue silk. Her bathroom had a tub and washstand made of sienna marble, with a wall of carved stucco and bronze fittings.[82]

By 1928 the style had become more comfortable, with deep leather club chairs. The study designed by the Paris firm of Alavoine for an American businessman in 1928–30, is now in the Brooklyn Museum.

By the 1930s, the style had been somewhat simplified, but it was still extravagant. In 1932 the decorator Paul Ruaud made the Glass Salon for Suzanne Talbot. It featured a serpentine armchair and two tubular armchairs by Eileen Gray, a floor of mat silvered glass slabs, a panel of abstract patterns in silver and black lacquer, and an assortment of animal skins.[83]

International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (1925) Edit

Main article: International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts

The event that marked the zenith of the style and gave it its name was the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts which took place in Paris from April to October in 1925. This was officially sponsored by the French government, and covered a site in Paris of 55 acres, running from the Grand Palais on the right bank to Les Invalides on the left bank, and along the banks of the Seine. The Grand Palais, the largest hall in the city, was filled with exhibits of decorative arts from the participating countries. There were 15,000 exhibitors from twenty different countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the new Soviet Union. Germany was not invited because of tensions after the war; The United States, misunderstanding the purpose of the exhibit, declined to participate. The event was visited by sixteen million people during its seven-month run. The rules of the exhibition required that all work be modern; no historical styles were allowed. The main purpose of the Exhibit was to promote the French manufacturers of luxury furniture, porcelain, glass, metalwork, textiles, and other decorative products. To further promote the products, all the major Paris department stores, and major designers had their own pavilions. The Exposition had a secondary purpose in promoting products from French colonies in Africa and Asia, including ivory and exotic woods.

The Hôtel du Collectionneur was a popular attraction at the Exposition; it displayed the new furniture designs of Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, as well as Art Deco fabrics, carpets, and a painting by Jean Dupas. The interior design followed the same principles of symmetry and geometric forms which set it apart from Art Nouveau, and bright colours, fine craftsmanship rare and expensive materials which set it apart from the strict functionality of the Modernist style. While most of the pavilions were lavishly decorated and filled with hand-made luxury furniture, two pavilions, those of the Soviet Union and Pavilion de L'Esprit Nouveau, built by the magazine of that name run by Le Corbusier, were built in an austere style with plain white walls and no decoration; they were among the earliest examples of modernist architecture.[84]

Late Art Deco Edit

In 1925, two different competing schools coexisted within Art Deco: the traditionalists, who had founded the Society of Decorative Artists; included the furniture designer Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, and designer Paul Poiret; they combined modern forms with traditional craftsmanship and expensive materials. On the other side were the modernists, who increasingly rejected the past and wanted a style based upon advances in new technologies, simplicity, a lack of decoration, inexpensive materials, and mass production. The modernists founded their own organisation, The French Union of Modern Artists, in 1929. Its members included architects Pierre Chareau, Francis Jourdain, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Corbusier, and, in the Soviet Union, Konstantin Melnikov; the Irish designer Eileen Gray; the French designer Sonia Delaunay; and the jewellers Georges Fouquet and Jean Puiforcat. They fiercely attacked the traditional art deco style, which they said was created only for the wealthy, and insisted that well-constructed buildings should be available to everyone, and that form should follow function. The beauty of an object or building resided in whether it was perfectly fit to fulfil its function. Modern industrial methods meant that furniture and buildings could be mass-produced, not made by hand.[85][86][page needed]

The Art Deco interior designer Paul Follot defended Art Deco in this way: "We know that man is never content with the indispensable and that the superfluous is always needed...If not, we would have to get rid of music, flowers, and perfumes..!"[87] However, Le Corbusier was a brilliant publicist for modernist architecture; he stated that a house was simply "a machine to live in", and tirelessly promoted the idea that Art Deco was the past and modernism was the future. Le Corbusier's ideas were gradually adopted by architecture schools, and the aesthetics of Art Deco were abandoned. The same features that made Art Deco popular in the beginning, its craftsmanship, rich materials and ornament, led to its decline. The Great Depression that began in the United States in 1929, and reached Europe shortly afterwards, greatly reduced the number of wealthy clients who could pay for the furnishings and art objects. In the Depression economic climate, few companies were ready to build new skyscrapers.[36] Even the Ruhlmann firm resorted to producing pieces of furniture in series, rather than individual hand-made items. The last buildings built in Paris in the new style were the Museum of Public Works by Auguste Perret (now the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council), the Palais de Chaillot by Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques Carlu and Léon Azéma, and the Palais de Tokyo of the 1937 Paris International Exposition; they looked out at the grandiose pavilion of Nazi Germany, designed by Albert Speer, which faced the equally grandiose socialist-realist pavilion of Stalin's Soviet Union.

After World War II, the dominant architectural style became the International Style pioneered by Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. A handful of Art Deco hotels were built in Miami Beach after World War II, but elsewhere the style largely vanished, except in industrial design, where it continued to be used in automobile styling and products such as jukeboxes. In the 1960s, it experienced a modest academic revival, thanks in part to the writings of architectural historians such as Bevis Hillier. In the 1970s efforts were made in the United States and Europe to preserve the best examples of Art Deco architecture, and many buildings were restored and repurposed. Postmodern architecture, which first appeared in the 1980s, like Art Deco, often includes purely decorative features.[36][64][88][89] Deco continues to inspire designers, and is often used in contemporary fashion, jewellery, and toiletries.[90]

Painting Edit

There was no section set aside for painting at the 1925 Exposition. Art deco painting was by definition decorative, designed to decorate a room or work of architecture, so few painters worked exclusively in the style, but two painters are closely associated with Art Deco. Jean Dupas painted Art Deco murals for the Bordeaux Pavilion at the 1925 Decorative Arts Exposition in Paris, and also painted the picture over the fireplace in the Maison du Collectionneur exhibit at the 1925 Exposition, which featured furniture by Ruhlmann and other prominent Art Deco designers. His murals were also prominent in the décor of the French ocean liner SS Normandie. His work was purely decorative, designed as a background or accompaniment to other elements of the décor.[91]

The other painter closely associated with the style is Tamara de Lempicka. Born in Poland, she emigrated to Paris after the Russian Revolution. She studied under Maurice Denis and André Lhote, and borrowed many elements from their styles. She painted portraits in a realistic, dynamic and colourful Art Deco style.[92]

In the 1930s a dramatic new form of Art Deco painting appeared in the United States. During the Great Depression, the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration was created to give work to unemployed artists. Many were given the task of decorating government buildings, hospitals and schools. There was no specific art deco style used in the murals; artists engaged to paint murals in government buildings came from many different schools, from American regionalism to social realism; they included Reginald Marsh, Rockwell Kent and the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. The murals were Art Deco because they were all decorative and related to the activities in the building or city where they were painted: Reginald Marsh and Rockwell Kent both decorated U.S. postal buildings, and showed postal employees at work while Diego Rivera depicted automobile factory workers for the Detroit Institute of Arts. Diego Rivera's mural Man at the Crossroads (1933) for 30 Rockefeller Plaza featured an unauthorized portrait of Lenin.[93][94] When Rivera refused to remove Lenin, the painting was destroyed and a new mural was painted by the Spanish artist Josep Maria Sert.[95][96][97]

Sculpture Edit

Monumental and public sculpture Edit

Sculpture was a very common and integral feature of Art Deco architecture. In France, allegorical bas-reliefs representing dance and music by Antoine Bourdelle decorated the earliest Art Deco landmark in Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, in 1912. The 1925 Exposition had major sculptural works placed around the site, pavilions were decorated with sculptural friezes, and several pavilions devoted to smaller studio sculpture. In the 1930s, a large group of prominent sculptors made works for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne at Chaillot. Alfred Janniot made the relief sculptures on the façade of the Palais de Tokyo. The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the esplanade in front of the Palais de Chaillot, facing the Eiffel Tower, was crowded with new statuary by Charles Malfray, Henry Arnold, and many others.[98]

Public art deco sculpture was almost always representational, usually of heroic or allegorical figures related to the purpose of the building or room. The themes were usually selected by the patrons, not the artist. Abstract sculpture for decoration was extremely rare.[99][100]

In the United States, the most prominent Art Deco sculptor for public art was Paul Manship, who updated classical and mythological subjects and themes in an Art Deco style. His most famous work was the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City, a 20th-century adaptation of a classical subject. Other important works for Rockefeller Center were made by Lee Lawrie, including the sculptural façade and the Atlas statue.

During the Great Depression in the United States, many sculptors were commissioned to make works for the decoration of federal government buildings, with funds provided by the WPA, or Works Progress Administration. They included sculptor Sidney Biehler Waugh, who created stylized and idealized images of workers and their tasks for federal government office buildings.[101] In San Francisco, Ralph Stackpole provided sculpture for the façade of the new San Francisco Stock Exchange building. In Washington D.C., Michael Lantz made works for the Federal Trade Commission building.

In Britain, Deco public statuary was made by Eric Gill for the BBC Broadcasting House, while Ronald Atkinson decorated the lobby of the former Daily Express Building in London (1932).

One of the best known and certainly the largest public Art Deco sculpture is the Christ the Redeemer by the French sculptor Paul Landowski, completed between 1922 and 1931, located on a mountain top overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Studio sculpture Edit

Many early Art Deco sculptures were small, designed to decorate salons. One genre of this sculpture was called the Chryselephantine statuette, named for a style of ancient Greek temple statues made of gold and ivory. They were sometimes made of bronze, or sometimes with much more lavish materials, such as ivory, onyx, alabaster, and gold leaf.

One of the best-known Art Deco salon sculptors was the Romanian-born Demétre Chiparus, who produced colourful small sculptures of dancers. Other notable salon sculptors included Ferdinand Preiss, Josef Lorenzl, Alexander Kelety, Dorothea Charol and Gustav Schmidtcassel.[102] Another important American sculptor in the studio format was Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, who had studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris.

Pierre Le Paguays was a prominent Art Deco studio sculptor, whose work was shown at the 1925 Exposition. He worked with bronze, marble, ivory, onyx, gold, alabaster and other precious materials.[103]

François Pompon was a pioneer of modern stylised animalier sculpture. He was not fully recognised for his artistic accomplishments until the age of 67 at the Salon d'Automne of 1922 with the work Ours blanc, also known as The White Bear, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[104]

Parallel with these Art Deco sculptors, more avant-garde and abstract modernist sculptors were at work in Paris and New York City. The most prominent were Constantin Brâncuși, Joseph Csaky, Alexander Archipenko, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, Gustave Miklos, Jean Lambert-Rucki, Jan et Joël Martel, Chana Orloff and Pablo Gargallo.[105]

Graphic arts Edit

The Art Deco style appeared early in the graphic arts, in the years just before World War I. It appeared in Paris in the posters and the costume designs of Léon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, and in the catalogues of the fashion designers Paul Poiret.[106] The illustrations of Georges Barbier, and Georges Lepape and the images in the fashion magazine La Gazette du bon ton perfectly captured the elegance and sensuality of the style. In the 1920s, the look changed; the fashions stressed were more casual, sportive and daring, with the woman models usually smoking cigarettes. American fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar quickly picked up the new style and popularized it in the United States. It also influenced the work of American book illustrators such as Rockwell Kent. In Germany, the most famous poster artist of the period was Ludwig Hohlwein, who created colourful and dramatic posters for music festivals, beers, and, late in his career, for the Nazi Party.[107]

During the Art Nouveau period, posters usually advertised theatrical products or cabarets. In the 1920s, travel posters, made for steamship lines and airlines, became extremely popular. The style changed notably in the 1920s, to focus attention on the product being advertised. The images became simpler, precise, more linear, more dynamic, and were often placed against a single-color background. In France, popular Art Deco designers included Charles Loupot and Paul Colin, who became famous for his posters of American singer and dancer Josephine Baker. Jean Carlu designed posters for Charlie Chaplin movies, soaps, and theatres; in the late 1930s he emigrated to the United States, where, during the World War, he designed posters to encourage war production. The designer Charles Gesmar became famous making posters for the singer Mistinguett and for Air France. Among the best-known French Art Deco poster designers was Cassandre, who made the celebrated poster of the ocean liner SS Normandie in 1935.[107]

In the 1930s a new genre of posters appeared in the United States during the Great Depression. The Federal Art Project hired American artists to create posters to promote tourism and cultural events.

Architecture Edit

"Art Deco Architecture" redirects here. For the book by Patricia Bayer, see Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties.
See also: List of Art Deco architecture

The architectural style of art deco made its debut in Paris in 1903–04, with the construction of two apartment buildings in Paris, one by Auguste Perret on rue Benjamin Franklin and the other on rue Trétaigne by Henri Sauvage. The two young architects used reinforced concrete for the first time in Paris residential buildings; the new buildings had clean lines, rectangular forms, and no decoration on the façades; they marked a clean break with the art nouveau style.[108] Between 1910 and 1913, Perret used his experience in concrete apartment buildings to construct the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, 15 avenue Montaigne. Between 1925 and 1928 Sauvage constructed the new art deco façade of La Samaritaine department store in Paris.[109]

The Art Deco style was not limited to buildings on land; the ocean liner SS Normandie, whose first voyage was in 1935, featured Art Deco design, including a dining room whose ceiling and decoration were made of glass by Lalique.[110]

Skyscrapers Edit

American skyscrapers marked the summit of the Art Deco style; they became the tallest and most recognizable modern buildings in the world. They were designed to show the prestige of their builders through their height, their shape, their color, and their dramatic illumination at night.[111] The American Radiator Building by Raymond Hood (1924) combined Gothic and Deco modern elements in the design of the building. Black brick on the frontage of the building (symbolizing coal) was selected to give an idea of solidity and to give the building a solid mass. Other parts of the façade were covered in gold bricks (symbolizing fire), and the entry was decorated with marble and black mirrors. Another early Art Deco skyscraper was Detroit's Guardian Building, which opened in 1929. Designed by modernist Wirt C. Rowland, the building was the first to employ stainless steel as a decorative element, and the extensive use of colored designs in place of traditional ornaments.

New York City's skyline was radically changed by the Chrysler Building in Manhattan (completed in 1930), designed by William Van Alen. It was a giant seventy-seven-floor tall advertisement for Chrysler automobiles. The top was crowned by a stainless steel spire, and was ornamented by deco "gargoyles" in the form of stainless steel radiator cap decorations. The base of the tower, thirty-three stories above the street, was decorated with colorful art deco friezes, and the lobby was decorated with art deco symbols and images expressing modernity.[112]

The Chrysler Building was soon surpassed in height by the Empire State Building by William F. Lamb (1931), in a slightly less lavish Deco style and the RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) by Raymond Hood (1933) which together completely changed New York City's skyline. The tops of the buildings were decorated with Art Deco crowns and spires covered with stainless steel, and, in the case of the Chrysler building, with Art Deco gargoyles modeled after radiator ornaments, while the entrances and lobbies were lavishly decorated with Art Deco sculpture, ceramics, and design. Similar buildings, though not quite as tall, soon appeared in Chicago and other large American cities. Rockefeller Center added a new design element: several tall buildings grouped around an open plaza, with a fountain in the middle.[113]

"Cathedrals of Commerce" Edit

The grand showcases of American Art Deco interior design were the lobbies of government buildings, theaters, and particularly office buildings. Interiors were extremely colorful and dynamic, combining sculpture, murals, and ornate geometric design in marble, glass, ceramics and stainless steel. An early example was the Fisher Building in Detroit, by Joseph Nathaniel French; the lobby was highly decorated with sculpture and ceramics. The Guardian Building (originally the Union Trust Building) in Detroit, by Wirt Rowland (1929), decorated with red and black marble and brightly colored ceramics, highlighted by highly polished steel elevator doors and counters. The sculptural decoration installed in the walls illustrated the virtues of industry and saving; the building was immediately termed the "Cathedral of Commerce". The Medical and Dental Building called 450 Sutter Street in San Francisco by Timothy Pflueger was inspired by Mayan architecture, in a highly stylized form; it used pyramid shapes, and the interior walls were covered with highly stylized rows of hieroglyphs.[114]

In France, the best example of an Art Deco interior during this period was the Palais de la Porte Dorée (1931) by Albert Laprade, Léon Jaussely and Léon Bazin. The building (now the National Museum of Immigration, with an aquarium in the basement) was built for the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931, to celebrate the people and products of French colonies. The exterior façade was entirely covered with sculpture, and the lobby created an Art Deco harmony with a wood parquet floor in a geometric pattern, a mural depicting the people of French colonies; and a harmonious composition of vertical doors and horizontal balconies.[114]

Movie palaces Edit

Many of the best surviving examples of Art Deco are cinemas built in the 1920s and 1930s. The Art Deco period coincided with the conversion of silent films to sound, and movie companies built large display destinations in major cities to capture the huge audience that came to see movies. Movie palaces in the 1920s often combined exotic themes with art deco style; Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood (1922) was inspired by ancient Egyptian tombs and pyramids, while the Fox Theater in Bakersfield, California attached a tower in California Mission style to an Art Deco Hall. The largest of all is Radio City Music Hall in New York City, which opened in 1932. Originally designed as theatrical performance space, it quickly transformed into a cinema, which could seat 6,015 customers. The interior design by Donald Deskey used glass, aluminum, chrome, and leather to create a visual escape from reality. The Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California, by Timothy Pflueger, had a colorful ceramic façade, a lobby four stories high, and separate Art Deco smoking rooms for gentlemen and ladies. Similar grand palaces appeared in Europe. The Grand Rex in Paris (1932), with its imposing tower, was the largest cinema in Europe after the 6,000 seats of the Gaumont-Palace (1931-1973). The Gaumont State Cinema in London (1937) had a tower modelled on the Empire State building, covered with cream ceramic tiles and an interior in an Art Deco-Italian Renaissance style. The Paramount Theatre in Shanghai, China (1933) was originally built as a dance hall called The gate of 100 pleasures; it was converted to a cinema after the Communist Revolution in 1949, and now is a ballroom and disco. In the 1930s Italian architects built a small movie palace, the Cinema Impero, in Asmara in what is now Eritrea. Today, many of the movie theatres have been subdivided into multiplexes, but others have been restored and are used as cultural centres in their communities.[115]

Streamline Moderne Edit

Main article: Streamline Moderne

In the late 1930s, a new variety of Art Deco architecture became common; it was called Streamline Moderne or simply Streamline, or, in France, the Style Paquebot, or Ocean Liner style. Buildings in the style had rounded corners and long horizontal lines; they were built of reinforced concrete and were almost always white; and they sometimes had nautical features, such as railings and portholes that resembled those on a ship. The rounded corner was not entirely new; it had appeared in Berlin in 1923 in the Mossehaus by Erich Mendelsohn, and later in the Hoover Building, an industrial complex in the London suburb of Perivale. In the United States, it became most closely associated with transport; Streamline moderne was rare in office buildings but was often used for bus stations and airport terminals, such as the terminal at La Guardia airport in New York City that handled the first transatlantic flights, via the PanAm Clipper flying boats; and in roadside architecture, such as gas stations and diners. In the late 1930s a series of diners, modelled upon streamlined railroad cars, were produced and installed in towns in New England; at least two examples still remain and are now registered historic buildings.[116]

Decoration and motifs Edit

Decoration in the Art Deco period went through several distinct phases. Between 1910 and 1920, as Art Nouveau was exhausted, design styles saw a return to tradition, particularly in the work of Paul Iribe. In 1912 André Vera published an essay in the magazine L'Art Décoratif calling for a return to the craftsmanship and materials of earlier centuries and using a new repertoire of forms taken from nature, particularly baskets and garlands of fruit and flowers. A second tendency of Art Deco, also from 1910 to 1920, was inspired by the bright colours of the artistic movement known as the Fauves and by the colourful costumes and sets of the Ballets Russes. This style was often expressed with exotic materials such as sharkskin, mother of pearl, ivory, tinted leather, lacquered and painted wood, and decorative inlays on furniture that emphasized its geometry. This period of the style reached its high point in the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts. In the late 1920s and the 1930s, the decorative style changed, inspired by new materials and technologies. It became sleeker and less ornamental. Furniture, like architecture, began to have rounded edges and to take on a polished, streamlined look, taken from the streamline modern style. New materials, such as nickel or chrome-plated steel, aluminium and bakelite, an early form of plastic, began to appear in furniture and decoration.[128]

Throughout the Art Deco period, and particularly in the 1930s, the motifs of the décor expressed the function of the building. Theatres were decorated with sculpture which illustrated music, dance, and excitement; power companies showed sunrises, the Chrysler building showed stylized hood ornaments; The friezes of Palais de la Porte Dorée at the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition showed the faces of the different nationalities of French colonies. The Streamline style made it appear that the building itself was in motion. The WPA murals of the 1930s featured ordinary people; factory workers, postal workers, families and farmers, in place of classical heroes.[129]

Furniture Edit

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    Chair by Paul Follot (1912–14)

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    Armchair by Louis Süe (1912) and painted screen by André Mare (1920)

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    Dressing table and chair of marble and encrusted, lacquered, and gilded wood by Follot (1919–20)

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    Corner cabinet of Mahogany with rose basket design of inlaid ivory by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1923)

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    Cabinet by Ruhlmann (1926)

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    Cabinet design by Ruhlmann

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    Cabinet covered with shagreen or sharkskin by André Groult (1925)

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    Furniture by Gio Ponti (1927)

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    Desk of an administrator, by Michel Roux-Spitz for the 1930 Salon of Decorative Artists

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    An Art Deco club chair (1930s)

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    Late Art Deco furniture and rug by Jules Leleu (1930s)

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    A Waterfall style buffet table

French furniture from 1910 until the early 1920s was largely an updating of French traditional furniture styles, and the art nouveau designs of Louis Majorelle, Charles Plumet and other manufacturers. French furniture manufacturers felt threatened by the growing popularity of German manufacturers and styles, particularly the Biedermeier style, which was simple and clean-lined. The French designer Frantz Jourdain, the President of the Paris Salon d'Automne, invited designers from Munich to participate in the 1910 Salon. French designers saw the new German style and decided to meet the German challenge. The French designers decided to present new French styles in the Salon of 1912. The rules of the Salon indicated that only modern styles would be permitted. All of the major French furniture designers took part in Salon: Paul Follot, Paul Iribe, Maurice Dufrêne, André Groult, André Mare and Louis Suë took part, presenting new works that updated the traditional French styles of Louis XVI and Louis Philippe with more angular corners inspired by Cubism and brighter colours inspired by Fauvism and the Nabis.[130]

The painter André Mare and furniture designer Louis Süe both participated the 1912 Salon. After the war the two men joined to form their own company, formally called the Compagnie des Arts Française, but usually known simply as Suë and Mare. Unlike the prominent art nouveau designers like Louis Majorelle, who personally designed every piece, they assembled a team of skilled craftsmen and produced complete interior designs, including furniture, glassware, carpets, ceramics, wallpaper and lighting. Their work featured bright colors and furniture and fine woods, such as ebony encrusted with mother of pearl, abalone and silvered metal to create bouquets of flowers. They designed everything from the interiors of ocean liners to perfume bottles for the label of Jean Patou.The firm prospered in the early 1920s, but the two men were better craftsmen than businessmen. The firm was sold in 1928, and both men left.[131]

The most prominent furniture designer at the 1925 Decorative Arts Exposition was Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, from Alsace. He first exhibited his works at the 1913 Autumn Salon, then had his own pavilion, the "House of the Rich Collector", at the 1925 Exposition. He used only most rare and expensive materials, including ebony, mahogany, rosewood, ambon and other exotic woods, decorated with inlays of ivory, tortoise shell, mother of pearl, Little pompoms of silk decorated the handles of drawers of the cabinets.[132] His furniture was based upon 18th-century models, but simplified and reshaped. In all of his work, the interior structure of the furniture was completely concealed. The framework usually of oak, was completely covered with an overlay of thin strips of wood, then covered by a second layer of strips of rare and expensive woods. This was then covered with a veneer and polished, so that the piece looked as if it had been cut out of a single block of wood. Contrast to the dark wood was provided by inlays of ivory, and ivory key plates and handles. According to Ruhlmann, armchairs had to be designed differently according to the functions of the rooms where they appeared; living room armchairs were designed to be welcoming, office chairs comfortable, and salon chairs voluptuous. Only a small number of pieces of each design of furniture was made, and the average price of one of his beds or cabinets was greater than the price of an average house.[133]

Jules Leleu was a traditional furniture designer who moved smoothly into Art Deco in the 1920s; he designed the furniture for the dining room of the Élysée Palace, and for the first-class cabins of the steamship Normandie. his style was characterized by the use of ebony, Macassar wood, walnut, with decoration of plaques of ivory and mother of pearl. He introduced the style of lacquered art deco furniture in the late 1920s, and in the late 1930s introduced furniture made of metal with panels of smoked glass.[134] In Italy, the designer Gio Ponti was famous for his streamlined designs.

The costly and exotic furniture of Ruhlmann and other traditionalists infuriated modernists, including the architect Le Corbusier, causing him to write a famous series of articles denouncing the arts décoratif style. He attacked furniture made only for the rich and called upon designers to create furniture made with inexpensive materials and modern style, which ordinary people could afford. He designed his own chairs, created to be inexpensive and mass-produced.[135]

In the 1930s, furniture designs adapted to the form, with smoother surfaces and curved forms. The masters of the late style included Donald Deskey, who was one of the most influential designers; he created the interior of the Radio City Music Hall. He used a mixture of traditional and very modern materials, including aluminium, chrome, and bakelite, an early form of plastic.[136] Other top designers of Art Deco furniture of the 1930s in the United States included Gilbert Rohde, Warren McArthur, and Kem Weber.

The Waterfall style was popular in the 1930s and 1940s, the most prevalent Art Deco form of furniture at the time. Pieces were typically of plywood finished with blond veneer and with rounded edges, resembling a waterfall.[137]

Design Edit

Main article: Streamline Moderne

Streamline was a variety of Art Deco which emerged during the mid-1930s. It was influenced by modern aerodynamic principles developed for aviation and ballistics to reduce aerodynamic drag at high velocities. The bullet shapes were applied by designers to cars, trains, ships, and even objects not intended to move, such as refrigerators, gas pumps, and buildings.[66] One of the first production vehicles in this style was the Chrysler Airflow of 1933. It was unsuccessful commercially, but the beauty and functionality of its design set a precedent; meant modernity. It continued to be used in car design well after World War II.[138][139][140][141]

New industrial materials began to influence the design of cars and household objects. These included aluminium, chrome, and bakelite, an early form of plastic. Bakelite could be easily moulded into different forms, and soon was used in telephones, radios and other appliances.

 
Grand dining room of the ocean liner SS Normandie by Pierre Patout (1935); bas-reliefs by Raymond Delamarre

Ocean liners also adopted a style of Art Deco, known in French as the Style Paquebot, or "Ocean Liner Style". The most famous example was the SS Normandie, which made its first transatlantic trip in 1935. It was designed particularly to bring wealthy Americans to Paris to shop. The cabins and salons featured the latest Art Deco furnishings and decoration. The Grand Salon of the ship, which was the restaurant for first-class passengers, was bigger than the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles. It was illuminated by electric lights within twelve pillars of Lalique crystal; thirty-six matching pillars lined the walls. This was one of the earliest examples of illumination being directly integrated into architecture. The style of ships was soon adapted to buildings. A notable example is found on the San Francisco waterfront, where the Maritime Museum building, built as a public bath in 1937, resembles a ferryboat, with ship railings and rounded corners. The Star Ferry Terminal in Hong Kong also used a variation of the style.[36]

Textiles Edit

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    Textile design Abundance by André Mare, (1911) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA)

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    Rose Pattern Textiles designed by Mare (c. 1919) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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    Rose Mousse pattern for upholstery, cotton and silk (1920) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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    Design of birds from Les Ateliers de Martine by Paul Iribe (1918)

Textiles were an important part of the Art Deco style, in the form of colourful wallpaper, upholstery and carpets, In the 1920s, designers were inspired by the stage sets of the Ballets Russes, fabric designs and costumes from Léon Bakst and creations by the Wiener Werkstätte. The early interior designs of André Mare featured brightly coloured and highly stylized garlands of roses and flowers, which decorated the walls, floors, and furniture. Stylized Floral motifs also dominated the work of Raoul Dufy and Paul Poiret, and in the furniture designs of J.E. Ruhlmann. The floral carpet was reinvented in Deco style by Paul Poiret.[142]

The use of the style was greatly enhanced by the introduction of the pochoir stencil-based printing system, which allowed designers to achieve crispness of lines and very vivid colours. Art Deco forms appeared in the clothing of Paul Poiret, Charles Worth and Jean Patou. After World War I, exports of clothing and fabrics became one of the most important currency earners of France.[143]

Late Art Deco wallpaper and textiles sometimes featured stylized industrial scenes, cityscapes, locomotives and other modern themes, as well as stylized female figures, metallic finishes and geometric designs.[143]

Fashion Edit

The new woman of pre-WW1 days became the Amazon of the Art Deco era. Fashion changed dramatically during this period, thanks in particular to designers Paul Poiret and later Coco Chanel. Poiret introduced an important innovation to fashion design, the concept of draping, a departure from the tailoring and patternmaking of the past.[144] He designed clothing cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangular motifs.[144] His styles offered structural simplicity[144] The corseted look and formal styles of the previous period were abandoned, and fashion became more practical, and streamlined. with the use of new materials, brighter colours and printed designs.[144] The designer Coco Chanel continued the transition, popularising the style of sporty, casual chic.[145]

A particular typology of the era was the Flapper, a woman who cut her hair into a short bob, drank cocktails, smoked in public, and danced late into the night at fashionable clubs, cabarets or bohemian dives. Of course, most women didn't live like this, the Flapper being more a character present in popular imagination than a reality. Another female Art Deco style was the androgynous garçonne of the 1920s, with flattened bosom, dispelled waist and revealed legs, reducing the silhouette to a short tube, topped with a head-hugging cloche hat.[146]

Jewelry Edit

In the 1920s and 1930s, designers including René Lalique and Cartier tried to reduce the traditional dominance of diamonds by introducing more colourful gemstones, such as small emeralds, rubies and sapphires. They also placed greater emphasis on very elaborate and elegant settings, featuring less-expensive materials such as enamel, glass, horn and ivory. Diamonds themselves were cut in less traditional forms; the 1925 Exposition saw many diamonds cut in the form of tiny rods or matchsticks. Other popular Art Deco cuts include:

  • emerald cut, with long step-cut facets;
  • asscher cut, more square-shaped than emerald with a high crown and the first diamond cut to ever be patented;
  • marquise cut, to give the illusion of being bigger and bolder;
  • baguette cut: small, rectangular step-cut shapes often used to outline bolder stones.[147]

The settings for diamonds also changed; More and more often jewellers used platinum instead of gold, since it was strong and flexible, and could set clusters of stones. Jewellers also began to use more dark materials, such as enamels and black onyx, which provided a higher contrast with diamonds.[148]

Jewellery became much more colourful and varied in style. Cartier and the firm of Boucheron combined diamonds with colourful other gemstones cut into the form of leaves, fruit or flowers, to make brooches, rings, earrings, clips and pendants. Far Eastern themes also became popular; plaques of jade and coral were combined with platinum and diamonds, and vanity cases, cigarette cases and powder boxes were decorated with Japanese and Chinese landscapes made with mother of pearl, enamel and lacquer.[148]

 
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch has been made with the same design since the 1930s[149]

Rapidly changing fashions in clothing brought new styles of jewellery. Sleeveless dresses of the 1920s meant that arms needed decoration, and designers quickly created bracelets of gold, silver and platinum encrusted with lapis-lazuli, onyx, coral, and other colourful stones; Other bracelets were intended for the upper arms, and several bracelets were often worn at the same time. The short haircuts of women in the twenties called for elaborate deco earring designs. As women began to smoke in public, designers created very ornate cigarette cases and ivory cigarette holders. The invention of the wristwatch before World War I inspired jewelers to create extraordinary, decorated watches, encrusted with diamonds and plated with enamel, gold and silver. Pendant watches, hanging from a ribbon, also became fashionable.[150]

The established jewellery houses of Paris in the period, Cartier, Chaumet, Georges Fouquet, Mauboussin, and Van Cleef & Arpels all created jewellery and objects in the new fashion. The firm of Chaumet made highly geometric cigarette boxes, cigarette lighters, pillboxes and notebooks, made of hard stones decorated with jade, lapis lazuli, diamonds and sapphires. They were joined by many young new designers, each with his own idea of deco. Raymond Templier designed pieces with highly intricate geometric patterns, including silver earrings that looked like skyscrapers. Gerard Sandoz was only 18 when he started to design jewelry in 1921; he designed many celebrated pieces based on the smooth and polished look of modern machinery. The glass designer René Lalique also entered the field, creating pendants of fruit, flowers, frogs, fairies or mermaids made of sculpted glass in bright colors, hanging on cords of silk with tassels.[150] The jeweller Paul Brandt contrasted rectangular and triangular patterns, and embedded pearls in lines on onyx plaques. Jean Despres made necklaces of contrasting colours by bringing together silver and black lacquer, or gold with lapis lazuli. Many of his designs looked like highly polished pieces of machines. Jean Dunand was also inspired by modern machinery, combined with bright reds and blacks contrasting with polished metal.[150]

Glass art Edit

Like the Art Nouveau period before it, Art Deco was an exceptional period for fine glass and other decorative objects, designed to fit their architectural surroundings. The most famous producer of glass objects was René Lalique, whose works, from vases to hood ornaments for automobiles, became symbols of the period. He had made ventures into glass before World War I, designing bottles for the perfumes of François Coty, but he did not begin serious production of art glass until after World War I. In 1918, at the age of 58, he bought a large glass works in Combs-la-Ville and began to manufacture both artistic and practical glass objects. He treated glass as a form of sculpture, and created statuettes, vases, bowls, lamps and ornaments. He used demi-crystal rather than lead crystal, which was softer and easier to form, though not as lustrous. He sometimes used coloured glass, but more often used opalescent glass, where part or the whole of the outer surface was stained with a wash. Lalique provided the decorative glass panels, lights and illuminated glass ceilings for the ocean liners SS Île de France in 1927 and the SS Normandie in 1935, and for some of the first-class sleeping cars of the French railroads. At the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, he had his own pavilion, designed a dining room with a table setting and matching glass ceiling for the Sèvres Pavilion, and designed a glass fountain for the courtyard of the Cours des Métiers, a slender glass column which spouted water from the sides and was illuminated at night.[152]

Other notable Art Deco glass manufacturers included Marius-Ernest Sabino, who specialized in figurines, vases, bowls, and glass sculptures of fish, nudes, and animals. For these he often used an opalescent glass which could change from white to blue to amber, depending upon the light. His vases and bowls featured molded friezes of animals, nudes or busts of women with fruit or flowers. His work was less subtle but more colourful than that of Lalique.[152]

Other notable Deco glass designers included Edmond Etling, who also used bright opalescent colours, often with geometric patterns and sculpted nudes; Albert Simonet, and Aristide Colotte and Maurice Marinot, who was known for his deeply etched sculptural bottles and vases. The firm of Daum from the city of Nancy, which had been famous for its Art Nouveau glass, produced a line of Deco vases and glass sculpture, solid, geometric and chunky in form. More delicate multi-coloured works were made by Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, who produced delicately shaded vases with sculpted butterflies and nymphs, and Francois Decorchemont, whose vases were streaked and marbled.[152]

The Great Depression ruined a large part of the decorative glass industry, which depended upon wealthy clients. Some artists turned to designing stained glass windows for churches. In 1937, the Steuben glass company began the practice of commissioning famous artists to produce glassware.[152] Louis Majorelle, famous for his Art Nouveau furniture, designed a remarkable Art Deco stained glass window portraying steel workers for the offices of the Aciéries de Longwy, a steel mill in Longwy, France.

Amiens Cathedral has a rare example of Art Deco stained glass windows in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, made in 1932-34 by the Paris glass artist Jean Gaudin based on drawings by Jacques Le Breton.[153]

Metal art Edit

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    A grill with two wings called The Pheasants, made by Paul Kiss and displayed at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts

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    Iron and copper grill called Oasis by Edgar Brandt, displayed at the 1925 Paris Exposition

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    Table mirror by Franz Hagenauer of Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien (c. 1930)

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    Cocktail set of chrome-plated steel by Norman Bel Geddes (1937)

Art Deco artists produced a wide variety of practical objects in the Art Deco style, made of industrial materials from traditional wrought iron to chrome-plated steel. The American artist Norman Bel Geddes designed a cocktail set resembling a skyscraper made of chrome-plated steel. Raymond Subes designed an elegant metal grille for the entrance of the Palais de la Porte Dorée, the centre-piece of the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition. The French sculptor Jean Dunand produced magnificent doors on the theme "The Hunt", covered with gold leaf and paint on plaster (1935).[154]

Animation Edit

Art Deco visuals and imagery was used in multiple animated films including Batman, Night Hood, All's Fair at the Fair, Merry Mannequins, Page Miss Glory, Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty.[155] The architecture is featured in the fictitious underwater city of Rapture in the Bioshock video game series.

Art Deco architecture around the world Edit

Art Deco architecture began in Europe, but by 1939 there were examples in large cities on every continent and in almost every country. This is a selection of prominent buildings on each continent.

For a comprehensive list of existing buildings by country, see: List of Art Deco architecture.

Africa Edit

See also: List of Art Deco architecture in Africa

Most Art Deco buildings in Africa were built during European colonial rule, and often designed by Italian, French and Portuguese architects.

Asia Edit

See also: List of Art Deco architecture in Asia

Many Art Deco buildings in Asia were designed by European architects. But in the Philippines, local architects such as Juan Nakpil, Juan Arellano, Pablo Antonio and others were preeminent. Many Art Deco landmarks in Asia were demolished during the great economic expansion of Asia the late 20th century, but some notable enclaves of the architecture still remain, particularly in Shanghai and Mumbai.

Australia and New Zealand Edit

See also: List of Art Deco buildings in Sydney, List of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne, List of Art Deco buildings in Tasmania, List of Art Deco buildings in Perth, and List of Art Deco architecture in Oceania
  • October 26, 2023
deco, this, article, about, style, other, uses, disambiguation, this, article, need, reorganization, comply, with, wikipedia, layout, guidelines, please, help, editing, article, make, improvements, overall, structure, august, 2023, learn, when, remove, this, t. This article is about the art style For other uses see Art Deco disambiguation This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia s layout guidelines Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure August 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Art Deco short for the French Arts Decoratifs and sometimes referred to simply as Deco is a style of visual arts architecture and product design that first appeared in France in the 1910s just before World War I 1 and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects including how people look clothing fashion and jewelry Art Deco has influenced bridges buildings from skyscrapers to cinemas ships ocean liners trains cars trucks buses furniture and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners 2 Art DecoTop to bottom Chrysler Building in New York City 1930 poster for the Chicago World s Fair by Weimer Pursell 1933 and hood ornament Victoire by Rene Lalique 1928 Years activec 1910s 1950sCountryGlobalIt got its name after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris 3 Art Deco combined the styles of early 20th century Modernist avant garde with the fine craftsmanship and rich materials of French historic design but also sometimes with motifs taken from non Western cultures From its outset Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism and the Vienna Secession the bright colours of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes the updated craftsmanship of the furniture of the eras of Louis XVI and Louis Philippe I and the exoticized styles of China Japan India Persia ancient Egypt and Maya art During its heyday it represented luxury glamour exuberance and faith in social and technological progress The movement featured rare and expensive materials such as ebony and ivory and exquisite craftsmanship The Empire State Building Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York City built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments to the style In the 1930s during the Great Depression Art Deco gradually became more subdued paving the way for the International Style and Mid century modern New materials arrived including chrome plating stainless steel and plastic A sleeker form of the style called Streamline Moderne appeared in the 1930s featuring curving forms and smooth polished surfaces 4 Art Deco was a truly international style but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the strictly functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed 5 6 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Origins 2 1 Society of Decorative Artists 1901 1945 2 2 Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstatte 1897 1912 2 3 New materials and technologies 2 4 Theatre des Champs Elysees 1910 1913 2 5 Salon d Automne 1903 1914 2 6 Cubism 3 Influences 3 1 Pre WW1 past 3 2 Ancient and non European civilizations 3 3 Early 20th century avant garde movements 4 Style of luxury and modernity 5 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts 1925 6 Late Art Deco 7 Painting 8 Sculpture 8 1 Monumental and public sculpture 8 2 Studio sculpture 9 Graphic arts 10 Architecture 10 1 Skyscrapers 10 2 Cathedrals of Commerce 10 3 Movie palaces 10 4 Streamline Moderne 11 Decoration and motifs 12 Furniture 13 Design 14 Textiles 15 Fashion 16 Jewelry 17 Glass art 18 Metal art 19 Animation 20 Art Deco architecture around the world 20 1 Africa 20 2 Asia 20 3 Australia and New Zealand 20 4 North America 20 5 Central America and the Caribbean 20 6 Europe 20 6 1 Bucharest Romania 20 7 India 20 8 South America 21 Preservation and Neo Art Deco 22 Gallery 23 See also 24 References 25 Bibliography 26 External linksEtymology EditArt Deco took its name short for arts decoratifs from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925 3 though the diverse styles that characterised it had already appeared in Paris and Brussels before World War I Arts decoratifs was first used in France in 1858 in the Bulletin de la Societe francaise de photographie 7 In 1868 the Le Figaro newspaper used the term objets d art decoratifs for objects for stage scenery created for the Theatre de l Opera 8 9 10 In 1875 furniture designers textile jewellers glass workers and other craftsmen were officially given the status of artists by the French government In response the Ecole royale gratuite de dessin Royal Free School of Design founded in 1766 under King Louis XVI to train artists and artisans in crafts relating to the fine arts was renamed the Ecole nationale des arts decoratifs National School of Decorative Arts It took its present name ENSAD Ecole nationale superieure des arts decoratifs in 1927 At the 1925 Exposition architect Le Corbusier wrote a series of articles about the exhibition for his magazine L Esprit Nouveau under the title 1925 EXPO ARTS DECO which were combined into a book L art decoratif d aujourd hui Decorative Art Today The book was a spirited attack on the excesses of the colourful lavish objects at the Exposition and on the idea that practical objects such as furniture should not have any decoration at all his conclusion was that Modern decoration has no decoration 11 The actual term art deco did not appear in print until 1966 in the title of the first modern exhibition on the subject held by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris Les Annees 25 Art deco Bauhaus Stijl Esprit nouveau which covered a variety of major styles in the 1920s and 1930s 12 The term was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in The Times London 12 November describing the different styles at the exhibit 13 Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on it Art Deco of the 20s and 30s 2 He noted that the term was already being used by art dealers and cites The Times 2 November 1966 and an essay named Les Arts Deco in Elle magazine November 1967 as examples 14 In 1971 he organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts which he details in his book The World of Art Deco 15 16 It s also important to mention that in its time Art Deco was not only tagged with other names like style moderne Moderne modernistic or style contemporain but it was also not recognized at the theoretical level as a distinct and homogenous style 17 Origins EditSociety of Decorative Artists 1901 1945 Edit The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists who until late in the 19th century were considered simply artisans The term arts decoratifs had been invented in 1875 giving the designers of furniture textiles and other decoration official status The Societe des artistes decorateurs Society of Decorative Artists or SAD was founded in 1901 and decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors A similar movement developed in Italy The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the decorative arts the Esposizione Internazionale d Arte Decorativa Moderna was held in Turin in 1902 Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris including Arts et decoration and L Art decoratif moderne Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Societe des artistes francais and later in theSalon d Automne French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts as French designers felt challenged by the increasing exports of less expensive German furnishings In 1911 SAD proposed a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912 No copies of old styles would be permitted only modern works The exhibit was postponed until 1914 and then because of the war until 1925 when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as Deco 18 nbsp Table and chairs by Maurice Dufrene and carpet by Paul Follot at the 1912 Salon des artistes decorateurs nbsp Lady with Panther by George Barbier for Louis Cartier 1914 Display card commissioned by Cartier shows a woman in a Paul Poiret gown 1914 nbsp Armchair by Emile Jacques Ruhlmann 1914 Musee d Orsay Parisian department stores and fashion designers also played an important part in the rise of Art Deco Prominent businesses such as silverware firm Christofle glass designer Rene Lalique and the jewellers Louis Cartier and Boucheron began designing products in more modern styles 19 20 Beginning in 1900 department stores recruited decorative artists to work in their design studios The decoration of the 1912 Salon d Automne was entrusted to the department store Printemps 21 22 and that year it created its own workshop Primavera 22 By 1920 Primavera employed more than 300 artists whose styles ranged from updated versions of Louis XIV Louis XVI and especially Louis Philippe furniture made by Louis Sue and the Primavera workshop to more modern forms from the workshop of the Au Louvre department store Other designers including Emile Jacques Ruhlmann and Paul Follot refused to use mass production insisting that each piece be made individually The early Art Deco style featured luxurious and exotic materials such as ebony ivory and silk very bright colours and stylized motifs particularly baskets and bouquets of flowers of all colours giving a modernist look 23 Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstatte 1897 1912 Edit The architects of the Vienna Secession formed 1897 especially Josef Hoffmann had a notable influence on Art Deco His Stoclet Palace in Brussels 1905 1911 was a prototype of the Art Deco style featuring geometric volumes symmetry straight lines concrete covered with marble plaques finely sculpted ornament and lavish interiors including mosaic friezes by Gustav Klimt Hoffmann was also a founder of the Wiener Werkstatte 1903 1932 an association of craftsmen and interior designers working in the new style This became the model for the Compagnie des arts francais created in 1919 which brought together Andre Mare and Louis Sue the first leading French Art Deco designers and decorators 24 nbsp Secession Building by Joseph Maria Olbrich Vienna 1897 98 nbsp Stoclet Palace by Josef Hoffmann Brussels 1905 1911 nbsp Detail of the Stoclet Palace s facade made of reinforced concrete covered with marble plaques nbsp Austrian Postal Savings Bank by Otto Wagner Vienna 1904 1912 New materials and technologies Edit New materials and technologies especially reinforced concrete were key to the development and appearance of Art Deco The first concrete house was built in 1853 in the Paris suburbs by Francois Coignet In 1877 Joseph Monier introduced the idea of strengthening the concrete with a mesh of iron rods in a grill pattern In 1893 Auguste Perret built the first concrete garage in Paris then an apartment building house then in 1913 the Theatre des Champs Elysees The theatre was denounced by one critic as the Zeppelin of Avenue Montaigne an alleged Germanic influence copied from the Vienna Secession Thereafter the majority of Art Deco buildings were made of reinforced concrete which gave greater freedom of form and less need for reinforcing pillars and columns Perret was also a pioneer in covering the concrete with ceramic tiles both for protection and decoration The architect Le Corbusier first learned the uses of reinforced concrete working as a draftsman in Perret s studio 25 Other new technologies that were important to Art Deco were new methods in producing plate glass which was less expensive and allowed much larger and stronger windows and for mass producing aluminium which was used for building and window frames and later by Corbusier Warren McArthur and others for lightweight furniture Theatre des Champs Elysees 1910 1913 Edit Main article Theatre des Champs Elysees nbsp Theatre des Champs Elysees by Auguste Perret 15 avenue Montaigne Paris 1910 13 Reinforced concrete gave architects the ability to create new forms and bigger spaces nbsp Antoine Bourdelle La Danse on the facade of the Theatre des Champs Elysees 1912 nbsp Interior of the Theatre des Champs Elysees with Bourdelle s bas reliefs over the stage nbsp Dome of the Theater with Art Deco rose design by Maurice Denis nbsp Antoine Bourdelle 1910 12 Apollon et sa meditation entouree des 9 muses Apollo and His Meditation Surrounded by the 9 Muses bas relief on the Theatre des Champs Elysees This work represents one of the earliest examples of what became known as Art Deco sculpture The Theatre des Champs Elysees 1910 1913 by Auguste Perret was the first landmark Art Deco building completed in Paris Previously reinforced concrete had been used only for industrial and apartment buildings Perret had built the first modern reinforced concrete apartment building in Paris on rue Benjamin Franklin in 1903 04 Henri Sauvage another important future Art Deco architect built another in 1904 at 7 rue Tretaigne 1904 From 1908 to 1910 the 21 year old Le Corbusier worked as a draftsman in Perret s office learning the techniques of concrete construction Perret s building had clean rectangular form geometric decoration and straight lines the future trademarks of Art Deco The decor of the theatre was also revolutionary the facade was decorated with high reliefs by Antoine Bourdelle a dome by Maurice Denis paintings by Edouard Vuillard and an Art Deco curtain by Ker Xavier Roussel The theatre became the venue for many of the first performances of the Ballets Russes 26 Perret and Sauvage became the leading Art Deco architects in Paris in the 1920s 27 28 Salon d Automne 1903 1914 Edit Main article Salon d Automne nbsp Set for Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov s ballet Sheherazade by Leon Bakst 1910 nbsp Art Deco armchair made for art collector Jacques Doucet 1912 13 nbsp Display of early Art Deco furnishings by the Atelier francais at the 1913 Salon d Automne from Art et decoration magazine 1914 At its birth between 1910 and 1914 Art Deco was an explosion of colours featuring bright and often clashing hues frequently in floral designs presented in furniture upholstery carpets screens wallpaper and fabrics Many colourful works including chairs and a table by Maurice Dufrene and a bright Gobelin carpet by Paul Follot were presented at the 1912 Salon des artistes decorateurs In 1912 1913 designer Adrien Karbowsky made a floral chair with a parrot design for the hunting lodge of art collector Jacques Doucet 29 The furniture designers Louis Sue and Andre Mare made their first appearance at the 1912 exhibit under the name of the Atelier francais combining polychromatic fabrics with exotic and expensive materials including ebony and ivory After World War I they became one of the most prominent French interior design firms producing the furniture for the first class salons and cabins of the French transatlantic ocean liners 30 The vivid hues of Art Deco came from many sources including the exotic set designs by Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes which caused a sensation in Paris just before World War I Some of the colours were inspired by the earlier Fauvism movement led by Henri Matisse others by the Orphism of painters such as Sonia Delaunay 31 others by the movement known as Les Nabis and in the work of symbolist painter Odilon Redon who designed fireplace screens and other decorative objects Bright shades were a feature of the work of fashion designer Paul Poiret whose work influenced both Art Deco fashion and interior design 30 32 33 Cubism Edit nbsp Design for the facade of La Maison Cubiste Cubist House by Raymond Duchamp Villon 1912 nbsp Raymond Duchamp Villon 1912 La Maison Cubiste Cubist House at the Salon d Automne 1912 detail of the entrance nbsp Le Salon Bourgeois designed by Andre Mare inside La Maison Cubiste in the decorative arts section of the Salon d Automne 1912 Paris Metzinger s Femme a l Eventail on the left wall nbsp Stairway in the hotel particulier of fashion designer art collector Jacques Doucet 1927 Design by Joseph Csaky The geometric forms of Cubism had an important influence on Art Deco nbsp Jacques Doucet s hotel particulier 1927 Picasso s Les Demoiselles d Avignon can be seen hanging in the background nbsp Joseph Csaky 1912 Danseuse Femme a l eventail Femme a la cruche original plaster exhibited at the 1912 Salon d Automne and the 1914 Salon des Independants a Proto Art Deco sculptureThe art movement known as Cubism appeared in France between 1907 and 1912 influencing the development of Art Deco 26 31 32 In Art Deco Complete The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s Alastair Duncan writes Cubism in some bastardized form or other became the lingua franca of the era s decorative artists 32 34 The Cubists themselves under the influence of Paul Cezanne were interested in the simplification of forms to their geometric essentials the cylinder the sphere the cone 35 36 In 1912 the artists of the Section d Or exhibited works considerably more accessible to the general public than the analytical Cubism of Picasso and Braque The Cubist vocabulary was poised to attract fashion furniture and interior designers 31 33 36 37 The 1912 writings of Andre Vera Le Nouveau style published in the journal L Art decoratif expressed the rejection of Art Nouveau forms asymmetric polychrome and picturesque and called for simplicite volontaire symetrie manifeste l ordre et l harmonie themes that would eventually become common within Art Deco 20 though the Deco style was often extremely colourful and often complex 38 In the Art Decoratif section of the 1912 Salon d Automne an architectural installation was exhibited known as La Maison Cubiste 39 40 The facade was designed by Raymond Duchamp Villon The decor of the house was by Andre Mare 41 42 La Maison Cubiste was a furnished installation with a facade a staircase wrought iron banisters a bedroom a living room the Salon Bourgeois where paintings by Albert Gleizes Jean Metzinger Marie Laurencin Marcel Duchamp Fernand Leger and Roger de La Fresnaye were hung 43 44 45 Thousands of spectators at the salon passed through the full scale model 46 The facade of the house designed by Duchamp Villon was not very radical by modern standards the lintels and pediments had prismatic shapes but otherwise the facade resembled an ordinary house of the period For the two rooms Mare designed the wallpaper which featured stylized roses and floral patterns along with upholstery furniture and carpets all with flamboyant and colourful motifs It was a distinct break from traditional decor The critic Emile Sedeyn described Mare s work in the magazine Art et Decoration He does not embarrass himself with simplicity for he multiplies flowers wherever they can be put The effect he seeks is obviously one of picturesqueness and gaiety He achieves it 47 The Cubist element was provided by the paintings The installation was attacked by some critics as extremely radical which helped make for its success 48 This architectural installation was subsequently exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show New York City Chicago and Boston 31 36 49 50 51 Thanks largely to the exhibition the term Cubist began to be applied to anything modern from women s haircuts to clothing to theater performances 48 The Cubist influence continued within Art Deco even as Deco branched out in many other directions 31 32 In 1927 Cubists Joseph Csaky Jacques Lipchitz Louis Marcoussis Henri Laurens the sculptor Gustave Miklos and others collaborated in the decoration of a Studio House rue Saint James Neuilly sur Seine designed by the architect Paul Ruaud and owned by the French fashion designer Jacques Doucet also a collector of Post Impressionist art by Henri Matisse and Cubist paintings including Les Demoiselles d Avignon which he bought directly from Picasso s studio Laurens designed the fountain Csaky designed Doucet s staircase 52 Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel and Marcoussis made a Cubist rug 31 53 54 55 Besides the Cubist artists Doucet brought in other Deco interior designers to help in decorating the house including Pierre Legrain who was in charge of organizing the decoration and Paul Iribe Marcel Coard Andre Groult Eileen Gray and Rose Adler to provide furniture The decor included massive pieces made of macassar ebony inspired by African art and furniture covered with Morocco leather crocodile skin and snakeskin and patterns taken from African designs 56 Cubism s adumbrated geometry became coin of the realm in the 1920s Art Deco s development of Cubism s selective geometry into a wider array of shapes carried Cubism as a pictorial taxonomy to a much broader audience and wider appeal Richard Harrison Martin Metropolitan Museum of Art 57 Influences EditPre WW1 past Edit nbsp Ballets Russes influences Drawing of the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky by Paris fashion artist Georges Barbier 1913 nbsp Rococo Chest of drawers by Jacques Dubois 1750 1755 various wood types and gilt bronze mounts Waddesdon Manor Buckinghamshire the UK nbsp Rococo influences Commode by Paul Iribarne Garay c 1912 mahogany and tulip wood frame slate top green tinted shagreen upholstery ebony knobs base and garlands Museum of Decorative Arts Paris nbsp Beaux Arts architecture Boulevard Diderot no 21 Paris unknown architect c 1910 nbsp Beaux Arts influences Avenue de Versailles no 70 72 Paris Modern decor in an established typology designed by Paul Delaplace and sculpted by Jean Boucher 1928 nbsp Louis XVI style Corner table by Jean Francois Therese Chalgrin 1770 gilded wood Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington D C US nbsp Louis XVI style influences Dressing table and chair set by Paul Follot 1919 marble and wood encrusted lacquered and gilded Musee d Art Moderne de Paris nbsp Neoclassicism Mercury or The Trade by Augustin Pajou 1780 marble Louvre nbsp Neoclassical influences Prometheus a stylised Art Deco update of classical sculpture by Paul Manship 1936 gilded bronze Rockefeller Center New York nbsp Art Nouveau Hotel Guimard Avenue Mozart no 122 Paris by Hector Guimard 1909 nbsp Art Nouveau influences Sinuous curves on the facade of Avenue Montaigne no 26 Paris by Louis Duhayon and Marcel Julien 1937 58 Art Deco was not a single style but a collection of different and sometimes contradictory styles In architecture Art Deco was the successor to and reaction against Art Nouveau a style which flourished in Europe between 1895 and 1900 and coexisted with the Beaux Arts and neoclassical that were predominant in European and American architecture In 1905 Eugene Grasset wrote and published Methode de Composition Ornementale Elements Rectilignes 59 in which he systematically explored the decorative ornamental aspects of geometric elements forms motifs and their variations in contrast with and as a departure from the undulating Art Nouveau style of Hector Guimard so popular in Paris a few years earlier Grasset stressed the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements The reinforced concrete buildings of Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage and particularly the Theatre des Champs Elysees offered a new form of construction and decoration which was copied worldwide 60 Ancient and non European civilizations Edit nbsp Ancient Egyptian art Vegetal capitals in the courtyard of the Isis Temple Philae Egypt unknown architect 380 BC 117 AD 61 30 nbsp Egyptian influences Dress decorated with lotus flower that are inspired by those found in Ancient Egyptian decoration by Jenny couturier and Lesage embroiderer silk metallic thread and crocheted embroidery Musee Galliera Paris nbsp Mesopotamian art Ziggurat of Ur Tell el Muqayyar Dhi Qar Province Iraq unknown architect 21st century BC 62 nbsp Mesopotamian influences Western Union Building Hudson Street no 60 New York by Voorhees Gmelin and Walker 1928 1930 nbsp Pre Columbian art in this case Mayan Yaxchilan Lintel 24 702 AD limestone British Museum London 63 nbsp Pre Columbian influences in this case Mayan Interior detail of 450 Sutter Street San Francisco California by Timothy L Pflueger 1929 nbsp Sub Saharian African in this case produced by the Holoholo people Statuette of a woman 19th or early 20th centuries wood Ethnological Museum of Berlin Germany nbsp Sub Saharian African influences Mascaron for a fountain by Henri Navarre 1937 Musee d Art Moderne de ParisIn decoration many different styles were borrowed and used by Art Deco They included pre modern art from around the world and observable at the Musee du Louvre Musee de l Homme and the Musee national des Arts d Afrique et d Oceanie There was also popular interest in archaeology due to excavations at Pompeii Troy and the tomb of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun Artists and designers integrated motifs from ancient Egypt Africa Mesopotamia Greece Rome Asia Mesoamerica and Oceania with Machine Age elements 64 65 66 67 68 69 Early 20th century avant garde movements Edit nbsp Primitivism Head of a Woman by Amedeo Modigliani 1910 1911 limestone National Gallery of Art Washington D C US nbsp Primitivist influences Bust for a shop window anonymous Belgian artist c 1920 painted papier mache private collection Cologne Like in the case of many Art Deco sculptures this bust visibly borrows the geometric purity of Constantin Brancuși s works like the Sleeping Muse but a few more details were added nbsp De Stijl Rietveld Schroder House Utrecht the Netherlands by Gerrit Rietveld 1924 70 nbsp De Stijl influences Pavillon du Tourisme by Robert Mallet Stevens Expo 1925 Paris 1925 71 nbsp Cubism Figure dans un Fauteuil Seated Nude Femme nue assise by Pablo Picasso 1909 1910 oil on canvas Tate Modern London nbsp Cubist influences Cubic coffee service by Erik Magnussen 1927 silver in a temporary exhibition called the Jazz Age at the Cleveland Museum of Art US nbsp Constructivism Beat the Whites with the Red Wedges by El Lissitzky 1919 1920 lithographic poster Russian State Library Moscow nbsp Constructivist influences Clock decorated with flat geometric shapes by Jean Goulden 1928 silvered bronze with enamel Stephen E Kelly Collection 72 nbsp Expressionist theatre and film Scene from Metropolis by Fritz Lang 1927 nbsp Influences of the Expressionist theatre and film Interior of the Apollo Victoria Theatre London by Ernest Wamsley Lewis 1928 1930 73 nbsp Futurism Staircase house with elevators from four street levels part of La Citta Nuova by Antonio Sant Elia 1914 ink and pencil on paper Musei Civici Como Italy 74 nbsp Futurist influences Rue du Laos no 25 Paris by Charles Thomas 1930 75 nbsp Expressionist Rudolf Mosse Printing and Publishing Company Building Berlin by Erich Mendelsohn 1921 1923 76 nbsp Expressionist influences Aux Trois Quartiers department store Paris by Louis Faure Dujarric 1932 77 Other styles borrowed included Futurism Orphism Functionalism and Modernism in general Cubism discovers its decorative potential within the Art Deco aesthetic when transposed from the canvas onto a textile material or wallpaper Sonia Delaunay conceives her dress models in an abstract and geometric style as live paintings or sculptures of living forms Cubist like designs are created by Louis Barrilet in the stained glass windows of the American bar at the Atrium Casino in Dax 1926 but also including names of fashionable cocktails In architecture the clear contrast between horizontal and vertical volumes specific both to Russian Constructivism and the Frank Lloyd Wright Willem Marinus Dudok line becomes a common device in articulating Art Deco facades from individual homes and tenement buildings to cinemas or oil stations 78 36 64 79 80 Art Deco also used the clashing colours and designs of Fauvism notably in the work of Henri Matisse and Andre Derain inspired the designs of art deco textiles wallpaper and painted ceramics 36 It took ideas from the high fashion vocabulary of the period which featured geometric designs chevrons zigzags and stylized bouquets of flowers It was influenced by discoveries in Egyptology and growing interest in the Orient and in African art From 1925 onwards it was often inspired by a passion for new machines such as airships automobiles and ocean liners and by 1930 this influence resulted in the style called Streamline Moderne 81 Style of luxury and modernity Edit nbsp The boudoir of fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin 1922 25 now in the Museum of Decorative Arts Paris France nbsp Bath of Jeanne Lanvin of Sienna marble with decoration of carved stucco and bronze 1922 25 nbsp An Art Deco study by the Paris design firm of Alavoine now in the Brooklyn Museum New York City N Y 1928 30 nbsp Glass Salon Le salon de verre designed by Paul Ruaud with furniture by Eileen Gray for Madame Mathieu Levy milliner of the boutique J Suzanne Talbot 9 rue de Lota Paris 1922 published in L Illustration 27 May 1933 Art Deco was associated with both luxury and modernity it combined very expensive materials and exquisite craftsmanship put into modernistic forms Nothing was cheap about Art Deco pieces of furniture included ivory and silver inlays and pieces of Art Deco jewellery combined diamonds with platinum jade coral and other precious materials The style was used to decorate the first class salons of ocean liners deluxe trains and skyscrapers It was used around the world to decorate the great movie palaces of the late 1920s and 1930s Later after the Great Depression the style changed and became more sober A good example of the luxury style of Art Deco is the boudoir of the fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin designed by Armand Albert Rateau 1882 1938 made between 1922 and 1925 It was located in her house at 16 rue Barbet de Jouy in Paris which was demolished in 1965 The room was reconstructed in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris The walls are covered with moulded lambris below sculpted bas reliefs in stucco The alcove is framed with columns of marble on bases and a plinth of sculpted wood The floor is of white and black marble and in the cabinets decorative objects are displayed against a background of blue silk Her bathroom had a tub and washstand made of sienna marble with a wall of carved stucco and bronze fittings 82 By 1928 the style had become more comfortable with deep leather club chairs The study designed by the Paris firm of Alavoine for an American businessman in 1928 30 is now in the Brooklyn Museum By the 1930s the style had been somewhat simplified but it was still extravagant In 1932 the decorator Paul Ruaud made the Glass Salon for Suzanne Talbot It featured a serpentine armchair and two tubular armchairs by Eileen Gray a floor of mat silvered glass slabs a panel of abstract patterns in silver and black lacquer and an assortment of animal skins 83 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts 1925 EditMain article International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts nbsp Postcard of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris France 1925 nbsp Entrance to the 1925 Exposition from Place de la Concorde by Pierre Patout nbsp Polish pavilion 1925 nbsp Pavilion of the Galeries Lafayette Department Store at the 1925 Exposition nbsp The Hotel du Collectionneur pavilion of the furniture manufacturer Emile Jacques Ruhlmann designed by Pierre Patout nbsp Salon of the Hotel du Collectionneur from the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts furnished by Emile Jacques Ruhlmann painting by Jean Dupas design by Pierre PatoutThe event that marked the zenith of the style and gave it its name was the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts which took place in Paris from April to October in 1925 This was officially sponsored by the French government and covered a site in Paris of 55 acres running from the Grand Palais on the right bank to Les Invalides on the left bank and along the banks of the Seine The Grand Palais the largest hall in the city was filled with exhibits of decorative arts from the participating countries There were 15 000 exhibitors from twenty different countries including Austria Belgium Czechoslovakia Denmark Great Britain Italy Japan the Netherlands Poland Spain Sweden and the new Soviet Union Germany was not invited because of tensions after the war The United States misunderstanding the purpose of the exhibit declined to participate The event was visited by sixteen million people during its seven month run The rules of the exhibition required that all work be modern no historical styles were allowed The main purpose of the Exhibit was to promote the French manufacturers of luxury furniture porcelain glass metalwork textiles and other decorative products To further promote the products all the major Paris department stores and major designers had their own pavilions The Exposition had a secondary purpose in promoting products from French colonies in Africa and Asia including ivory and exotic woods The Hotel du Collectionneur was a popular attraction at the Exposition it displayed the new furniture designs of Emile Jacques Ruhlmann as well as Art Deco fabrics carpets and a painting by Jean Dupas The interior design followed the same principles of symmetry and geometric forms which set it apart from Art Nouveau and bright colours fine craftsmanship rare and expensive materials which set it apart from the strict functionality of the Modernist style While most of the pavilions were lavishly decorated and filled with hand made luxury furniture two pavilions those of the Soviet Union and Pavilion de L Esprit Nouveau built by the magazine of that name run by Le Corbusier were built in an austere style with plain white walls and no decoration they were among the earliest examples of modernist architecture 84 Late Art Deco Edit nbsp Piața Sfantul Ștefan no 1 in Bucharest Romania by unknown architect c 1930 nbsp Strada Maria Rosetti no 55 in Bucharest by unknown architect c 1930 nbsp Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach Florida by Thomas W Lamb 1936 nbsp The Palais de Chaillot by Louis Hippolyte Boileau Jacques Carlu and Leon Azema from the 1937 Paris International Exposition nbsp Stairway of the Economic and Social Council in Paris originally the Museum of Public Works built for the 1937 Paris International Exposition by Auguste Perret 1937 nbsp High School in King City California built by Robert Stanton for the Works Progress Administration 1939 In 1925 two different competing schools coexisted within Art Deco the traditionalists who had founded the Society of Decorative Artists included the furniture designer Emile Jacques Ruhlmann Jean Dunand the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle and designer Paul Poiret they combined modern forms with traditional craftsmanship and expensive materials On the other side were the modernists who increasingly rejected the past and wanted a style based upon advances in new technologies simplicity a lack of decoration inexpensive materials and mass production The modernists founded their own organisation The French Union of Modern Artists in 1929 Its members included architects Pierre Chareau Francis Jourdain Robert Mallet Stevens Corbusier and in the Soviet Union Konstantin Melnikov the Irish designer Eileen Gray the French designer Sonia Delaunay and the jewellers Georges Fouquet and Jean Puiforcat They fiercely attacked the traditional art deco style which they said was created only for the wealthy and insisted that well constructed buildings should be available to everyone and that form should follow function The beauty of an object or building resided in whether it was perfectly fit to fulfil its function Modern industrial methods meant that furniture and buildings could be mass produced not made by hand 85 86 page needed The Art Deco interior designer Paul Follot defended Art Deco in this way We know that man is never content with the indispensable and that the superfluous is always needed If not we would have to get rid of music flowers and perfumes 87 However Le Corbusier was a brilliant publicist for modernist architecture he stated that a house was simply a machine to live in and tirelessly promoted the idea that Art Deco was the past and modernism was the future Le Corbusier s ideas were gradually adopted by architecture schools and the aesthetics of Art Deco were abandoned The same features that made Art Deco popular in the beginning its craftsmanship rich materials and ornament led to its decline The Great Depression that began in the United States in 1929 and reached Europe shortly afterwards greatly reduced the number of wealthy clients who could pay for the furnishings and art objects In the Depression economic climate few companies were ready to build new skyscrapers 36 Even the Ruhlmann firm resorted to producing pieces of furniture in series rather than individual hand made items The last buildings built in Paris in the new style were the Museum of Public Works by Auguste Perret now the French Economic Social and Environmental Council the Palais de Chaillot by Louis Hippolyte Boileau Jacques Carlu and Leon Azema and the Palais de Tokyo of the 1937 Paris International Exposition they looked out at the grandiose pavilion of Nazi Germany designed by Albert Speer which faced the equally grandiose socialist realist pavilion of Stalin s Soviet Union After World War II the dominant architectural style became the International Style pioneered by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe A handful of Art Deco hotels were built in Miami Beach after World War II but elsewhere the style largely vanished except in industrial design where it continued to be used in automobile styling and products such as jukeboxes In the 1960s it experienced a modest academic revival thanks in part to the writings of architectural historians such as Bevis Hillier In the 1970s efforts were made in the United States and Europe to preserve the best examples of Art Deco architecture and many buildings were restored and repurposed Postmodern architecture which first appeared in the 1980s like Art Deco often includes purely decorative features 36 64 88 89 Deco continues to inspire designers and is often used in contemporary fashion jewellery and toiletries 90 Painting Edit nbsp Detail of Time ceiling mural in lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York City N Y by the Spanish painter Josep Maria Sert 1941 nbsp Workers sorting the mail a mural in the Ariel Rios Federal Building Washington D C by Reginald Marsh 1936 nbsp Art in the Tropics mural in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building Washington D C by Rockwell Kent 1938 There was no section set aside for painting at the 1925 Exposition Art deco painting was by definition decorative designed to decorate a room or work of architecture so few painters worked exclusively in the style but two painters are closely associated with Art Deco Jean Dupas painted Art Deco murals for the Bordeaux Pavilion at the 1925 Decorative Arts Exposition in Paris and also painted the picture over the fireplace in the Maison du Collectionneur exhibit at the 1925 Exposition which featured furniture by Ruhlmann and other prominent Art Deco designers His murals were also prominent in the decor of the French ocean liner SS Normandie His work was purely decorative designed as a background or accompaniment to other elements of the decor 91 The other painter closely associated with the style is Tamara de Lempicka Born in Poland she emigrated to Paris after the Russian Revolution She studied under Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote and borrowed many elements from their styles She painted portraits in a realistic dynamic and colourful Art Deco style 92 In the 1930s a dramatic new form of Art Deco painting appeared in the United States During the Great Depression the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration was created to give work to unemployed artists Many were given the task of decorating government buildings hospitals and schools There was no specific art deco style used in the murals artists engaged to paint murals in government buildings came from many different schools from American regionalism to social realism they included Reginald Marsh Rockwell Kent and the Mexican painter Diego Rivera The murals were Art Deco because they were all decorative and related to the activities in the building or city where they were painted Reginald Marsh and Rockwell Kent both decorated U S postal buildings and showed postal employees at work while Diego Rivera depicted automobile factory workers for the Detroit Institute of Arts Diego Rivera s mural Man at the Crossroads 1933 for 30 Rockefeller Plaza featured an unauthorized portrait of Lenin 93 94 When Rivera refused to remove Lenin the painting was destroyed and a new mural was painted by the Spanish artist Josep Maria Sert 95 96 97 Sculpture EditMonumental and public sculpture Edit nbsp Aluminum statue of Ceres by John Storrs atop the Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago Illinois 1930 nbsp The gilded bronze Prometheus at the Rockefeller Center New York City N Y by Paul Manship 1934 a stylized Art Deco update of classical sculpture 1936 nbsp Portal decoration Wisdom by Lee Lawrie at the Rockefeller Center 1933 nbsp Lee Lawrie 1936 37 Atlas statue in front of the Rockefeller Center installed 1937 nbsp Man Controlling Trade by Michael Lantz at the Federal Trade Commission Building Washington D C 1942 nbsp Mail Delivery East by Edmond Amateis one of four bas relief sculptures on the Nix Federal Building Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1937 nbsp Ralph Stackpole s sculpture group over the door of the San Francisco Stock Exchange San Francisco California 1930 nbsp Aerial between Wisdom and Gaiety by Eric Gill facade of BBC Broadcasting House London UK 1932 nbsp Christ the Redeemer by Paul Landowski 1931 soapstone Corcovado Mountain Rio de Janeiro BrazilSculpture was a very common and integral feature of Art Deco architecture In France allegorical bas reliefs representing dance and music by Antoine Bourdelle decorated the earliest Art Deco landmark in Paris the Theatre des Champs Elysees in 1912 The 1925 Exposition had major sculptural works placed around the site pavilions were decorated with sculptural friezes and several pavilions devoted to smaller studio sculpture In the 1930s a large group of prominent sculptors made works for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne at Chaillot Alfred Janniot made the relief sculptures on the facade of the Palais de Tokyo The Musee d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the esplanade in front of the Palais de Chaillot facing the Eiffel Tower was crowded with new statuary by Charles Malfray Henry Arnold and many others 98 Public art deco sculpture was almost always representational usually of heroic or allegorical figures related to the purpose of the building or room The themes were usually selected by the patrons not the artist Abstract sculpture for decoration was extremely rare 99 100 In the United States the most prominent Art Deco sculptor for public art was Paul Manship who updated classical and mythological subjects and themes in an Art Deco style His most famous work was the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City a 20th century adaptation of a classical subject Other important works for Rockefeller Center were made by Lee Lawrie including the sculptural facade and the Atlas statue During the Great Depression in the United States many sculptors were commissioned to make works for the decoration of federal government buildings with funds provided by the WPA or Works Progress Administration They included sculptor Sidney Biehler Waugh who created stylized and idealized images of workers and their tasks for federal government office buildings 101 In San Francisco Ralph Stackpole provided sculpture for the facade of the new San Francisco Stock Exchange building In Washington D C Michael Lantz made works for the Federal Trade Commission building In Britain Deco public statuary was made by Eric Gill for the BBC Broadcasting House while Ronald Atkinson decorated the lobby of the former Daily Express Building in London 1932 One of the best known and certainly the largest public Art Deco sculpture is the Christ the Redeemer by the French sculptor Paul Landowski completed between 1922 and 1931 located on a mountain top overlooking Rio de Janeiro Brazil Studio sculpture Edit nbsp Tete front and side view limestone by Joseph Csaky c 1920 Kroller Muller Museum Otterlo Netherlands nbsp The Hunter by Pierre Le Faguays 1920s nbsp Actaeon by Paul Manship 1925 in a temporary exhibition called the Jazz Age at the Cleveland Museum of Art US nbsp Speed a design for a radiator ornament by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth 1925 nbsp The Flight of Europa bronze with gold leaf by Paul Manship 1925 Whitney Museum of American Art New York City N Y nbsp Tanără Girl bronze ivory and onyx by Demetre Chiparus c 1925 nbsp Dansatoare Dancer bronze and ivory by Chiparus c 1925 Many early Art Deco sculptures were small designed to decorate salons One genre of this sculpture was called the Chryselephantine statuette named for a style of ancient Greek temple statues made of gold and ivory They were sometimes made of bronze or sometimes with much more lavish materials such as ivory onyx alabaster and gold leaf One of the best known Art Deco salon sculptors was the Romanian born Demetre Chiparus who produced colourful small sculptures of dancers Other notable salon sculptors included Ferdinand Preiss Josef Lorenzl Alexander Kelety Dorothea Charol and Gustav Schmidtcassel 102 Another important American sculptor in the studio format was Harriet Whitney Frishmuth who had studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris Pierre Le Paguays was a prominent Art Deco studio sculptor whose work was shown at the 1925 Exposition He worked with bronze marble ivory onyx gold alabaster and other precious materials 103 Francois Pompon was a pioneer of modern stylised animalier sculpture He was not fully recognised for his artistic accomplishments until the age of 67 at the Salon d Automne of 1922 with the work Ours blanc also known as The White Bear now in the Musee d Orsay in Paris 104 Parallel with these Art Deco sculptors more avant garde and abstract modernist sculptors were at work in Paris and New York City The most prominent were Constantin Brancuși Joseph Csaky Alexander Archipenko Henri Laurens Jacques Lipchitz Gustave Miklos Jean Lambert Rucki Jan et Joel Martel Chana Orloff and Pablo Gargallo 105 Graphic arts Edit nbsp Programme for the Ballets Russes by Leon Bakst 1912 nbsp Peter Behrens Deutscher Werkbund exhibition poster 1914 nbsp A Vanity Fair cover by Georges Lepape 1919 nbsp Interpretation of Harlem Jazz I by Winold Reiss c 1920 nbsp Cover of Harper s Bazaar by Erte 1922 nbsp London Underground poster by Horace Taylor 1924 nbsp Moulin Rouge poster by Charles Gesmar 1925 nbsp Cover of the Jester of Columbia unattributed 1931 The Art Deco style appeared early in the graphic arts in the years just before World War I It appeared in Paris in the posters and the costume designs of Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes and in the catalogues of the fashion designers Paul Poiret 106 The illustrations of Georges Barbier and Georges Lepape and the images in the fashion magazine La Gazette du bon ton perfectly captured the elegance and sensuality of the style In the 1920s the look changed the fashions stressed were more casual sportive and daring with the woman models usually smoking cigarettes American fashion magazines such as Vogue Vanity Fair and Harper s Bazaar quickly picked up the new style and popularized it in the United States It also influenced the work of American book illustrators such as Rockwell Kent In Germany the most famous poster artist of the period was Ludwig Hohlwein who created colourful and dramatic posters for music festivals beers and late in his career for the Nazi Party 107 During the Art Nouveau period posters usually advertised theatrical products or cabarets In the 1920s travel posters made for steamship lines and airlines became extremely popular The style changed notably in the 1920s to focus attention on the product being advertised The images became simpler precise more linear more dynamic and were often placed against a single color background In France popular Art Deco designers included Charles Loupot and Paul Colin who became famous for his posters of American singer and dancer Josephine Baker Jean Carlu designed posters for Charlie Chaplin movies soaps and theatres in the late 1930s he emigrated to the United States where during the World War he designed posters to encourage war production The designer Charles Gesmar became famous making posters for the singer Mistinguett and for Air France Among the best known French Art Deco poster designers was Cassandre who made the celebrated poster of the ocean liner SS Normandie in 1935 107 In the 1930s a new genre of posters appeared in the United States during the Great Depression The Federal Art Project hired American artists to create posters to promote tourism and cultural events Architecture Edit Art Deco Architecture redirects here For the book by Patricia Bayer see Art Deco Architecture Design Decoration and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties See also List of Art Deco architecture nbsp Parfumerie d Orsay Paris by Louis Sue and Andre Mare 1925 nbsp La Samaritaine department store in Paris France by Henri Sauvage 1925 28 nbsp Los Angeles City Hall by John Parkinson John C Austin and Albert C Martin Sr 1928 nbsp Interior of Calea Victoriei no 100 in Bucharest Romania by Nicolae Nenciulescu 1929 nbsp Interior of the Palacio de Bellas Artes Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City Mexico 1934 nbsp Entrance of the Villa Empain in Brussels Belgium 1930 34 nbsp National Diet Building in Tokyo Japan 1936 nbsp Mayakovskaya Metro Station in Moscow Russia 1936 The architectural style of art deco made its debut in Paris in 1903 04 with the construction of two apartment buildings in Paris one by Auguste Perret on rue Benjamin Franklin and the other on rue Tretaigne by Henri Sauvage The two young architects used reinforced concrete for the first time in Paris residential buildings the new buildings had clean lines rectangular forms and no decoration on the facades they marked a clean break with the art nouveau style 108 Between 1910 and 1913 Perret used his experience in concrete apartment buildings to construct the Theatre des Champs Elysees 15 avenue Montaigne Between 1925 and 1928 Sauvage constructed the new art deco facade of La Samaritaine department store in Paris 109 The Art Deco style was not limited to buildings on land the ocean liner SS Normandie whose first voyage was in 1935 featured Art Deco design including a dining room whose ceiling and decoration were made of glass by Lalique 110 Skyscrapers Edit nbsp The American Radiator Building New York City N Y by Raymond Hood 1924 nbsp Chrysler Building New York City by William Van Alen 1930 nbsp New York City s skyline c 1931 33 nbsp Crown of the General Electric Building also known as 570 Lexington Avenue New York City by Cross amp Cross 1933 nbsp 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York City by Raymond Hood 1933 nbsp Empire State Building New York City by Shreve Lamb amp Harmon 1931 American skyscrapers marked the summit of the Art Deco style they became the tallest and most recognizable modern buildings in the world They were designed to show the prestige of their builders through their height their shape their color and their dramatic illumination at night 111 The American Radiator Building by Raymond Hood 1924 combined Gothic and Deco modern elements in the design of the building Black brick on the frontage of the building symbolizing coal was selected to give an idea of solidity and to give the building a solid mass Other parts of the facade were covered in gold bricks symbolizing fire and the entry was decorated with marble and black mirrors Another early Art Deco skyscraper was Detroit s Guardian Building which opened in 1929 Designed by modernist Wirt C Rowland the building was the first to employ stainless steel as a decorative element and the extensive use of colored designs in place of traditional ornaments New York City s skyline was radically changed by the Chrysler Building in Manhattan completed in 1930 designed by William Van Alen It was a giant seventy seven floor tall advertisement for Chrysler automobiles The top was crowned by a stainless steel spire and was ornamented by deco gargoyles in the form of stainless steel radiator cap decorations The base of the tower thirty three stories above the street was decorated with colorful art deco friezes and the lobby was decorated with art deco symbols and images expressing modernity 112 The Chrysler Building was soon surpassed in height by the Empire State Building by William F Lamb 1931 in a slightly less lavish Deco style and the RCA Building now 30 Rockefeller Plaza by Raymond Hood 1933 which together completely changed New York City s skyline The tops of the buildings were decorated with Art Deco crowns and spires covered with stainless steel and in the case of the Chrysler building with Art Deco gargoyles modeled after radiator ornaments while the entrances and lobbies were lavishly decorated with Art Deco sculpture ceramics and design Similar buildings though not quite as tall soon appeared in Chicago and other large American cities Rockefeller Center added a new design element several tall buildings grouped around an open plaza with a fountain in the middle 113 Cathedrals of Commerce Edit nbsp The Fisher Building in Detroit Michigan by Joseph Nathaniel French 1928 nbsp Lower lobby of the Guardian Building in Detroit by Wirt Rowland 1929 nbsp Lobby of 450 Sutter Street in San Francisco California by Timothy Pflueger 1929 nbsp Lobby of the Chrysler Building in New York City N Y by William Van Alen 1930 nbsp Interior door in the Chrysler Building 1930 nbsp Ceiling and chandelier detail on the lobby of the Carew Tower in Cincinnati Ohio by Walter W Ahlschlager 1930 nbsp Salon d Afrique of the Palais de la Porte Doree with furnitures by Jacques Emile Ruhlmann and frescos by Louis Bouquet 1931 nbsp Foyer of the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam Netherlands by Hijman Louis de Jong 1921 The grand showcases of American Art Deco interior design were the lobbies of government buildings theaters and particularly office buildings Interiors were extremely colorful and dynamic combining sculpture murals and ornate geometric design in marble glass ceramics and stainless steel An early example was the Fisher Building in Detroit by Joseph Nathaniel French the lobby was highly decorated with sculpture and ceramics The Guardian Building originally the Union Trust Building in Detroit by Wirt Rowland 1929 decorated with red and black marble and brightly colored ceramics highlighted by highly polished steel elevator doors and counters The sculptural decoration installed in the walls illustrated the virtues of industry and saving the building was immediately termed the Cathedral of Commerce The Medical and Dental Building called 450 Sutter Street in San Francisco by Timothy Pflueger was inspired by Mayan architecture in a highly stylized form it used pyramid shapes and the interior walls were covered with highly stylized rows of hieroglyphs 114 In France the best example of an Art Deco interior during this period was the Palais de la Porte Doree 1931 by Albert Laprade Leon Jaussely and Leon Bazin The building now the National Museum of Immigration with an aquarium in the basement was built for the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931 to celebrate the people and products of French colonies The exterior facade was entirely covered with sculpture and the lobby created an Art Deco harmony with a wood parquet floor in a geometric pattern a mural depicting the people of French colonies and a harmonious composition of vertical doors and horizontal balconies 114 Movie palaces Edit nbsp Grauman s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood Los Angeles California 1922 nbsp Four story high grand lobby of the Paramount Theatre in Oakland California 1932 nbsp Auditorium and stage of Radio City Music Hall in New York City N Y 1932 nbsp Grand Rex in Paris France 1932 nbsp Gaumont State Cinema in London UK 1937 nbsp The Paramount in Shanghai China 1933 nbsp The Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam the Netherlands 1921 Many of the best surviving examples of Art Deco are cinemas built in the 1920s and 1930s The Art Deco period coincided with the conversion of silent films to sound and movie companies built large display destinations in major cities to capture the huge audience that came to see movies Movie palaces in the 1920s often combined exotic themes with art deco style Grauman s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood 1922 was inspired by ancient Egyptian tombs and pyramids while the Fox Theater in Bakersfield California attached a tower in California Mission style to an Art Deco Hall The largest of all is Radio City Music Hall in New York City which opened in 1932 Originally designed as theatrical performance space it quickly transformed into a cinema which could seat 6 015 customers The interior design by Donald Deskey used glass aluminum chrome and leather to create a visual escape from reality The Paramount Theatre in Oakland California by Timothy Pflueger had a colorful ceramic facade a lobby four stories high and separate Art Deco smoking rooms for gentlemen and ladies Similar grand palaces appeared in Europe The Grand Rex in Paris 1932 with its imposing tower was the largest cinema in Europe after the 6 000 seats of the Gaumont Palace 1931 1973 The Gaumont State Cinema in London 1937 had a tower modelled on the Empire State building covered with cream ceramic tiles and an interior in an Art Deco Italian Renaissance style The Paramount Theatre in Shanghai China 1933 was originally built as a dance hall called The gate of 100 pleasures it was converted to a cinema after the Communist Revolution in 1949 and now is a ballroom and disco In the 1930s Italian architects built a small movie palace the Cinema Impero in Asmara in what is now Eritrea Today many of the movie theatres have been subdivided into multiplexes but others have been restored and are used as cultural centres in their communities 115 Streamline Moderne Edit Main article Streamline Moderne nbsp Moscovici Building in Bucharest Romania by Aurel Focșanu and Emil Vițeanu 1930s nbsp The nautical style rounded corner of Broadcasting House in London UK 1931 nbsp Paris building in the Paquebot or ocean liner style 3 boulevard Victor by Pierre Patout 1935 nbsp Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles California 1936 nbsp The Marine Air Terminal at La Guardia Airport 1937 was New York City s terminal for the flights of Pan Am Clipper flying boats to Europe nbsp The Hoover Building canteen in Perivale in London s suburbs by Wallis Gilbert and Partners 1938 nbsp Former Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting in Ixelles Brussels Belgium 1938 nbsp The Ford Pavilion at the 1939 New York World s Fair nbsp Streamline Moderne church First Church of Deliverance in Chicago Illinois by Walter T Bailey 1939 Towers added in 1948 In the late 1930s a new variety of Art Deco architecture became common it was called Streamline Moderne or simply Streamline or in France the Style Paquebot or Ocean Liner style Buildings in the style had rounded corners and long horizontal lines they were built of reinforced concrete and were almost always white and they sometimes had nautical features such as railings and portholes that resembled those on a ship The rounded corner was not entirely new it had appeared in Berlin in 1923 in the Mossehaus by Erich Mendelsohn and later in the Hoover Building an industrial complex in the London suburb of Perivale In the United States it became most closely associated with transport Streamline moderne was rare in office buildings but was often used for bus stations and airport terminals such as the terminal at La Guardia airport in New York City that handled the first transatlantic flights via the PanAm Clipper flying boats and in roadside architecture such as gas stations and diners In the late 1930s a series of diners modelled upon streamlined railroad cars were produced and installed in towns in New England at least two examples still remain and are now registered historic buildings 116 Decoration and motifs Edit nbsp Birds Quai d Orsay no 55 in Paris designed by Louis Hippolyte Boileau and carved by Leon Binet 1913 nbsp Allegorical representations Pediment of the Mihai Zisman House Calea Călărașilor no 44 in Bucharest Romania by architect Soru 1920 nbsp Stylized flowers especially spiral flowers and converging fascicles Architectural element for the Parfumerie d Orasy by Georges Beal 1922 nbsp The urn Corner cabinet made of mahogany with rose basket design of inlaid ivory by Jacques Emile Ruhlmann 1923 Brooklyn Museum New York City nbsp The flower basket Balconies and pediment of Avenue Montaigne no 41 Paris unknown architect or sculptor 1924 117 nbsp Repeating patterns Decorative ironwork of the Madison Belmont Building Madison Avenue no 181 183 in New York City by Ferrobrandt American branch of the Edgar Brandt enterprise 1925 118 nbsp The papyrus flower Porte d honneur at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris by Edgar Brandt 1925 119 nbsp The foliage scroll Elevator doors by Edgar Brandt 1926 wrought iron glass patinated and gilded bronze Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Lisboa Portugal 120 nbsp Simplified reinterpretations of the Doric columns with a basic rectangular capital or base or just as a shaft Gustave Simon Grave Preville Cemetery Nancy France unknown architect after 1926 nbsp Ingenious games of light and darkness Stage design for Meșterul Manole The Master Builder Manole by Victor Feodorov 1927 1928 collection of the National Theatre Bucharest nbsp The octagon shaped medallion Sign of the La Samaritaine department store in Paris by Henri Sauvage 1928 121 nbsp Mosaics Maison bleue Rue d Alsace no 28 Angers France designed by Roger Jusserand and decorated with mosaics by the Odorico freres 1928 nbsp The stepped motif Entrance hall of the Chrysler Building in New York City by William Van Allen 1928 1930 nbsp Vertical mouldings Greybrook House Brook Street no 28 London by Sir John Burnet amp Partners 1928 1929 122 nbsp The sunburst Detail of the Telephones Company Building Calea Victoriei no 37 in Bucharest by Walter Froy Louis S Weeks and Edmond van Saanen Algi 1929 1934 123 nbsp The artesian fountain Lamp by Paul Kiss c 1930 glass and metal in a temporary exhibition called the Jazz Age at the Cleveland Museum of Art US nbsp The cornucopia Avenue des Champs Elysees no 77 Paris unknown architect c 1930 nbsp Complex zigzags Foot of a console table by Paul Feher c 1930 metal in a temporary exhibition called the Jazz Age at the Cleveland Museum of Art nbsp Horizontal mouldings Strada Maria Rosetti no 55 in Bucharest by unknown architect c 1930 nbsp Streamlining Rue Gramme no 17 21 in Paris by Marcel Chappey 1930 nbsp An aesthetic of artificial lighting Maison de France now showroom for Louis Vuitton Avenue des Champs Elysees no 101 in Paris by Louis Hippolyte Boileau and Charles Henri Besnard 1931 124 nbsp Ziggurat Union Hotel Strada Ion Campineanu no 11 in Bucharest by Arghir Culina 1931 125 nbsp Vertical and horizontal luminous surfaces Entrance hall of the Villa Cavrois in Croix France by Rob Mallet Stevens 1932 126 nbsp The undulating line Relief on the Grave of the Străjescu Family in the Bellu Cemetery Bucharest by George Cristinel 1934 127 nbsp Decorative stylized lettering Edificio del Parque Mexico City Mexico by Ernesto Buenrostro 1935Decoration in the Art Deco period went through several distinct phases Between 1910 and 1920 as Art Nouveau was exhausted design styles saw a return to tradition particularly in the work of Paul Iribe In 1912 Andre Vera published an essay in the magazine L Art Decoratif calling for a return to the craftsmanship and materials of earlier centuries and using a new repertoire of forms taken from nature particularly baskets and garlands of fruit and flowers A second tendency of Art Deco also from 1910 to 1920 was inspired by the bright colours of the artistic movement known as the Fauves and by the colourful costumes and sets of the Ballets Russes This style was often expressed with exotic materials such as sharkskin mother of pearl ivory tinted leather lacquered and painted wood and decorative inlays on furniture that emphasized its geometry This period of the style reached its high point in the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts In the late 1920s and the 1930s the decorative style changed inspired by new materials and technologies It became sleeker and less ornamental Furniture like architecture began to have rounded edges and to take on a polished streamlined look taken from the streamline modern style New materials such as nickel or chrome plated steel aluminium and bakelite an early form of plastic began to appear in furniture and decoration 128 Throughout the Art Deco period and particularly in the 1930s the motifs of the decor expressed the function of the building Theatres were decorated with sculpture which illustrated music dance and excitement power companies showed sunrises the Chrysler building showed stylized hood ornaments The friezes of Palais de la Porte Doree at the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition showed the faces of the different nationalities of French colonies The Streamline style made it appear that the building itself was in motion The WPA murals of the 1930s featured ordinary people factory workers postal workers families and farmers in place of classical heroes 129 Furniture Edit nbsp Chair by Paul Follot 1912 14 nbsp Armchair by Louis Sue 1912 and painted screen by Andre Mare 1920 nbsp Dressing table and chair of marble and encrusted lacquered and gilded wood by Follot 1919 20 nbsp Corner cabinet of Mahogany with rose basket design of inlaid ivory by Emile Jacques Ruhlmann 1923 nbsp Cabinet by Ruhlmann 1926 nbsp Cabinet design by Ruhlmann nbsp Cabinet covered with shagreen or sharkskin by Andre Groult 1925 nbsp Furniture by Gio Ponti 1927 nbsp Desk of an administrator by Michel Roux Spitz for the 1930 Salon of Decorative Artists nbsp An Art Deco club chair 1930s nbsp Late Art Deco furniture and rug by Jules Leleu 1930s nbsp A Waterfall style buffet tableFrench furniture from 1910 until the early 1920s was largely an updating of French traditional furniture styles and the art nouveau designs of Louis Majorelle Charles Plumet and other manufacturers French furniture manufacturers felt threatened by the growing popularity of German manufacturers and styles particularly the Biedermeier style which was simple and clean lined The French designer Frantz Jourdain the President of the Paris Salon d Automne invited designers from Munich to participate in the 1910 Salon French designers saw the new German style and decided to meet the German challenge The French designers decided to present new French styles in the Salon of 1912 The rules of the Salon indicated that only modern styles would be permitted All of the major French furniture designers took part in Salon Paul Follot Paul Iribe Maurice Dufrene Andre Groult Andre Mare and Louis Sue took part presenting new works that updated the traditional French styles of Louis XVI and Louis Philippe with more angular corners inspired by Cubism and brighter colours inspired by Fauvism and the Nabis 130 The painter Andre Mare and furniture designer Louis Sue both participated the 1912 Salon After the war the two men joined to form their own company formally called the Compagnie des Arts Francaise but usually known simply as Sue and Mare Unlike the prominent art nouveau designers like Louis Majorelle who personally designed every piece they assembled a team of skilled craftsmen and produced complete interior designs including furniture glassware carpets ceramics wallpaper and lighting Their work featured bright colors and furniture and fine woods such as ebony encrusted with mother of pearl abalone and silvered metal to create bouquets of flowers They designed everything from the interiors of ocean liners to perfume bottles for the label of Jean Patou The firm prospered in the early 1920s but the two men were better craftsmen than businessmen The firm was sold in 1928 and both men left 131 The most prominent furniture designer at the 1925 Decorative Arts Exposition was Emile Jacques Ruhlmann from Alsace He first exhibited his works at the 1913 Autumn Salon then had his own pavilion the House of the Rich Collector at the 1925 Exposition He used only most rare and expensive materials including ebony mahogany rosewood ambon and other exotic woods decorated with inlays of ivory tortoise shell mother of pearl Little pompoms of silk decorated the handles of drawers of the cabinets 132 His furniture was based upon 18th century models but simplified and reshaped In all of his work the interior structure of the furniture was completely concealed The framework usually of oak was completely covered with an overlay of thin strips of wood then covered by a second layer of strips of rare and expensive woods This was then covered with a veneer and polished so that the piece looked as if it had been cut out of a single block of wood Contrast to the dark wood was provided by inlays of ivory and ivory key plates and handles According to Ruhlmann armchairs had to be designed differently according to the functions of the rooms where they appeared living room armchairs were designed to be welcoming office chairs comfortable and salon chairs voluptuous Only a small number of pieces of each design of furniture was made and the average price of one of his beds or cabinets was greater than the price of an average house 133 Jules Leleu was a traditional furniture designer who moved smoothly into Art Deco in the 1920s he designed the furniture for the dining room of the Elysee Palace and for the first class cabins of the steamship Normandie his style was characterized by the use of ebony Macassar wood walnut with decoration of plaques of ivory and mother of pearl He introduced the style of lacquered art deco furniture in the late 1920s and in the late 1930s introduced furniture made of metal with panels of smoked glass 134 In Italy the designer Gio Ponti was famous for his streamlined designs The costly and exotic furniture of Ruhlmann and other traditionalists infuriated modernists including the architect Le Corbusier causing him to write a famous series of articles denouncing the arts decoratif style He attacked furniture made only for the rich and called upon designers to create furniture made with inexpensive materials and modern style which ordinary people could afford He designed his own chairs created to be inexpensive and mass produced 135 In the 1930s furniture designs adapted to the form with smoother surfaces and curved forms The masters of the late style included Donald Deskey who was one of the most influential designers he created the interior of the Radio City Music Hall He used a mixture of traditional and very modern materials including aluminium chrome and bakelite an early form of plastic 136 Other top designers of Art Deco furniture of the 1930s in the United States included Gilbert Rohde Warren McArthur and Kem Weber The Waterfall style was popular in the 1930s and 1940s the most prevalent Art Deco form of furniture at the time Pieces were typically of plywood finished with blond veneer and with rounded edges resembling a waterfall 137 Design EditMain article Streamline Moderne nbsp Parker Duofold desk set c 1930 nbsp Beau Brownie camera design by Walter Dorwin Teague for Eastman Kodak 1930 nbsp Philips Art Deco radio set 1931 nbsp Philco Table Radio c 1937 nbsp Electrolux Vacuum cleaner 1937 nbsp The New York Central s 20th Century Limited Hudson 4 6 4 Streamlined Locomotive c 1939 nbsp Chrysler Airflow sedan designed by Carl Breer 1934 nbsp 1937 Cord automobile model 812 designed in 1935 by Gordon M Buehrig and staff nbsp Bugatti Aerolithe 1936 nbsp 1938 Phantom Corsair designed by Rust HeinzStreamline was a variety of Art Deco which emerged during the mid 1930s It was influenced by modern aerodynamic principles developed for aviation and ballistics to reduce aerodynamic drag at high velocities The bullet shapes were applied by designers to cars trains ships and even objects not intended to move such as refrigerators gas pumps and buildings 66 One of the first production vehicles in this style was the Chrysler Airflow of 1933 It was unsuccessful commercially but the beauty and functionality of its design set a precedent meant modernity It continued to be used in car design well after World War II 138 139 140 141 New industrial materials began to influence the design of cars and household objects These included aluminium chrome and bakelite an early form of plastic Bakelite could be easily moulded into different forms and soon was used in telephones radios and other appliances nbsp Grand dining room of the ocean liner SS Normandie by Pierre Patout 1935 bas reliefs by Raymond DelamarreOcean liners also adopted a style of Art Deco known in French as the Style Paquebot or Ocean Liner Style The most famous example was the SS Normandie which made its first transatlantic trip in 1935 It was designed particularly to bring wealthy Americans to Paris to shop The cabins and salons featured the latest Art Deco furnishings and decoration The Grand Salon of the ship which was the restaurant for first class passengers was bigger than the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles It was illuminated by electric lights within twelve pillars of Lalique crystal thirty six matching pillars lined the walls This was one of the earliest examples of illumination being directly integrated into architecture The style of ships was soon adapted to buildings A notable example is found on the San Francisco waterfront where the Maritime Museum building built as a public bath in 1937 resembles a ferryboat with ship railings and rounded corners The Star Ferry Terminal in Hong Kong also used a variation of the style 36 Textiles Edit nbsp Textile design Abundance by Andre Mare 1911 Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City USA nbsp Rose Pattern Textiles designed by Mare c 1919 Metropolitan Museum of Art nbsp Rose Mousse pattern for upholstery cotton and silk 1920 Metropolitan Museum of Art nbsp Design of birds from Les Ateliers de Martine by Paul Iribe 1918 Textiles were an important part of the Art Deco style in the form of colourful wallpaper upholstery and carpets In the 1920s designers were inspired by the stage sets of the Ballets Russes fabric designs and costumes from Leon Bakst and creations by the Wiener Werkstatte The early interior designs of Andre Mare featured brightly coloured and highly stylized garlands of roses and flowers which decorated the walls floors and furniture Stylized Floral motifs also dominated the work of Raoul Dufy and Paul Poiret and in the furniture designs of J E Ruhlmann The floral carpet was reinvented in Deco style by Paul Poiret 142 The use of the style was greatly enhanced by the introduction of the pochoir stencil based printing system which allowed designers to achieve crispness of lines and very vivid colours Art Deco forms appeared in the clothing of Paul Poiret Charles Worth and Jean Patou After World War I exports of clothing and fabrics became one of the most important currency earners of France 143 Late Art Deco wallpaper and textiles sometimes featured stylized industrial scenes cityscapes locomotives and other modern themes as well as stylized female figures metallic finishes and geometric designs 143 Fashion Edit nbsp Evening coat by Paul Poiret c 1912 silk and metal Metropolitan Museum of Art New York nbsp Cecile Sorel at the Comedie Francaise 1920 nbsp Desiree Lubovska in a dress by Jean Patou c 1921 nbsp Coco Chanel in a sailor s blouse and trousers 1928 nbsp Louise Brooks with a a la garconne hairstyle in a publicity photo for Diary of Lost Girl 1929 nbsp Advertisement for pyjamas in Lisieres Fleuries fabric from Jardin des Modes 1930 nbsp Evening dress from the Journal des Dames et des Modes illustrated by George Barbier 1913 Chester Beatty Library Dublin Ireland nbsp Evening dress by the Maison Agnes 1920 1930 silk pearls strass cabochon and other materials Musee Galliera Paris nbsp Skirt by the Maison Agnes 1925 1927 silk Musee GallieraThe new woman of pre WW1 days became the Amazon of the Art Deco era Fashion changed dramatically during this period thanks in particular to designers Paul Poiret and later Coco Chanel Poiret introduced an important innovation to fashion design the concept of draping a departure from the tailoring and patternmaking of the past 144 He designed clothing cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangular motifs 144 His styles offered structural simplicity 144 The corseted look and formal styles of the previous period were abandoned and fashion became more practical and streamlined with the use of new materials brighter colours and printed designs 144 The designer Coco Chanel continued the transition popularising the style of sporty casual chic 145 A particular typology of the era was the Flapper a woman who cut her hair into a short bob drank cocktails smoked in public and danced late into the night at fashionable clubs cabarets or bohemian dives Of course most women didn t live like this the Flapper being more a character present in popular imagination than a reality Another female Art Deco style was the androgynous garconne of the 1920s with flattened bosom dispelled waist and revealed legs reducing the silhouette to a short tube topped with a head hugging cloche hat 146 Jewelry Edit nbsp Art Deco bracelet of gold coral and jade 1925 Musee des Arts Decoratifs Paris France nbsp Molded glass pendants on silk cords by Rene Lalique 1925 30 nbsp Mackay Emerald Necklace emerald diamond and platinum by Cartier 1930 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History USA nbsp A gold buckle set with diamonds and carved onyx lapis lazuli jade and coral by Boucheron 1925 In the 1920s and 1930s designers including Rene Lalique and Cartier tried to reduce the traditional dominance of diamonds by introducing more colourful gemstones such as small emeralds rubies and sapphires They also placed greater emphasis on very elaborate and elegant settings featuring less expensive materials such as enamel glass horn and ivory Diamonds themselves were cut in less traditional forms the 1925 Exposition saw many diamonds cut in the form of tiny rods or matchsticks Other popular Art Deco cuts include emerald cut with long step cut facets asscher cut more square shaped than emerald with a high crown and the first diamond cut to ever be patented marquise cut to give the illusion of being bigger and bolder baguette cut small rectangular step cut shapes often used to outline bolder stones 147 The settings for diamonds also changed More and more often jewellers used platinum instead of gold since it was strong and flexible and could set clusters of stones Jewellers also began to use more dark materials such as enamels and black onyx which provided a higher contrast with diamonds 148 Jewellery became much more colourful and varied in style Cartier and the firm of Boucheron combined diamonds with colourful other gemstones cut into the form of leaves fruit or flowers to make brooches rings earrings clips and pendants Far Eastern themes also became popular plaques of jade and coral were combined with platinum and diamonds and vanity cases cigarette cases and powder boxes were decorated with Japanese and Chinese landscapes made with mother of pearl enamel and lacquer 148 nbsp The Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso watch has been made with the same design since the 1930s 149 Rapidly changing fashions in clothing brought new styles of jewellery Sleeveless dresses of the 1920s meant that arms needed decoration and designers quickly created bracelets of gold silver and platinum encrusted with lapis lazuli onyx coral and other colourful stones Other bracelets were intended for the upper arms and several bracelets were often worn at the same time The short haircuts of women in the twenties called for elaborate deco earring designs As women began to smoke in public designers created very ornate cigarette cases and ivory cigarette holders The invention of the wristwatch before World War I inspired jewelers to create extraordinary decorated watches encrusted with diamonds and plated with enamel gold and silver Pendant watches hanging from a ribbon also became fashionable 150 The established jewellery houses of Paris in the period Cartier Chaumet Georges Fouquet Mauboussin and Van Cleef amp Arpels all created jewellery and objects in the new fashion The firm of Chaumet made highly geometric cigarette boxes cigarette lighters pillboxes and notebooks made of hard stones decorated with jade lapis lazuli diamonds and sapphires They were joined by many young new designers each with his own idea of deco Raymond Templier designed pieces with highly intricate geometric patterns including silver earrings that looked like skyscrapers Gerard Sandoz was only 18 when he started to design jewelry in 1921 he designed many celebrated pieces based on the smooth and polished look of modern machinery The glass designer Rene Lalique also entered the field creating pendants of fruit flowers frogs fairies or mermaids made of sculpted glass in bright colors hanging on cords of silk with tassels 150 The jeweller Paul Brandt contrasted rectangular and triangular patterns and embedded pearls in lines on onyx plaques Jean Despres made necklaces of contrasting colours by bringing together silver and black lacquer or gold with lapis lazuli Many of his designs looked like highly polished pieces of machines Jean Dunand was also inspired by modern machinery combined with bright reds and blacks contrasting with polished metal 150 Glass art Edit nbsp Bottles unknown designer or producer 1920s unknown current locations nbsp The Firebird by Rene Lalique 1922 Dayton Art Institute Dayton Ohio US nbsp Parrot vase by Lalique 1922 Cincinnati Art Museum Cincinnati Ohio nbsp Window for a steel mill office by Louis Majorelle 1928 Grands bureaux des Acieries de Longwy Longlaville France nbsp Skyscraper Lamp designed by Arnaldo dell Ira 1929 Arnaldo dell Ira Collection nbsp Angular chandeliers designed by the firm of Lanchester amp Lodge c 1929 1936 Brotherton Library University of Leeds Leeds England 151 nbsp Vase by Daum c 1930 1935 Museum of Decorative Arts Paris nbsp Stained glass windows by Jean Gaudin 1932 1934 Amiens Cathedral Amiens FranceLike the Art Nouveau period before it Art Deco was an exceptional period for fine glass and other decorative objects designed to fit their architectural surroundings The most famous producer of glass objects was Rene Lalique whose works from vases to hood ornaments for automobiles became symbols of the period He had made ventures into glass before World War I designing bottles for the perfumes of Francois Coty but he did not begin serious production of art glass until after World War I In 1918 at the age of 58 he bought a large glass works in Combs la Ville and began to manufacture both artistic and practical glass objects He treated glass as a form of sculpture and created statuettes vases bowls lamps and ornaments He used demi crystal rather than lead crystal which was softer and easier to form though not as lustrous He sometimes used coloured glass but more often used opalescent glass where part or the whole of the outer surface was stained with a wash Lalique provided the decorative glass panels lights and illuminated glass ceilings for the ocean liners SS Ile de France in 1927 and the SS Normandie in 1935 and for some of the first class sleeping cars of the French railroads At the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts he had his own pavilion designed a dining room with a table setting and matching glass ceiling for the Sevres Pavilion and designed a glass fountain for the courtyard of the Cours des Metiers a slender glass column which spouted water from the sides and was illuminated at night 152 Other notable Art Deco glass manufacturers included Marius Ernest Sabino who specialized in figurines vases bowls and glass sculptures of fish nudes and animals For these he often used an opalescent glass which could change from white to blue to amber depending upon the light His vases and bowls featured molded friezes of animals nudes or busts of women with fruit or flowers His work was less subtle but more colourful than that of Lalique 152 Other notable Deco glass designers included Edmond Etling who also used bright opalescent colours often with geometric patterns and sculpted nudes Albert Simonet and Aristide Colotte and Maurice Marinot who was known for his deeply etched sculptural bottles and vases The firm of Daum from the city of Nancy which had been famous for its Art Nouveau glass produced a line of Deco vases and glass sculpture solid geometric and chunky in form More delicate multi coloured works were made by Gabriel Argy Rousseau who produced delicately shaded vases with sculpted butterflies and nymphs and Francois Decorchemont whose vases were streaked and marbled 152 The Great Depression ruined a large part of the decorative glass industry which depended upon wealthy clients Some artists turned to designing stained glass windows for churches In 1937 the Steuben glass company began the practice of commissioning famous artists to produce glassware 152 Louis Majorelle famous for his Art Nouveau furniture designed a remarkable Art Deco stained glass window portraying steel workers for the offices of the Acieries de Longwy a steel mill in Longwy France Amiens Cathedral has a rare example of Art Deco stained glass windows in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart made in 1932 34 by the Paris glass artist Jean Gaudin based on drawings by Jacques Le Breton 153 Metal art Edit nbsp A grill with two wings called The Pheasants made by Paul Kiss and displayed at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts nbsp Iron and copper grill called Oasis by Edgar Brandt displayed at the 1925 Paris Exposition nbsp Table mirror by Franz Hagenauer of Werkstatte Hagenauer Wien c 1930 nbsp Cocktail set of chrome plated steel by Norman Bel Geddes 1937 Art Deco artists produced a wide variety of practical objects in the Art Deco style made of industrial materials from traditional wrought iron to chrome plated steel The American artist Norman Bel Geddes designed a cocktail set resembling a skyscraper made of chrome plated steel Raymond Subes designed an elegant metal grille for the entrance of the Palais de la Porte Doree the centre piece of the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition The French sculptor Jean Dunand produced magnificent doors on the theme The Hunt covered with gold leaf and paint on plaster 1935 154 Animation EditArt Deco visuals and imagery was used in multiple animated films including Batman Night Hood All s Fair at the Fair Merry Mannequins Page Miss Glory Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty 155 The architecture is featured in the fictitious underwater city of Rapture in the Bioshock video game series Art Deco architecture around the world EditArt Deco architecture began in Europe but by 1939 there were examples in large cities on every continent and in almost every country This is a selection of prominent buildings on each continent For a comprehensive list of existing buildings by country see List of Art Deco architecture Africa Edit See also List of Art Deco architecture in Africa nbsp Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara Eritrea by Giuseppe Pettazzi 1938 156 nbsp St Peter s Cathedral in Rabat Morocco 1938 nbsp Railway Station in Ressano Garcia Mozambique 1945 Most Art Deco buildings in Africa were built during European colonial rule and often designed by Italian French and Portuguese architects Asia Edit See also List of Art Deco architecture in Asia This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed May 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp Kologdam Building in Bandung Indonesia 1920 nbsp Broadway Mansions in Shanghai China 1934 nbsp New India Assurance Building in Mumbai India 1936 nbsp National Diet Building in Tokyo Japan 1936 nbsp Ankara railway station in Ankara Turkey 1937 nbsp Dare House in Chennai India 1940 nbsp Capella Hanoi 2021 Many Art Deco buildings in Asia were designed by European architects But in the Philippines local architects such as Juan Nakpil Juan Arellano Pablo Antonio and others were preeminent Many Art Deco landmarks in Asia were demolished during the great economic expansion of Asia the late 20th century but some notable enclaves of the architecture still remain particularly in Shanghai and Mumbai Australia and New Zealand Edit See also List of Art Deco buildings in Sydney List of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne List of Art Deco buildings in Tasmania List of Art Deco buildings in Perth and List of Art Deco architecture in Oceania a, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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