A needle over Manhattan
New York, October 1929. Inside the still unfinished Chrysler Building, a 38-metre stainless-steel spire was secretly assembled. One autumn day it was hoisted up through the crown in about an hour and a half. At a stroke, William Van Alen’s building became the tallest in the world, if only until 1931, when the Empire State Building overtook it.
The crown with its stepped arches and triangular windows, the gargoyles in the form of radiator caps, the lobby of red stone and stainless steel: the Chrysler Building became the symbol of an era that celebrated progress, speed and luxury.
A name in hindsight
Contemporaries spoke of the “style moderne” or the “style of 1925”, referring to the great Paris exhibition of 1925, the Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, at which France showed off its leadership in the decorative arts. The term “Art Deco” only caught on in the 1960s, after a Paris exhibition in 1966 and an influential 1968 book by the British art historian Bevis Hillier.
Luxury and geometry
Art Deco took clear geometric forms from Cubism and the Wiener Werkstätte but combined them with precious materials and great elegance. In Paris, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann made furniture from rare woods with ivory inlays, Jean Dunand created lacquerwork, and René Lalique glass with female figures and animals in frosted and clear crystal.
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 set off a fashion for Egypt, and the Ballets Russes brought strong colours and exotic costumes. Out of all this came a style that combined sunbursts, zigzag lines, stepped pyramids and stylised female bodies into elegant ornament.
Women of Art Deco
Several of the most important designers of Art Deco were women. The Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray created lacquer furniture and, with Jean Badovici, built the villa E-1027 on the Côte d’Azur, now considered an icon of modern architecture. Sonia Delaunay transferred her abstract painting to fabrics, dresses and even a car. The Polish-born painter Tamara de Lempicka painted cool, glossy portraits of self-confident women, including her 1929 self-portrait in a green Bugatti.
From Paris to the world
The style spread quickly: on ocean liners such as the Normandie, for which A. M. Cassandre designed a famous poster in 1935, and in cinemas, stations and department stores. Miami Beach has one of the largest ensembles of Art Deco buildings, as does Mumbai with its rows of buildings on the Oval Maidan, and Napier in New Zealand, rebuilt in the new style after an earthquake in 1931.
In Germany, Art Deco often merged with Brick Expressionism. Hamburg’s Chilehaus by Fritz Höger, built in 1922–1924 and recalling a ship’s bow with its pointed corner, is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Düsseldorf, the Ehrenhof, now home to the Kunstpalast, and the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus by Wilhelm Kreis, both from the 1920s, are well-known examples of Brick Expressionism.
Why it still matters
Art Deco is regarded as one of the first styles of the 20th century to spread worldwide, carried by cinema, travel and mass consumption. It brought together art, design and industry with glamour. The Great Depression and the Second World War ended the era, but its forms return again and again in fashion, film and architecture.
Further reading
- Bevis Hillier: Art Deco of the 20s and 30s (1968).
- Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton, Ghislaine Wood (eds.): Art Deco 1910–1939 (2003). Victoria and Albert Museum catalogue.