Essential Art DecoEssential Art Deco captures the essence of the style which swept across the globe in the 1920s and 1930s, altering the skyline of cities from Shanghai to Rio, and adding an exotic vibrant edge to everything from cinema and fashion to ocean lines and automobiles. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the book explores the extraordinary visual language of the style. Skilful juxtaposition of source material and iconic Deco pieces shows how designers borrowed from the exotic cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the oriental East and Africa and from the man-made world of skyscrapers and machines, developing in the process a new and highly distinctive iconography. Images inspired by the natural world of plants and animals, sunbursts and fountains, contrast with the geometric forms of avant-garde painting and design, culminating eventually in the symbolic idiom of streamlining. Deeply eclectic and highly decorative, Art Deco was all about fantasy, fun and glamour - themes that are celebrated in this attractive book and which still strike a popular chord today. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ADAGP aluminium American ancient André architecture Art Deco Art Deco designers Art Deco style Art Nouveau artists avant-garde Axelrod Ballets Russes became Boston British Carl Milles Cartier Christie's Images Christie's Images Ltd Chrysler Building Collection John colour create Cubist Cubist rose cultures day bed Decorative Arts decorative forms derived Edward McKnight Kauffer Egyptian Erik Magnussen ESSENTIAL ART DECO exotic Exposition fantasy fashion forms and motifs Foundation Frankl French Fritz Lang furnishing fabric GEOMETRY AND ABSTRACTION gilt glamour handcrafted Hollywood film Hotel iconography imagery Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann Japanese Jean Dunand Jean Lambert-Rucki jewellery lacquer leaping deer LEFT London Mayan Meso-America modern world motifs drawn Musée Museum of Art ocean liner painted in enamels Palace Paris 1925 Exhibition Paris and DACS Paul Poiret Photo Pirogue plastic Private Collection René René Lalique represented RIGHT sculptures silver skyscraper Sonia Delaunay sources Streamlining style plates stylized textile designs traditional Tutankhamun vase wood workshops York