Art Deco

Art Deco is a style that was popular bewtween 1920-1939 in Europe. Many of the Art Deco designers rejected traditional materials for their work and chose instead more unusual materials like ebony, steel, marble and rare and expensive types of wood. Their designs were geometric with clean unfussy lines.

Art Deco influenced decorative Arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film. This movement can be viewed as a combination of various styles and movements of the early 20th century, including Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, and Futurism. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, functional, and ultra modern as well.

Leon Bakst: Costume Design

What is Art Deco?

Deco, popular originally in the 1920s and 30s, took its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, an exhibition held in Paris in 1925. There the style was first seen in the work of French designers who had been in experimenting and refining it for some years. When World War I was over, people desired a modern, functional style for their furniture, jewelry and decorative objects. The Tut Anch Amon Exhibition, held in Paris in 1922, also had an impact and there was vivid exchange of ideas between architects and designers of costumes, stage and ballet sets, jewelry, furniture, ceramics and glass.

Leon Bakst: Study of Dancer in Sheherezade