Art Deco is in our everyday lives
The Art Deco style spread throughout Europe and America in the 1920s and 1930s, and although it came from different sources, it was widely accepted, not only in the architecture of the United States, but also in many other countries. Art designed by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Norman Rockwell, and others marked a newfound optimism about the future of art and architecture in America.
The Moscow Metro was designed in Soviet Art Deco style, and the colorful streets of Santiago de Cuba demonstrate the influence of this style on Cuban and other parts of the Caribbean architecture. Cuba is defined by its colourfully painted Art Deco buildings, many of which were built to appeal to American tourists. Learn more about the importance of preserving the architecture and sculpture of Artdeco in Cuba in our guide to the most famous cities in the world.
A handful of art deco hotels were built in Miami Beach after World War II, but the style has largely disappeared from industrial design, where it is now only used in a limited number of buildings in the US and Europe. Postmodern architecture, which first emerged in 1980, often contains purely decorative elements. In the 1970s, efforts were made in the United States and Europe to preserve some of the best examples of Art Deco architecture. Many of these buildings have been restored and rededicated, and many date from the 1930s and 1940s.
Art Deco styling is most common in architecture, but has also been applied to fine arts such as painting and graphics. Art Deco views signal architecture as a form of industrial design as well as an aesthetic expression of modernity. Decorations continue to inspire designers and are often used in contemporary fashion, jewelry and toiletries.
The fact that the architectural design of Art Deco was so enthusiastically received says a lot about the novel monumentality of the style, both as a style and as an aesthetic expression of modernity and its cultural significance.
Although Art Deco was the product of a new idea and movement in the United States, most of the construction projects completed between 1927 and 1935 used the same architectural style as their contemporaries in Europe and Asia, and here is a small selection. Indeed, Art Deco has found its inspiration in various architectural styles, such as Modernism, Neoclassicism, Modernism, Gothic, Classical and even Classical Revival.
The term "Art Deco" is generally used for different eras, but has become more common in recent years as public interest in the style has increased. In the United States, it has become known as the "skyscraper style" due to the large number of buildings that have been erected in major cities since the mid-to-late 1920s.
Classical Art Deco is the style of the late 19th and early 20th century and focuses on craftsmanship and decorative art. The influential textile designer William Morris embodied this and it became popular through his work in the early 1920s. Arts et Industriels Modernes, which meant that "industrials" contained expensive materials, but art deco was permeated with an extended sensibility to design that meandered its way through the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Puerto Rico.
Unlike Art Nouveau, the style of the objects was not dictated or imposed, but developed from the ideas of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Mackintosh believed that the style came from function and that structures should be built from the inside out. We round up eight projects that celebrate this style, from new geometric buildings in London and London to modernist buildings in Paris and New York City to a number of other projects in Europe.
Art Deco, short for Arts Decoratifs, is a visual art style that encompasses a number of disciplines. It is recognizable by geometric shapes from Cubism, rich materials and bold colors. The aesthetic emerged in France in the 1920s from the International Art Exhibition in Paris and later in New York City and London.
It spread throughout the United States in the 1920s and 1930s under the influence of artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Rauschenberg, Paul Gauguin, and Frank Gehry.