Art Deco

Is a visual arts style that became popular in the 1920, 30s and 40s before waning after the Second World War. Its name is short for ‘Arts Decoratifs’ taken from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris in 1925.

The style is characterised by bold geometric shapes, rich colours and lavish ornamentation combining craft motifs with machine age imagery and materials. It emerged from the interwar period where art and culture was being transformed by rapid industrialisation. It’s distinguished from its predecessor ‘Art Nouveau’ by its embrace of technology over the organic motifs of the earlier style. It also embraced the geometrical motifs from the ancient world (Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia) as excavations in Pompeii and Troy caused excitement and brought these to general attention.

In its heyday it came to represent glamour, exuberance and luxury together with faith in technological and social progress

Particularly distinctive as an architectural style, many cities and towns across the world still have Art Deco buildings that are instantly recognisable including the London Underground which has many examples of Art Deco architecture. Possibly the most famous example is the Chrysler Building in New York built 1928-30 which has the quintessential Art Deco decorative element of geometric repeating patterns at its crown.

There were two schools of thought amongst Art Deco manufacturers of furnishings. The first focused on the production of unique pieces by highly-skilled furniture makers, whilst the second embraced innovative new mass production techniques. Both were equally valued by consumers. At the beginning of the movement furniture was based on more classic designs with added opulence provided by exotic woods such as ebony and other rare materials such as ivory. By the mid 1920s designers started to tone down the style and made use of new materials such as chrome, plastic and Bakelite which were much more functional. These designs emphasised symmetrical patterns using geometric shapes that are instantly recognisable as Art Deco today.