What is Art Deco?When the musician Louis Armstrong was asked “What is jazz?”, he replied: “If youhave to ask, you will never know.” He could justifiably have given the same replyabout Art Deco, the movement that engulfed his own unique artistry as it racedthrough interwar culture at exhilarating speed.Most protagonists of the Art Deco movement would not have beenfamiliar with the term that came to define them, however. Unlike ArtNouveau, which was in common parlance bythe 1890s, Art Deco is a relatively modern term.It was coined in 1966, when a museum exhibitionheld in the French capital presented a retrospective ofthe 1925 Paris Exposition. The term derives from the firstsyllables of the French for decorative arts (arts décoratifs),words that appeared in the full title of the seminal 1925event: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifset Industriels Modernes. The exhibition featured contributions from 34 countries, and a host of individualdesigners, ranging in taste from traditional to outrageously avant-garde.Art Deco was intended as an umbrella term to define this extraordinaryvariety. For this reason, there is no such thing as an Art Deco style, butrather there are many versions, evolved over three decades, mostly inEurope and the United States.The common theme is a clear intent to be “modern”, a relativelynew and daring concept for a generation whose parents had lived inthe Victorian age. This modernity is the essential ingredient in all ArtDeco production, whether it is the earliest, exotic taste inspired by theBallets Russes in Paris before World War I, or the shiny glitz of anAmerican diner from the 1940s.Exposure to great Art Deco is seductive and intoxicating. Be aware ofthis if you choose to collect, but with a good eye, regular exposure, andpassion, you will eventually feel about this eclectic art movement justas Louis Armstrong did about jazz music.

The 1925 Paris ExpositionThe concept of an international trade fair began in earnest in 1851, when JosephPaxton’s enormous Crystal Palace, in London’s Hyde Park, housed the event stillreferred to as The Great Exhibition. Paris hosted several fairs, notably in 1889, underthe Eiffel Tower, and the extraordinary Exposition Universelle in 1900. The organizerswere naturally keen to repeat their success but were unable to stage a follow-up eventuntil 1925, due largely to the disruption of World War I.The 1925 Paris Exposition, held from April to October, wasa remarkable achievement and an enormously successfulevent for the promotion of French industry and taste.Thirty-four countries (not including the United States,which declined to participate, citing lack of commercial potential),presented pavilions and other exhibits, with scores of contributionsfrom leading French artistes décorateurs and designers in all genres.

Luminaries showed their work throughout the event.Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann had his own pavilion andcontributed to several others, including the FrenchEmbassy building. René Lalique had two pavilions,contributed to the Sèvres pavilion and the Hall of Perfume,and displayed architectural glass in several places, notably an enormous illuminated fountain that greeted visitors atthe main entrance. Edgar Brandt’s wrought iron was usedin the entrance gates and elsewhere, including his pavilion.Louis Süe and André Mare’s architectural and interior designswere ubiquitous, mainly in a sumptuous, neo-Rococo form ofArt Deco identified by rich gilding and detail such as stylizedfruits. This taste is commonly referred to as “1925 style”.More than 50 million visitors passed through Edgar Brandt’sgates, many of them foreigners of wealth and influence. Within afew years modern French style was internationally popular, particularly in the United States. Anyone who visits the Chrysler Building in NewYork designed by William Van Alen (1883–1954) will see 1925 Parispreserved in the magnificent lobby.THE 1925 PARIS EXPOSITION

Origins and influencesInfluences on Art Deco are as varied as the movement itself. The Ballets Russesis widely considered to be the spark that ignited Art Deco in Paris, fuelled bya colourful Arabian Nights theme. Early Art Deco includes exotic fashion bythe Ballets’ designer Paul Poiret or furnishings by his protégé Paul Iribe thatwere made before World War I. Indeed, Poiret maintained his influencethroughout the period, as witnessed by his magnificent display from a bargefloating on the Seine at the 1925 Paris Exposition.The Great War devastated northern Europe, but the aftermath saw a gradualgrowth in the new taste for adventure, leisure, and luxury. This Age of Elegance(peaking at the Exposition Coloniale in Paris in 1931) introduced colonial

influence, evident in the use of exotic materials such as sharkskin, ivory, andmacassar ebony. African themes were popularized, too, by black American Jazz Ageperformers, first and foremost the dancer Josephine Baker, who, for the French,embodied the combination of African and American cultures. Increasedcommunications revived the taste for Oriental design and created a styledevoted to luxury travel; this can be seen in cars, liners, train carriage interiors,and grand hotels. Unique for its short life span as an exotic influenceon Art Deco is Egyptian styling, which emerged with the discovery ofTutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 and all but disappeared by the late 1920s.The geometric approach seen in a lot of Art Deco is rooted inneoclassicism and restrained ornament, which was a reactionto Victorian excesses. The most popular stylized image maybe the frozen fountain – also the title of a 1931 design bookby Claude Bragdon. Much post-1930s Art Deco is alsoinfluenced by the Depression and forced austerity;this is most visible in American streamlinedstyle and the use of inexpensive materials.