Art Deco is an eclectic artistic and design style which had its origins in Paris in the first decades of the 20th century. The style originated in the 1920s and continued to be employed until after World War II. The term "art deco" first saw wide use after an exhibition in 1966, referring to the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes that was the culmination of high-end style moderne in Paris. Led by the best designers in the decorative artssuch as fashion, and interior design, Art Deco affected all areas of design throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including architecture and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as painting, the graphic arts and film. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional and modern.
Art Deco moved away from the soft pastels and organic forms of Art Nouveau and embraced influences from many different styles and movements of the early 20th century, includingNeoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, and Futurism. Its popularity peaked in Europe during the Roaring Twenties and continued strongly in the US through the 1930s.Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative.
Art Deco experienced a decline in popularity during the late 1930s and early 1940s, but experienced a resurgence in the 1960s with the first book on the subject by Bevis Hillier in 1968 to coincide with the Minneapolis exhibition and continued with the popularization ofgraphic design in the 1980s. Art Deco had a profound influence on many later artistic movements, such as Memphis and Pop art.
Surviving examples may still be seen in many different locations worldwide, in countries as diverse as China (Shanghai), the UK, Latvia, Spain, Cuba, Indonesia, the Philippines, Argentina, Romania, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States (primarily in Miami Beach, Los Angeles, and New York City). Many classic examples still exist in the form of architecture in many major cities. The Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, both in New York City, are two of the largest and best-known examples of the style. Riga, Latvia has the largest collection of Art Deco/Art Nouveau buildings in Europe.
After the Universal Exposition of 1900, various French artists formed an informal collective known as La Société des artistes décorateurs (the society of the decorator artists). Founders included Hector Guimard, Eugène Grasset, Raoul Lachenal, Paul Bellot, Maurice Dufrêne, and Emile Decoeur. These artists heavily influenced the principles of Art Deco as a whole.
This society's purpose was to demonstrate internationally the leading position and evolution of the French decorative arts. They organized the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes(International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art) in Paris, which would feature French art and business interests. The terms style moderne and art deco both derive from the exposition's title, thoughart deco was not widely used until popularized by art historian Bevis Hillier's 1968 book Art Deco of the 20s and 30s.
In the summer of 1969, Hillier conceived organizing an exhibition called Art Deco at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which took place from July to September 1971. After this event, interest in Art Deco peaked with the publication of his 1971 book The World of Art Deco, a record of the exhibition.
Art Deco was an opulent style, and its lavishness is attributed to reaction to the forced austerity imposed by World War I. Its rich, festive character fitted it for modern contexts, including the Golden Gate Bridge, interiors of cinema theaters (a prime example being the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California) andocean liners such as the Île de France, Queen Mary, and Normandie. Art Deco was employed extensively throughout the United States' train stations in the 1930s, designed to reflect the modernity and efficiency of the train. Around the world, a number of amusement parks were constructed in inter-war art-deco architecture, of which surviving examples include Playland (New York) and Luna Park Sydney.
Art Deco made use of many distinctive styles, but one of the most significant of its features was its dependence upon a range of ornaments and motifs.
The style is said to have reflected the tensions in the cultural politics of its day, with eclecticism having been one of its defining features. In the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the distinctive style of Art Deco was shaped by 'all the nervous energy stored up and expended in the War'. Art Deco has been influenced in part by movements such asCubism, Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism, which are all evident in Art Deco decorative arts'.
Materials and design
Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, lacquer, Bakelite, Chrome and inlaid wood.Exotic materials such as sharkskin (shagreen), and zebra skin were also in evidence. The bold use of stepped forms and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous, natural curves of the Art Nouveau), chevron patterns, the ziggurat, the fountain, and the sunburstmotif are typical of Art Deco. Some of these motifs were ubiquitous – for example, sunburst motifs were used in such varied contexts as ladies' shoes, radiator grilles, the auditorium of the Radio City Music Hall, and the spire of the Chrysler Building.
A parallel movement called Streamline Moderne, or simply Streamline, followed close behind. Streamline was influenced by the modern aerodynamic designs, including those emerging from advancing technologies in aviation, ballistics, and other fields requiring high velocity. The attractive shapes resulting from scientifically applied aerodynamic principles were enthusiastically adopted within Art Deco, applying streamlining techniques to other useful objects in everyday life, such as the automobile. The Chrysler Airflow design of 1933 was commercially unsuccessful, but the beauty of the design, being functional rather than simply tacked on ornamentation, provided the lead for more conservatively designed pseudo-streamlined vehicles.
Streamlining quickly influenced American and European automobile design and changed the look from the rectangular "horseless" carriages into sleek vehicles with sweeping lines, symmetry, and V-shapes that added to their mystique of speed and efficiency. Nash Motors introduced the modern fully-unitized body (monocoque) design for the low-price market in 1941 that featuredfastback “Slipstream” models with high prow-like hoods, and art-deco "speed lines" in sweepingchrome grilles and parallel bar trim. These aerodynamic-looking designs were applied by automakers and continued to be popular in the sellers' market after World War II. These "streamlined" forms began to be used in the design of mundane and static objects such as pencil sharpeners, refrigerators, and gas pumps.
Art Deco celebrates the Machine Age through explicit use of man-made materials (particularly glass, stainless steel and the new plastics), symmetry,and repetition, modified by Asian influences such as the use of silks and Middle Eastern designs. It was strongly adopted in the United States during the Great Depression for its practicality and simplicity, while still portraying a reminder of better times and the "American Dream".
Streamlining was geared towards simplicity, the idea that less is more. Eliminating elements that cluttered a given building, painting, or chair was the focus of this new development of streamlining. This simplicity is portrayed through the use of crisp, symmetrical geometric forms. Streamlining enables diverse furnishings to coexist seamlessly with in one space.
