Art Deco

Art Deco (French: Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes) was a twentieth century movement in the decorative arts, that grew to influence architecture, design, fashion and the visual arts.
The name Art Deco derived from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a World’s Fair held in Paris, France in 1925, though the term was not used prior to the late 1960s. Art Deco was influenced by many different cultures, particularly pre-World War I Europe.
The movement occurred at the same time as, and as a response to, the rapid social and technological advances of the early 20th century.

The Art Deco style started as a response to the Art Noveau Style, which was popular in the late 19th 鈥?early 20th century. In contrary to the Art Noveau style which is characterized in circular lines and use of romantic motifs, the Art Deco style is chericterized in use of angular, symmetrical geometric forms.
One of the classic Art Deco themes is that of 1930s-era skyscrapers such as New York’s Chrysler Building and Empire State Building. The former, designed by architect William Van Alen, is considered to be one of the world’s great Art Deco style buildings.

New York’s Chrysler Building Empire State Building

Paris was at the center of the high end of Art Deco design, epitomized in furniture by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, the best-known of Art Deco furniture designers and perhaps the last of the traditional Parisian ebenistes, and Jean-Jacques Rateau, the firm of Sae et Mare, the screens of Eileen Gray, wrought iron of Edgar Brandt, metalwork and lacquer of Jean Dunand, the glass of Rene Lalique and Maurice Marinot, clocks and jewelry by Cartier.

Art Deco practitioners were not working as a coherent community. They are considered to be an eclectic form of decorative Modernism, being influenced by a variety of sources. Among them were the “primitive” arts of Africa, Egypt, or Aztec Mexico, as well as machine age technology such as the radio and skyscraper. These were expressed in fractionated, crystalline, faceted form of decorative Cubism and Futurism, in Fauvims’ palette.

A fine silver Art Deco example - 4 pcs Cigar Smoking Set, Austria, Ca 1920

Superb collection of Art Deco objects in our store.