Art Deco architecture

Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I 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 clothing, fashion, and jewelry. Art Deco has influenced buildings from skyscrapers to cinemas, bridges, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects, including radios and vacuum cleaners.

The name Art Deco came into use after the 1925 ( International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris. It has its origin in the bold geometric forms of the Vienna Secession and Cubism. From the outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bright colors of Fauvism and the Ballets Russes, and the exoticized styles of art from China, Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt, and Maya. In its time, Art Deco was tagged with other names such as style moderne, ''Moderne'', modernistic, or ''style contemporain'', and it was not recognized as a distinct and homogeneous style.

During its heyday, Art Deco 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. It also introduced new materials such as chrome plating, stainless steel, and plastic. In New York, the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and other buildings from the 1920s and 1930s are monuments to the style. The largest concentration of art deco architecture in the world is in Miami Beach, Florida.

Art Deco became more subdued during the Great Depression. A sleeker form of the style appeared in the 1930s called Streamline Moderne, featuring curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces. Art Deco was an international style but, after the outbreak of World War II, it lost its dominance to the functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style.

Terminology

Art Deco took its name, short for , from the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, 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''. 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. 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 1920.

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. 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.

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''. 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. In 1971, he organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book ''The World of Art Deco''.

Mike Hope lists many other labels that were used for Art Deco architecture: Odeon Style (after the style used by Odeon Cinemas in the 1930s), Liberty style, tyleModerne, Jazz Moderne, Zigzag Moderne, British Moderne, Nautical Moderne, Modern Ship Style, Pacqueboat Style, Ocean Liner Style, White Modern, Futurist Art Deco, Streamline Beaux Arts, Streamline Moderne, PWA Moderne, PWA/WPA Moderne, Federal Moderne, Depression Moderne, Classical Moderne, Classical Modernism, Modernist Classical, Chicago School, Czech Architectural Cubism, Italian Futurism, Prairie School, Atmospheric Theatre, Med Deco, Amsterdam School, '' Nieuwe Zakelijkheid'' (also ''Neue Sachlichkeit'', ''Neues Bauen'', New Sobriety, New Objectivity), Mayan Revival, Japanese Secession, Spanish Pueblo Style, Pueblo Deco, Finnish National Romanticism; Neo-Gothic, Neo-Byzantine, Neo-Egyptian, Spanish Mission, International School, European International Style, Wiener Werkstätte, Free Classicism; Stripped Neo-Classicism, Deco Free Classicism, Stripped Classicism, Transitional Modern, Vogue Regency.

Origins

New materials and technologies

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.

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.

Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstätte (1897–1912)

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.

File:Secession 2016, Vienna.jpg, Secession Building in Vienna by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1897–98)
Penzing (Wien) - Kirche am Steinhof (2).JPG, Church of St. Leopold in Vienna by Otto Wagner (1903–1907)
File:Wien - Österreichische Postsparkasse, Georg-Coch-Platz.JPG, Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna by Wagner (1904–1912)
File:20120923 Brussels PalaisStoclet Hoffmann DSC06725 PtrQs.jpg, Stoclet Palace in Brussels by Josef Hoffmann (1905–1911)
File:Bruxelles - Palais Stoclet (6).jpg, Detail of the Stoclet Palace's façade, made of reinforced concrete covered with marble plaques

Society of Decorative Artists (1901–1945)

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 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 . 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".

File:Art Deco table, chairs, carpet.jpg, Table and chairs by Maurice Dufrêne and carpet by Paul Follot at the 1912 Salon des artistes décorateurs
File:‘Lady with Panther’ by George Barbier for Cartier, 1914.jpg, ''Lady with Panther'' by George Barbier for Louis Cartier (1914). Display card commissioned by Cartier shows a woman in a Paul Poiret gown.
File:Jacques-émile ruhlmann, poltrona 'oreille cassée', parigi 1914, 01.JPG, Armchair by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1914), now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris

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.Campbell, Gordon, ''The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts'', Oxford University Press, USA, 9 Nov 2006
, pp. 42 (Vera), 43 (Cartier), 243 (Christofle), 15, 515, 527 (Lalique), 13, 134 (Boucheron), 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'',Campbell, Gordon, ''The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts'', Oxford University Press, USA, 9 Nov 2006
, pp. 42-43 and that year it created its own workshop, ''Primavera''. 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.Laurent, Stephane, "L'artiste décorateur", in ''Art Deco, 1910–1939'' by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislain Wood (2002), Renaissance du Livre, pages 165–171

Salon d'Automne (1903–1914)

File:Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov) 02 by L. Bakst 2.jpg, Set for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's ballet '' Sheherazade'' by Léon Bakst (1910)
File:Art Deco Armchair.jpg, Art Deco armchair made for art collector Jacques Doucet (1912–13)
File:Display at Salon D'Automne (1913).jpg, Display of early Art Deco furnishings by the Atelier français at the 1913 from ''Art et décoration'' 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 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. 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.

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; 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.

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913)

File:Théâtre des Champs-Élysées DSC09330.jpg, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by Auguste Perret at 15, avenue Montaigne, Paris (1910–1913). Reinforced concrete gave architects the ability to create new forms and bigger spaces.
File:"La Danse", bas-relief d'Antoine Bourdelle (Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris).jpg, ''La Danse'', bas-relief on the façade of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by Antoine Bourdelle (1912)
File:Theatre Champs Elysees 35.jpg, Interior of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with Bourdelle's bas-reliefs over the stage
File:Plafond du Théâtre des Champs-Élysées à Paris.JPG, Dome of the Theater, with Art Deco rose design by Maurice Denis

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. Perret and Sauvage became the leading Art Deco architects in Paris in the 1920s.

Cubism

File:Raymond Duchamp-Villon, 1912, Projet d'hôtel, Maquette de la façade de la Maison Cubiste, published in Les Peintres Cubistes, 1913.jpg, Design for the façade of '' La Maison Cubiste'' (''Cubist House'') by Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1912)
File:Raymond Duchamp-Villon, 1912, La Maison Cubiste (Cubist House) at the Salon d'Automne, 1912, detail of the entrance. Photograph by Duchamp-Villon.jpg, Detail of the entrance of ''La Maison Cubiste'' at the 1912 Salon d'Automne
File:La Maison Cubiste, Le Salon Bourgeois, Salon d'Automne, 1912, Paris.jpg, ''Le Salon Bourgeois'', designed by André Mare inside ''La Maison Cubiste'', in the decorative arts section of the 1912 Salon d'Automne. Metzinger's can be seen hanging on the left wall.
File:Josef Chochol, 1912-13, Cubist villa in Libušina Street 3-49, Vyšehrad, Prague, Czech Republic.jpg, Cubist villa at 3-49 Libušina Street, Vyšehrad (Prague), by Josef Chochol (1912–13). Chochol was one of three Czech architects (members of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts), with Pavel Janák and Josef Gočár, influenced by Cubism.

The art movement known as Cubism appeared in France between 1907 and 1912, influencing the development of Art Deco. 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." 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.

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.

In the ''Art Décoratif'' section of the 1912 Salon d'Automne, an architectural installation was exhibited known as '' La Maison Cubiste''. The façade was designed by Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The décor of the house was by André Mare. ''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. Thousands of spectators at the salon passed through the full-scale model.

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." The Cubist element was provided by the paintings. The installation was attacked by some critics as extremely radical, which helped make for its success. This architectural installation was subsequently exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show, New York City, Chicago and Boston. Thanks largely to the exhibition, the term "Cubist" began to be applied to anything modern, from women's haircuts to clothing to theater performances."

The Cubist influence continued within Art Deco, even as Deco branched out in many other directions.

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)

Influences

Pre-World War I European styles

File:George Barbier (1882-1932), Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), 1913 1.jpg, Ballets Russes influences – Drawing of the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, by Paris fashion artist Georges Barbier (1913)
File:Chest of drawers, by Jacques Dubois, 1750-1755 - Waddesdon Manor - Buckinghamshire, England - DSC07774.jpg, Rococo – Chest of drawers, by Jacques Dubois (1750–1755), various wood types and gilt bronze mounts, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, UK
File:Paul Iribe, cassettiera, parigi 1919 ca.jpg, Rococo influences – Commode, by Paul Iribarne Garay (), mahogany and tulip wood frame, slate top, green-tinted shagreen upholstery, ebony knobs, base and garlands, Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris
File:Immeuble 21ter Boulevard Diderot - Paris XII (FR75) - 2023-07-25 - 2.jpg, Beaux Arts architecture – Boulevard Diderot no. 21, Paris, unknown architect ()
File:Avenue de Versailles immeuble Paul Delaroche 1928.jpg, 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)
File:Corner table by Jean-Francois-Therese Chalgrin, 1770 - Corcoran Gallery of Art - DSC01284.JPG, Louis XVI style – Corner table, by Jean-Francois-Therese Chalgrin (1770), gilded wood, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
File:Art Deco dressing table (1919-20).jpg, Louis XVI style influences – Dressing table and chair set, by Paul Follot (1919), marble and wood encrusted, lacquered and gilded,
File:Mercury Pajou Louvre RF1624.jpg, Neoclassicism – ''Mercury'' or ''The Trade'', by Augustin Pajou (1780), marble, Louvre, Paris
File:Rockefeller Center MAM.JPG, Neoclassical influences – ''Prometheus'', a stylised Art Deco update of classical sculpture, by Paul Manship (1936), gilded bronze, Rockefeller Center, New York City
File:Hôtel Guimard 2019.jpg, Art Nouveau – Hôtel Guimard ( Avenue Mozart no. 122), Paris, by Hector Guimard (1909)
File:Avenue Montaigne (47128639262).jpg, Art Nouveau influences – Sinuous curves on the façade of Avenue Montaigne no. 26, Paris, by Louis Duhayon and Marcel Julien (1937)

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,'' 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.

Ancient and non-European civilizations

File:The Hathor-headed columns of the Mammisi (birth house), Philae, Egypt (49813135922).jpg, alt=Ancient Egyptian art - Vegetal capitals in the courtyard of the Isis Temple, Philae, Egypt, unknown architect, 380 BC–117 AD: 30, Ancient Egyptian art – Vegetal capitals in the courtyard of the Isis Temple, Philae, Egypt, unknown architect (380 BC–117 AD)
Robe, 1964.18.1(2).jpg, Egyptian influences – Dress with lotus flowers inspired by Ancient Egyptian decoration, by Jenny (couturier) and Lesage (embroiderer) (1925), silk, metallic thread, and crocheted embroidery, Musée Galliera, Paris
File:Ancient ziggurat at Ali Air Base Iraq 2005.jpg, Mesopotamian art – Ziggurat of Ur in Tell el-Muqayyar, Dhi Qar Province, Iraq, unknown architect (21st century BC)
File:Western Union building, Manhattan jeh crop.jpg, Mesopotamian influences – Western Union Building (Hudson Street no. 60) in New York City, by Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker (1928–1930)
File:Yaxchilan Lintel 24.jpg, Pre-Columbian art (in this case Maya) – Yaxchilan Lintel 24 (702 AD), limestone, British Museum, London
File:450 Sutter St. lobby 1.JPG, Pre-Columbian influences (in this case Maya) – Interior detail of 450 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California, by Timothy L. Pflueger (1929)
File:Brooklyn Museum 61.33 Ndop Portrait of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul (5).jpg, Sub-Saharian African (in this case produced in the Kuba Kingdom from present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) – Ndop of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul (1760–1780), wood, Brooklyn Museum, New York City
File:Winter 1930, Léon Benigni (1892-1948), oil on canvas, 55.3 x 39.4 cm, private collection.jpg, Sub-Saharian African influences – Winter 1930, by Léon Benigni, oil on canvas, private collection

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 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.

Early 20th-century avant-garde movements

File:Amedeo Modigliani, Head of a Woman, 1910-1911, NGA 46716.jpg, Primitivism – ''Head of a Woman'', by Amedeo Modigliani (1910–11), limestone, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
File:Bust for a shop window, by an anonymous Belgian artist, circa 1920, painted papier-mâché, private collection, Cologne.jpg, Primitivist influences – Bust for a shop window, anonymous Belgian artist (), painted papier-mâché, private collection, Cologne, Germany
File:Casa Rietveld Schröder 02.jpg, ''De Stijl'' – Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, Netherlands, by Gerrit Rietveld (1924)
File:Pavillon du tourisme de Robert Mallet-Stevens (UAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris) (43200558625).jpg, ''De Stijl'' influences – Pavillon du Tourisme, by Robert Mallet-Stevens, International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Paris (1925)
File:Pablo Picasso, 1909-10, Figure dans un Fauteuil (Seated Nude, Femme nue assise), oil on canvas, 92.1 x 73 cm, Tate Modern, London.jpg, Cubism – ''Figure dans un Fauteuil (Seated Nude, Femme nue assise)'', by Pablo Picasso (1909–10), oil on canvas, Tate Modern, London
File:Cubic coffee service - Erik Magnussen (27986651569).jpg, 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
File:Klinom Krasnym Bej Belych.JPG, Constructivism – '' Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge'', by El Lissitzky (1919–1920), lithographic poster, Russian State Library, Moscow
File:Clock - Jean Goulden (38866282265).jpg, Constructivist influences – Clock, decorated with flat geometric shapes, by Jean Goulden (1928), silvered bronze with enamel, Stephen E. Kelly Collection
File:Metropolis-new-tower-of-babel.png, Expressionist theatre and film – Scene from ''Metropolis'', by Fritz Lang (1927)
File:Stitched Panorama of the Apollo theatre near Victoria, London 167 (5058015607).jpg, Influences of the Expressionist theatre and film – Interior of the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London, by Ernest Wamsley Lewis (1928–1930)
File:Casa a gradinata con ascensori dai quattro piani stradali 1914- Sant'Elia.jpg, Futurism – Staircase house with elevators from four street levels, part of ''La Città Nuova'', by Antonio Sant'Elia (1914), ink and pencil on paper, Musei Civici, Como, Italy
File:25 Rue du Laos Paryż, Île-de-France (50594191012).jpg, Futurist influences – Rue du Laos no. 25 in Paris, by Charles Thomas (1930)
File:Berlin, Mitte, Schuetzenstrasse, Mosse-Zentrum 05.jpg, Expressionist architecture – Rudolf Mosse Printing and Publishing Company Building in Berlin, by Erich Mendelsohn (1921–1923)
File:Aux Trois-Quartiers, Paris, with it's original facade.jpg, Expressionist architecture influences – ''Aux Trois-Quartiers'' department store in Paris, by Louis Faure-Dujarric (1932)

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. 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. 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.

International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (1925)

File:Postcard of Exposition des Art Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes.jpg, Postcard of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris (1925)
File:Paris-FR-75-Expo 1925 Arts décoratifs-entrée Place de la Concorde.jpg, Entrance to the 1925 Exposition from Place de la Concorde by Pierre Patout
File:Paris 1925 59878912.jpg, The Polish pavilion, designed by Józef Czajkowski and Wojciech Jastrzębowski
File:Paris-FR-75-Expo 1925 Arts décoratifs-pavillon des Galeries Lafayette.jpg, Pavilion of the Galeries Lafayette department store
File:Salon of the Hotel du Collectionneur (1925).jpg, Salon of the Hôtel du Collectionneur, furnished by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, painting by Jean Dupas, design by Pierre Patout

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.

Late Art Deco

File:1 Piața Sfântul Ștefan, Bucharest (01).jpg, Piața Sfântul Ștefan no. 1 in Bucharest, by unknown architect ()
File:St Jan de Doperkerk in Molenbeek.jpg, Church of St. John the Baptist in Molenbeek (Brussels), by Joseph Diongre (1930–1932)
File:Miami Beach FL Lincoln Mall Lincoln Theatre01.jpg, Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach, Florida, by Thomas W. Lamb (1936)
File:Paris 75016 Fontaines du Trocadéro 20090815.jpg, Palais de Chaillot in Paris by Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques Carlu and Léon Azéma from the 1937 Paris International Exposition
File:L'exposition Auguste Perret (Conseil économique, social et environnemental, Paris) (11872278295).jpg, Stairway of the Economic and Social Council in Paris, originally the Museum of Public Works, built for the 1937 Exposition, by Auguste Perret (1937)
File:KingCityHS-RobertStantonTheater.jpg, 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.

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..!" 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. 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. Deco continues to inspire designers, and is often used in contemporary fashion, jewellery, and toiletries.

Painting

File:Mural-Ariel-Rios-Marsh-1.jpg, ''Workers sorting the mail'', a mural in the Ariel Rios Federal Building, Washington, D.C., by Reginald Marsh (1936)
File:Mural-Ariel-Rios-Rockwell-Kent-1.jpg, ''Art in the Tropics'', mural in the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, Washington, D.C., by Rockwell Kent (1938)
File:Entrance of Rockefeller Center.JPG, Detail of ''Time'', ceiling mural in lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, by Josep Maria Sert (1941)

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.

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.

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. When Rivera refused to remove Lenin, the painting was destroyed and a new mural was painted by the Spanish artist Josep Maria Sert.

Sculpture

Monumental and public sculpture

File:Folie Bergère Paris (36268584).jpeg, Gold detail on the façade of the Folies Bergère cabaret music hall in Paris, by Maurice Pico (1926)
File:Christ the Redeemer - Cristo Redentor.jpg, '' Christ the Redeemer'', reinforced concrete and soapstone sculpture on Corcovado Mountain, Rio de Janeiro, by Paul Landowski (1931)
File:Guardian of Traffic (cropped).jpg, ''Guardians of Traffic'', pylon on Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, by Henry Hering and Frank Walker (1932)
File:Lobby, (former) Daily Express Building by Ronald Atkinson.jpg, ''Britain'', relief sculpture in the lobby of the former Daily Express Building in London, by Ronald Atkinson (1932)
File:Niagara Mohawk Building 1.jpg, ''Spirit of Light'' or ''Spirit of Power'', metal sculpture on the façade of the Niagara Mohawk Building in Syracuse, N.Y., by Clayton Frye (1932)
File:Rockefeller Center entrance (4674369705).jpg, ''Wisdom'', portal decoration at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, by Lee Lawrie (1933)
File:Nowogrodzka 45 w Warszawie orzeł.jpg, Polish coat of arms (unofficial) on the façade of the post office in Warsaw, by Julian Puterman-Sadłowski (1934)
File:New York City, May 2014 - 033.JPG, ''Atlas'', bronze sculpture in front of the Rockefeller Center, by Lawrie (1936–37)
File:NixFedBldgPhilaMailBas1.jpg, '' Mail Delivery East'', one of four bas-relief sculptures on the Nix Federal Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Edmond Amateis (1937)
File:"One is Man Controlling Trade," 1942 statue by Michael Lantz, at Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, D.C LCCN2010641732.tif, '' Man Controlling Trade'' at the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, D.C., by Michael Lantz (1942)

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 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.

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.

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. 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

File:Joseph Csaky, Tête, ca 1920 (front and side view) limestone, 60 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Holland.tiff, ''Tête'' (front and side view), limestone, by Joseph Csaky (), Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Le chasseur de Pierre Le Faguays.png, ''The Hunter'' by Pierre Le Faguays (1920s)
File:Actaeon - Paul Manship (25890637528).jpg, ''Actaeon'' by Paul Manship (1925), in a temporary exhibition called the "Jazz Age" at the Cleveland Museum of Art, US
File:Speed - Harriet Frishmuth.jpg, ''Speed'', a design for a radiator ornament by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1925)
File:The Flight of Europa.jpg, ''The Flight of Europa'', bronze with gold leaf, by Paul Manship (1925), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
File:Art Deco Sculpture.jpg, ''Tânără'' (Girl), bronze, ivory and onyx, by Demétre Chiparus ()

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. 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.

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.

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.Edith Balas, 1998, ''Joseph Csaky: A Pioneer of Modern Sculpture''
Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society

Graphic arts

File:Bakst Nizhinsky.jpg, Program design for ''Afternoon of a Faun'' by Léon Bakst for Ballets Russes (1912)
File:Vanity Fair cover by Georges Lepape 1919.jpg, A '' Vanity Fair'' cover by Georges Lepape (1919)
File:Weinold Reiss - Drawing in two colors.jpg, ''Interpretation of Harlem Jazz I'' by Winold Reiss ()
File:Erté Harpers Bazar cover Feb 1922.jpg, Cover of ''Harper's Bazaar'' by Erté (1922)
File:Brightest London is best reached by Underground, subway poster, 1924.jpg, London Underground poster by Horace Taylor (1924)
File:Moulin Rouge Music-Hall.jpg, Moulin Rouge poster by Charles Gesmar (1925)
File:Wear Jewelry - You Will Win (1925) (6966582539).jpg, ''Wear Jewelry - You Win'' by Ludwig Hohlwein (circa 1930)
File:JesterCoverGWBridge.jpg, 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 Léon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, and in the catalogues of the fashion designers Paul Poiret. 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.

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.

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

File:P1030956 Paris Ier La Samaritaine rwk.JPG, La Samaritaine department store in Paris by Henri Sauvage (1925–1928)
File:Los Angeles City Hall building.jpg, Los Angeles City Hall by John Parkinson, John C. Austin, and Albert C. Martin Sr. (1928)
File:Eastern Columbia Building-6.jpg, Entrance of the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles, California, by Claud Beelman (1930)
File:La Villa Empain en 2012, après restauration..jpg, Entrance of the Villa Empain in Ixelles (Brussels) by Michel Polak (1930–1934)
File:Cincinnati Union Terminal murals 2019a.jpg, Cincinnati Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Alfred T. Fellheimer and Roland A. Wank (1933)
File:Nice, France, Église Jeanne d’Arc.jpg, Church of St. Joan of Arc in Nice