art deco

art deco or art moderne , term that designates a style of design that originated in French luxury goods shortly before World War I and became ubiquitously and internationally popular during the 1920s and 30s. Coined in the 1960s, the name derives from the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, where the style reached its apex. Art deco is characterized by long, thin forms, curving surfaces, and geometric patterning. The practitioners of the style attempted to describe the sleekness they thought expressive of the machine age. The style influenced all aspects of the era's art and architecture, as well as the decorative, graphic, and industrial arts. Works executed in the art deco style range from skyscrapers and ocean liners to toasters, furniture by designers such as France's Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879-1933), and accessories such as the elegant glass works of René Lalique . Since the 1960s and 70s the style has undergone a resurgence of popularity. Napier, New Zealand, which was rebuilt after a 1931 earthquake, has the largest unmixed concentration of art deco architecture in the world. Noted U.S. monuments to the style include New York's Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Building , the South Beach section of Miami Beach, Fla., and Fair Park, in Dallas, Tex.

Bibliography: See B. Hillier, Art Deco (1968), Y. Brunhammer, Art Deco Style (1984); V. Arwas, Art Deco (1985); A. Duncan, ed., Encyclopedia of Art Deco (1988); P. Bayer, Art Deco Architecture (1999); T. and C. Benton and G. Wood, ed., Art Deco: 1910-1939 (2003); C. Breeze, American Art Deco (2003); B. Hillier and S. Escritt, Art Deco Style (2003); G. Wood, Essential Art Deco (2003).

art deco the predominant decorative art style of the 1920s and 1930s, characterized by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes and strong colours.

art deco Fashionable style of design and interior decoration in the 1920s and 1930s. It took its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925. The art deco style is characterized by sleek forms, simplified lines, and geometric patterns. It began as a luxury style, an example of modern design fashioned from expensive, hand-crafted materials. After the Depression, art deco shifted towards mass production and low-cost materials.

http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Art/deco.shtml