Art deco
Decoration and design classics of the 1920s and 1930’s

The design style called “Art deco” was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the 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, faded to be revived again, as are most classics sooner or later. This style derived its name from the “Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes” although the term “Art Deco” did not come into widespread use until the late 1960’s. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional, and modern and has come to be viewed as the most exciting decorative style of the 20th century. It experienced resurgence with the popularization of graphic design in the 1980s, and had a profound influence on many later artistic movements, such as Memphis and Pop art . The style experienced a decline in popularity during the late 30s and early 40s, and soon fell out of public favor because of the world wars as it was considered a false image of the community and the forms of luxury of parties and events became a form of irony and it was almost faded after the end of the world war II because of the austerity that hit the community.

Origins and influences
At the turn of the century, Glasgow and Vienna, the two European cities helped to set the stage for the ‘Art Deco’ style producing proto-modern furniture, objects and interiors that used elements which found their way into subsequent French design (not to mention other European or American designs).

The work of the Glasgow designers was much admired by the Viennese secessionists, notably Charkes Renne Mackintosh’s (1868-1928), and it’s easy to distinguish similar concerns and sensabilities at work created by:

· Adolf Loos (1870-1933).

· Otto Wagner (1841-1918).

· Josef Hoffman (1870-1956).

· Otto Prutscher (1880-1949).

· Kolman Moser (1868-1918).

· Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908).

The designers of Glasgow were dissatisfied with the Victorian interiors that made up most British homes were the secessionists desirous of braking off from the artistic establishment, on the whole, typical Vienna designs were spare, severe and geometric, but the magnificent Palais Stoclet (1905-11) un Brussels is a glorious exception of this rule.

Influences
The art deco style was inspired by many styles often eastern and some western. But in the 20th century

Those sources of inspiration were approached to create more modern and stylized designs. About those different influences there were:

1. Ancient Egyptian style:
The items of pharaonic Egypt as the papyri, lotus blossom and scarab beetles appeared in certain strains of Art Deco but less in the Parisian in the British and American.

2. The ancient Mayas and Aztec civilizations:
Stylistic elements relative to the stepped pyramid and outer decoration of Mayan, and later Aztec, temples influenced design in the 1920’s, especially in the USA.

3. The Neoclassicism:
Also provided some design vocabulary of art deco where the Parisian metal workers were the most taken with motifs of the imperial eras.

4. Tribal Africa:
Influenced Art Deco designers, especially those in Paris.
It is a source of inspiration as well to many of the abstract artists of the early twentieth century. It is not surprising that Art Deco designers adapted the “rimitive” forms of the masks, furniture and ritual objects of African tribes to their own modern taste as African art began tobe collected in great quantities at this time.

5. The Ballets Russes
The city of Paris was taken by storm in the early 1900’s by and orientalism Russian effect.
The exuberant, colorful and joyfully naïve and stage sets of Ballets Russes (1) were a significant impact on the Parisian Art Deco. Indeed the exhibition of the fauvist paintings at the Salon d’Automne in 1905 has already set Paris areal with its profusion of bright colors. So the strong effect of the Russian palette is not surprising.