About Art Deco Style

Born from the intersection of the ancient Egyptians and Aztecs and the industrial design of ships, trains and motor cars, Art Deco is a movement of symmetry, geometry, and modernity. According to author and curator Jared Goss, Art Deco, also called style moderne, is “an umbrella term for the wide variety of design and architecture created worldwide between the First and Second World Wars.” Art Deco, shortened from the term Arts Décoratifs, came from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes or International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (Paris, 1925). Art Deco represented extravagance, style, and energy, and an unshakable confidence in social and technological progress. The desire for ancient themes coupled with synthetic modes of creation brought about streamlined, machine-made objects with natural accents like jade and obsidian, stones favored by Art Deco’s Egyptian forebears. This magnetic style permeated virtually all industries and disciplines of the era, including architecture, advertising, jewelry and fashion, furniture and decorative art. 

Did You Know?

• At one time known as the tallest building in the world (1929-1931), The Chrysler Building in New York is considered by many to be the acme of Art Deco architecture.
• The popular “star-burst” motif found throughout Art Deco jewelry and objet d’art is Aztec in origin.
• Art Deco fell into decline in the early 1940s. World War II began and people perceived the Art Deco Style to be gaudy and inappropriately luxurious, especially in wartime when sacrifice was tantamount to patriotism. However, the bold designs were revived during the late ’60s as elements of the style were revived with the rise of consumerist culture.
• Florida’s South Beach Art Deco District boasts the largest collection of 1920s and 1930s architecture worldwide.
• Ville Contemporaine, Le Corbusier’s plan for a sequence of sixty-story, cruciform skyscrapers included rooftop airports. In an era newly infatuated with air travel, he anticipated commercial airliners would fly between the high-rises.
• Mumbai, India is the second city in the world after Miami that has the most Art Deco designs in its architecture.

SOURCE: invaluable.com