Art Deco

(proper noun)

Art Deco is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s and into the World War II era.

Related Terms

Examples of Art Deco in the following topics:

  • Art Movements of the 1920s

    • Art Deco was a dominant design style of the 1920s artistic era that also was influenced by the Dada, Expressionist and Surrealist movements.
    • Art Deco was a dominant style in design and architecture of the 1920s.
    • The name Art Deco is short for Arts Décoratifs, which came from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris in 1925.
    • In the United States, New York City's Chrysler Building typified the Art Deco style.
    • Art Deco architectural style in the United States was epitomized by the Chrysler Building in New York City.

  • The Culture of the Roaring Twenties

    • Popular culture in the 1920s was characterized by innovation in film, visual art and architecture, radio, music, dance, fashion, literature, and intellectual movements.
    • In visual art and architecture, the 1920s saw the beginning of the surrealist, expressionist, and Art Deco movements.
    • Characterized by pure and geometric forms, Art Deco originated in Europe and spread to North America in the mid-1920s, manifesting itself famously in the construction of the Chrysler Building, the tallest building in the world at its time.
    • The Museum of Modern Art opened in Manhattan on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash.
    • Originating in the African-American neighborhood of Harlem in New York, the Harlem Renaissance was fueled by the idea that intellect and the production of literature, art, and music could challenge pervading racial stereotypes and promote racial and social integration.

  • The Roaring Twenties

    • The Roaring Twenties was a fruitful period for the arts, music and writing.
    • The Art Deco movement was popular among designers and architects, fashion for women went in bold new directions, and Jazz music became all the rage.
    • Art Deco was the style of design and architecture that marked the era.
    • Art Deco, already globally popular, found favor among designers in America as the 1920s progressed, culminating with the opening of Radio City Music Hall in 1932.
    • Jazz and other energetic art forms also helped with the expansion of mass market entertainment such as radio and film.

  • Literature and the Depression

  • Fashion

    • Jewelry usually consisted of art deco pieces, especially many layers of beaded necklaces.

  • Flappers

    • Jewelry usually consisted of art deco pieces including beaded necklaces and brooches.

  • Culture in the Thirties

    • PWAP was replaced by the Federal Art Project (FAP), one of the cultural programs under the 1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA) and a much more ambitious and expansive arts program that its predecessor.
    • FAP provided funding for artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theater design, and arts and crafts.
    • It established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of public art without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression.
    • Visual arts in the United States of the 1930s followed both global and regional trends.
    • In architecture and design, the 1930s was the height of the Art Deco - an eclectic style inspired by industrialization that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials.

  • Conclusion: Cultural Change in the Interwar Period

    • The many debates enriched perspectives on issues of art, culture, politics, and ideology that have emerged in African-American culture.
    • In design and architecture, Art Deco originated in Europe and spread throughout the continent before its influence moved across the Atlantic to North America.
    • In art, the movements known as Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism all played major roles in reconfiguring focus and perception.
    • An example of the Dada school of art, Republican Automatons was a 1920 watercolor painting by George Grosz.

  • Art and Music

    • Forms of art and music in the 1960s, ranging from rock and roll to psychedelic art, reflected the characteristics of the counterculture movement.
    • As with film, press, and music, art in the 1960s responded to the new counterculture, primarily in pop art and psychedelic art.
    • For example, pop art challenged traditional fine art by including imagery from popular culture, such as advertising and news.
    • The concept of pop art refers as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that it led to, and Andy Warhol is often considered representative of this type of art.
    • During the 1960s, psychedelic visual arts were often a counterpart to psychedelic rock music.

  • American Modernism

    • Characteristically, modernist art has a tendency toward abstraction, and formal innovation.
    • It may include visual art, literature, music, film, design, and other forms of art.
    • It reacts against historicism, artistic conventions and the institutionalization of art.
    • Modernism bridged the gap between the art and a socially diverse audience in the U.S.
    • Douglas influenced African-American visual arts, especially during the Harlem Renaissance.