Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s

Product Information

With the emergence of widespread manufacturing, Art Deco artists were able to improve the appearance of their mass-produced functional objects so that they were accessible to everyone in society.

Despite that, the Art Deco period was an incredibly influential one, with its decorative manner going on to inspire a variety of other artistic styles. The prominence of the Art Deco era rose and fell in between the two World Wars, with the style playing an important role in molding the West’s modern vision. This was particularly noticeable in France and the United States, where the influence of the Art Deco style could be seen in the types of architecture that were used. This school of Art Deco was known for its combination of advanced forms with conventional techniques and pricey materials. In the 1920s, after Lalique had refined his glass art creations, he rejected the style of Art Nouveau and expressed an interest in fluid and organic forms. This led to him embracing the techniques of the emerging Art Deco style, with his artworks becoming sleeker in the process. Lalique experimented with a variety of new materials, yet he preferred to work with glass.

You Might Also Like

Art Deco-style fictional Mars tourism poster commissioned by SpaceX. This poster advertises for Olympus Mons, 2015; SpaceX, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Completed in less than two years, it was said that approximately four floors were built each week, which was a surprisingly rapid fast for the types of machinery that was available at the time.

What made the Chrysler Building so symbolic was its style of decoration. Triangles around the curved tiers adorned the peak of the building, with these shapes being placed in a way that copied the sun gleaming towards a peak. Art Deco gargoyles were also featured as ornamentation that closely imitated the hood ornament of a car. During the 1960s, a restored fascination in Art Deco design was fostered and as of today, Art Deco continues to be a key motivation in areas of decorative art, fashion, and even jewelry design. The modernist Art Deco group criticized the traditional Art Deco style, which they formed was only created to serve the wealthy. The portrait of Auguste Perret in the Art Deco-style grand staircase of the Palais d’Iéna, Paris, France. The staircase faces the entrance to the conference room, acting as a hinge between the ends of the north and south wings of the Palace. Note that the reinforced concrete columns are tapered down to express “the structural nature of the material”; Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Browse by Discipline

On the other hand, the modernists stood out for their blatant rejection of the past. Artists within this Art Deco group sought to find and create an artistic style that was based on new developments in technologies, simplicity, an absence of decoration, and the use of cheaper materials and mass production. Ruhlmann’s lavish style produced different reactions from a number of different Art Deco designers and architects. Le Corbusier, in particular, responded to the types of artworks produced by Ruhlmann by calling for the creation of uncomplicated and more practical furniture pieces instead. However, Ruhlmann strongly believed that the preservation of art relied entirely on the upper class, with his designs going on to perfectly capture the sensational and magnificent spirit of the time. The Art Deco definition was used in a positive way for the first time by British critic and art historian, Bevis Hillier. His definitive use of the term “Art Deco” in his first book, Art Deco of the 20s and 30s, properly cemented the name into art history. When it first appeared, the Art Deco style wielded its impact all over the graphic art of the time. This was done in such a way that the impact of Italian Futurism was revealed, as the style’s passion for speed and its devotion to the machine could be seen in the works produced.