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Art Deco was a movement in decorative arts that also affected architecture, deriving its name from the World's fair held in Paris in 1925, formally titled the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes , which showcased French luxury goods and reassured the world that Paris remained the international center of style. Art Deco did not originate with the Exposition; it was a major style in Europe from the early 1920s, though it did not catch on in the U.S. until about 1928, when it quickly modulated into the Moderne during the 1930s, the decade with which the concept of Art Deco is most strongly associated today.The term Art Deco was coined during the Exposition of 1925 but did not receive wider usage until it was re-evaluated in the 1960s. Its practitioners were not working as a coherent community. It is considered to be eclectic, being influenced by a variety of sources, to name a few:
- early work from the Wiener Werkstätte; functional industrial design
- "primitive" arts of Africa, Egypt, or Aztec Mexico
- Leon Bakst's sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
- fractionated, crystalline, facetted form of decorative Cubism and Futurism
- Fauve color palette
- severe forms of NeoclassicismNeoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. These movements were in effect at various times between the 18th and the: Boullée, Schinkel
- everything associated with Jazz, Jazz Age or "jazzy"
- animal motifs and forms; tropical foliage; ziggurats; crystals; stylized fountain motifs
- lithe athletic "modern" female forms; flappers' bobbed haircuts
- "machine age" technology such as the radioFor other uses see: radio (disambiguation Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. Radio waves Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, and are and skyscraperTaipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper by roof height on high rise. What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? It is lofty. It must be tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in.
Corresponding to these influences, the Art Deco is characterised by use of materials such as sharkskin and zebraskin, zigzag and stepped forms, bold and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous curves of the Art nouveau), chevron patterns, sunburst motif, etc. Some of these motifs were ubiquitous- for example the sunburst motif was used in such varied contexts as a lady's shoe, a radiator grille, the spire of the Chrysler BuildingCompleted in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York City, standing 1046 feet (319 meters) high on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Originally built for the Chrysler Corporation, t.
Art Deco was an opulent style and this opulence is attributed as a reaction to the forced austerity during the years of World War I.
Art Deco was a popular style for interiors of cinema theatres and ocean linerAn ocean liner is a large passenger ship, most typically a motorized vessel that undertakes longer voyages on the open sea primarily for the purpose of transporting people from one place to another. Ocean liners were the primary mode of intercontinental ts such as the Ile de France and NormandieThe Normandie was an ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France in 1935. Originally, she measured 79,280 tons, but when the 81,000 ton RMS Queen Mary was launched the French Line added a large deckhouse that brought the Normandie s tonnage to 83,423 tons..
A parallel movement following close behind, the Streamline or Streamline Moderne, was influenced by manufacturing and streamlining techniques arising from science and mass production- shape of bullet, liners, etc., where aerodynamics are involved. Once the Chrysler Air-Flo design of 1933 (date) was successful, "streamlined" forms began to be used even for objects such as pencil sharpeners and refrigerators.
In architecture, this style was characterised by rounded corners, used predominantly for buildings at road junctions.
Some historians see Art Deco as a type of, or early form of, Modernism
Though Art Deco slowly lost patronage in the West, and was cut short by the austerities of World War II, in colonial countries such as India, it became a gateway for Modernism, and continued to be used well after, even in the nineteen sixties.
