This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000001881 Reproduction Date:
Art Deco (), or Deco, is an influential visual arts design style that first appeared in France just before World War I [1] and began flourishing internationally in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s before its popularity waned after World War II.[2] It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris in 1925.[3] It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized by rich colours, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation.
Deco emerged from the motifs favoured by its predecessor Art Nouveau.
Historian Bevis Hillier defined Art Deco as "an assertively modern style [that] ran to symmetry rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear rather than the curvilinear; it responded to the demands of the machine and of new material [and] the requirements of mass production".[2]
During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance and faith in social and technological progress.
The first use of the term Art Deco is sometimes attributed to architect Le Corbusier, who penned a series of articles in his journal L'Esprit nouveau under the headline "1925 Expo: Arts Déco". He was referring to the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts).[3]
The term came into more general use in 1966, when a French exhibition celebrating the 1925 event was held under the title Les Années 25: Art Déco/Bauhaus/Stijl/Esprit Nouveau.[4] Here the term was used to distinguish the new styles of French decorative crafts that had emerged since the Belle Epoque.[3] The term Art Deco has since been applied to a wide variety of works produced during the Interwar period (L'Entre Deux Guerres), and even to those of the Bauhaus in Germany. However, Art Deco originated in France. It has been argued that the term should be applied to French works and those produced in countries directly influenced by France.[5]
Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco.[7]
Some historians trace Deco's roots to the Universal Exposition of 1900.[8] After this show a group of artists established an informal collective known as La Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists) to promote French crafts. Among them were Hector Guimard, Eugène Grasset, Raoul Lachenal, Paul Bellot, Maurice Dufrêne and Emile Decoeur. These artists are said to have influenced the principles of Art Deco.[9]
The Art Deco era is often anecdotally dated from 1925 when the applied arts,[3][10][11][12] although the style had been in full force in France for several years before that date. Deco was heavily influenced by 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. During the 1920s, affordable travel permitted in situ exposure to other cultures. There was also popular interest in archeology due to excavations at Pompeii, Troy, the tomb of Tutankhamun, etc. Artists and designers integrated motifs from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Asia, Mesoamerica and Oceania with Machine Age elements.[13][14][15][16][17][18]
Deco was also influenced by Cubism, Constructivism, Functionalism, Modernism, and Futurism.[15][19]
In 1905, before the onset of Cubism, Eugène Grasset wrote and published Méthode de Composition Ornementale, Éléments Rectilignes,[20] within 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 stresses the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements.[21]
At the 1907 Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Simultaneously, there was a retrospective exhibition of 56 works by Paul Cézanne, as a tribute to the artist who died in 1906. Cézanne was interested in the simplification of forms to their geometric essentials: the cylinder, the sphere, the cone.
Paul Iribe created for the couturier Paul Poiret esthetic designs that shocked the Parisian milieu with its novelty. These illustrations were compiled into an album, Les Robes de Paul Poiret racontée par Paul Iribe, published in 1908.[22]
At the 1910 Salon des Indépendants, Jean Metzinger, Henri Le Fauconnier and Robert Delaunay, shown together in Room 18, elaborated upon Cézannian syntax, revealing to the general public for the first time a "mobile perspective" in their art, soon to become known as Cubism. Several months later, the Salon d'Automne saw the invitation of Munich artists who for several years had been working with simple geometric shapes. Leading up to 1910 and culminating in 1912, the French designers André Mare and Louis Sue turned towards the quasi-mystical Golden ratio, in accord with Pythagorean and Platonic traditions, giving their works a Cubist sensibility.
The artists of the Section d'Or exhibited (in 1912) 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.[23]
These revolutionary changes occurring at the outset of the 20th century are summarized in 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 ubiquitous within the context of Art Deco.[24]
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, by Auguste Perret, 15 Avenue Montaigne, Paris (1910-1913)
The Majorelle Building, Paris by Henri Sauvage (1912-1914)
The Studio Building, Paris, by Henri Sauvage (1926)
La Samaritaine department store, by Henri Sauvage, Paris (1925-1928)
The Grand Rex movie palace in Paris (1932)
Grand dining room of the ocean liner SS Normandie (1935), with Lalique glass ceiling.
Auditorium and stage of Radio City Music Hall, New York City (1932)
Between 1910 and 1913, Paris saw the construction of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, 15 avenue Montaigne, another sign of the radical aesthetic change experienced by the Parisian milieu of the time. The rigorous composition of its facade, designed by Auguste Perret, is a major example of early Art Deco.[25][26] The building includes exterior bas reliefs by Antoine Bourdelle, a dome by Maurice Denis, paintings by Édouard Vuillard and Jacqueline Marval, and a stage curtain design by Ker-Xavier Roussel. It took its inspiration from classical architecture, and featured straight lines, geometric forms, and decoration in the form of sculptured plaques attached to the exterior.[27]
Another important figure of early French art deco architecture was Henri Sauvage, who switched from art nouveau to art deco in designing the Majorelle building in Paris for furniture designer Louis Majorelle (1912-1914); the studio building in 1926-28; the Gambetta Palace movie theater in 1920, and a new facade for the La Samaritaine department store (1925–28). [28]
By the 1930s the style had become much more flamboyant, and added much more decoration on the facade. It was particularly popular for movie theaters, such as the Grand Rex in Paris (1932), and Radio City Music Hall in New York City; and in the decoration of skyscrapers.
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 was made of glass by Lalique.
In the Art Décoratif section of the 1912 Salon d'Automne, an architectural installation was exhibited that quickly became known as La Maison Cubiste (The Cubist House). The facade was designed by Raymond Duchamp-Villon and the interior by André Mare along with a group of collaborators. "Mare's ensembles were accepted as frames for Cubist works because they allowed paintings and sculptures their independence", writes Christopher Green, "creating a play of contrasts, hence the involvement not only of Gleizes and Metzinger themselves, but of Marie Laurencin, the Duchamp brothers (Raymond Duchamp-Villon designed the facade) and Mare's old friends Léger and Roger de La Fresnaye".[29]
La Maison Cubiste was a fully furnished house, with a staircase, wrought iron banisters, a living room—the Salon Bourgeois, where paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Marie Laurencin and Fernand Léger were hung—and a bedroom. It was an early example of L'art décoratif, a home within which Cubist art could be displayed in the comfort and style of modern, bourgeois life. Spectators at the Salon d'Automne passed through the full-scale 10-by-3-meter plaster model of the ground floor of the facade.[30] This architectural installation was subsequently exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show, New York, Chicago and Boston,[31] listed in the catalogue of the New York exhibit as Raymond Duchamp-Villon, number 609, and entitled "Facade architectural, plaster" (Façade architecturale).[32][33]
Several years after World War I, 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 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,[34] Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel, and Marcoussis made a Cubist rug.[35][36][37]
Deco emphasizes geometric forms: spheres, polygons, rectangles, trapezoids, zigzags, chevrons, and sunburst motifs. Elements are often arranged in symmetrical patterns. Modern materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, Bakelite, chrome, and plastics are frequently used. Stained glass, inlays, and lacquer are also common. Colors tend to be vivid and high contrast.[13][14][15][38][39][40]
Art Deco was a globally popular style and affected many areas of design. It was used widely in consumer products such as automobiles, furniture, cookware, china, textiles, jewelry, clocks, and electronic items such as radios, telephones, and jukeboxes. It also influenced architecture, interior design, industrial design, fashion, graphic arts, and cinema.
During the 1930s, Art Deco was used extensively for public works projects, railway stations,[41] ocean liners (including the Île de France, Queen Mary, and Normandie), movie palaces, and amusement parks.
The austerities imposed by World War II caused Art Deco to decline in popularity: it was perceived by some as gaudy and inappropriately luxurious. A resurgence of interest began during the 1960s.[11][15][42] Deco continues to inspire designers and is often used in contemporary fashion, jewelry, and toiletries.[43]
A style related to Art Deco is Streamline Moderne (or Streamline) which emerged during the mid-1930s. Streamline was influenced by modern aerodynamic principles developed for aviation and ballistics to reduce air friction at high velocities. Designers applied these principles to cars, trains, ships, and even objects not intended to move, such as refrigerators, gas pumps, and buildings.[14]
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.[44]
Streamlining quickly influenced automotive design and evolved the rectangular "horseless carriage" into sleek vehicles with aerodynamic lines, symmetry, and V-shapes. These designs continued to be popular after World War II.[45][46][47]
Facade of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910-1913)
MK-2 Gambetta cinema, Paris (1920)
Art deco office for a French Ambassador from the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, designed by Pierre Charlau
La Samaritaine Department store facade (1926–28)
The Palais de Tokyo art museum (1937)
Notable art deco buildings in Paris today include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by Auguste Perret (1910-1913), the Majorielle building (1911), the MK-2 Gambetta movie theater at 4 rue Belgrand, Paris, (1920), the Studio building (1926–28), and La Samaritaine department store facade (1926–28), by Henri Sauvage; the Palais de Tokyo, constructed for the 1937 Paris Universal Exposition, now the museum of modern art of the City of Paris; and the Grand Rex movie theater (1932).
An art deco office for a French Ambassador, designed by Pierre Charlau for the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, is on display at the Museum of Decorative Arts, next to the Louvre, in Paris.
One of the largest Art Deco buildings in Western Europe is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg, Brussels. In 1925, architect Albert van Huffel won the Grand Prize for Architecture with his scale model of the basilica at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.[55]
In Germany two variations of Art Deco flourished in the 1920s and 30s: The Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) employed the same curving horizontal lines and nautical motifs that are known as Streamline Moderne in the Anglophone world. While Neue Sachlichkeit was rather austere and reduced (eventually merging with the Bauhaus style), Expressionist architecture came up with a more emotional use of shapes, colors and textures, partly reinterpreting shapes from the German and Baltic Brick Gothic style. Notable examples are Erich Mendelsohn's Mossehaus and Schaubühne theater in Berlin, Fritz Höger's Chilehaus in Hamburg and his Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin, the Anzeiger Tower in Hannover and the Borsig Tower in Berlin. Art deco architecture was revived in the late-20th century by architects like Hans Kollhoff (see his tower on Potsdamer Platz), Jan Kleihues and Tobias Nöfer.
The 1921 Mossehaus in Berlin by Erich Mendelsohn was a pioneering design in Art Deco and Streamline Moderne, that displays how the Deco style spread and evolved in Europe.[56]
Art Deco in Athens incorporated insolently many of the structural and formal characteristics of the Classical idiom, at times transforming them to mere decorative elements, or oppositely, imprinting to them a functionality. Thematically it moved beyond the Classical period and looked for its models in the Mycenaean, Archaic, Hellenistic and Byzantine arts. The classicizing trends however, as one would expect in the city of Parthenon, held strongly, and despite what it has been sometimes suggested, Art Deco was never really independent in Athens. Rather, it accommodated itself in the midst of a strong and ideologically charged classicizing tradition and produced some of the most original and less expected works of the Greek architectural heritage.[57]
Like Romania, Lithuania too experienced booming industrial growth during the Interwar period. This resulted in the rapid modernization of the city of Kaunas in particular. At this time it became the temporary capital of Lithuania. Vytautas the Great War Museum, built in 1936 and located in downtown Kaunas, along with the Central Post Building and the Pienocentras HQ Building (1934) are the three most prominent Art Deco structures in the city. Today many of these buildings still stand, and apartment complexes and large government buildings alike survive from this time, even through the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Kaunas. Many other buildings around the city were built in the Bauhaus style.
An example of Art Deco in Norway is found in the Student Society in Trondheim (built 1927–29). Its interior is based on an abandoned circus, so that the exterior exhibits a characteristic round shape.
As a result of the inter-war period of rapid development, cities in Romania have numerous Art Deco buildings, including government buildings, hotels, and private houses. The best representative in this regard is the capital, Bucharest, which, despite the widespread destruction of its architecture during Communist times, still has many Art Deco examples, both on its main boulevards and in the lesser known parts of the city.[58][59][60] Constanta has the second number of Art Deco buildings after Bucharest.[61] Ploieşti also has many Art Deco houses.[62]
Valencia was built profusely in Art Deco style during the period of economic bounty between wars in which Spain remained neutral. Particularly remarkable are the famous bath house Las Arenas, the building hosting the rectorship of the University of Valencia and the cinemas Rialto (currently the Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana), Capitol (reconverted into an office building) and Naruto.
During the 1930s, Art Deco had a noticeable effect on house design in the United Kingdom,[15] as well as the design of various public buildings.[11] Straight, white-rendered house frontages rising to flat roofs, sharply geometric door surrounds and tall windows, as well as convex-curved metal corner windows, were all characteristic of that period.[42][63][64]
In Canada Art Deco structures that survive are mainly in urban centres like Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario, and Vancouver. They range from public buildings like Vancouver City Hall to commercial buildings (College Park) to public works (R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant).
The U.S. has many examples of Art Deco architecture. Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York have many Art Deco buildings: the famous skyscrapers are the best-known, but notable Art Deco buildings can be found in various neighborhoods. Art deco was popular during the later years of the movie palace era of theatre construction. Excellent examples of Art Deco theatres, such as the Fargo Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota, and The Campus Theatre in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, still exist throughout the United States.
Australia also has many surviving examples of Art Deco architecture. Among the most notable are:
1941 Packard Custom Super Eight One-Eighty Formal sedan
RCA, now GE Building, 30 Rockefeller Center, under construction, 1933
1931 Philips radio, model 930A
Ralph Stackpole's sculpture group over the door of the San Francisco Stock Exchange; (Timothy L. Pflueger, 1930)
Pennsylvania RR's S-1 locomotive, designed by Raymond Loewy, at the 1939 New York World's Fair
Municipal Auditorium of Kansas City, Missouri: Hoit Price & Barnes, and Gentry, Voskamp & Neville, 1935
U.S. Works Progress Administration poster, John Wagner, artist, ca. 1940
"Beau Brownie" camera, Walter Dorwin Teague 1930 design for Eastman Kodak
Former Teatro Eden, now Aparthotel Vip Eden in Lisbon, Portugal: Cassiano Branco and Carlo Florencio Dias, 1931
1937 Cord automobile model 812, designed in 1935 by Gordon M. Buehrig and staff
Delano Hotel, 1947 (Robert Swartburg) and National Hotel, 1940 (Roy F. France), Collins Ave., Miami Beach
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Federico Mariscal, completed 1934
Edmond Amateis, 1937, Wall sculpture, Nix Federal Building, Philadelphia
Wisdom, with Light and Sound, 30 Rockefeller Center, NYC: Lee Lawrie, 1933
Women's Smoking Room at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. Timothy L. Pflueger, architect, 1931
U.S. postage stamp commemorating the 1939 New York World's Fair, 1939
Henryk Kuna, "Rytm" (Rhythm), in Skaryszewski Park, Warsaw, Poland, 1925
Disused Snowdon Theatre, Montreal, Canada. Opened 1937, closed 1984. Daniel J. Crighton, architect
Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio; Paul Philippe Cret, Alfred T. Fellheimer, Steward Wagner, Roland Wank, 1933
Lobby, Empire State Building, New York City. William F. Lamb, opened 1931
Federal Art Project poster promoting milk drinking in Cleveland, Ohio, 1940
Interior drawing, Eaton's College Street department store, Toronto, Canada
Niagara Mohawk Building, Syracuse, New York. Melvin L. King and Bley & Lyman, architects, completed 1932
Paul Landowski, Christ the Redeemer, constructed between 1922 and 1931, was the largest Art Deco statue in the world until Poland's 2010 statue, Christ the King.
Bauhaus, Modernism, Brussels, Slovakia, De Stijl
Wayne State University, Art Deco, Modern architecture, Italian Renaissance, Detroit Opera House