A term abbreviated from the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts), 1925. It has come to refer to decorative arts of the 1920s and 1930s generally, and the modernistic style associated with them: a mixture of Cubism, Art Nouveau, and the Russian ballet, with a fondness for strident colours and for the streamlining found in aircraft and automobile design, but used nonfunctionally for household objects such as wireless sets, tables, and teapots.
Art Deco was a popular design movement from 1910 until 1939 , affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film. This movement was, in a sense, an amalgamation of many different styles and movements of the early 20th century, including Constructionism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, and Futurism. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative. These artists heavily influenced the principles of Art Deco as a whole. This society's purpose was to demonstrate French decorative art's leading position and evolution internationally. Naturally, they organized the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts), which would feature French art and business interests. The term Art Deco was derived from the Exposition of 1925, though it wasn't until the 1960s, during an Art Deco revival, that this term was coined. Among them were the "primitive" arts of Africa, Egypt, or Aztec Mexico, as well as Machine Age or Streamline technology such as modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, and the skyscraper. Other popular themes in art deco were trapezoidal, zigzagged, geometric and jumbled shapes, which can be seen in many early pieces.
Corresponding to these influences, Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, inlaid wood, sharkskin (shagreen), and zebraskin. The bold use of stepped forms, and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous, natural curves of the Art Nouveau), chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif are typical of Art Deco.
Art Deco was an opulent style, and its lavishness is attributed to reaction to the forced austerity imposed by World War I. The attractive shapes resulting from scientifically applied aerodynamic principles were enthusiastically adopted within Art Deco, applying streamlining techniques to other useful objects in everyday life, such as the automobile.
The Art Deco style celebrates the Machine Age through explicit use of man made materials (particularly glass and stainless steel), symmetry, repetition, modified by Asian influences such as the use of silks and Middle Eastern designs.
Decorative Arts
Among the decorative arts during this period, architecture and sculpture are easier to recogize than other forms of Art Deco, for they experienced the greatest popularity and with greater longevity than others, such as lacquering, glass work, and industrial design.
Other forms of decorative art were very focused on elegance, dynamic design, and bright colours, while expressing practical modernity.
Visual Arts
Art Deco themes affected the visual arts as well, lending Fauvist palettes and Futurist and Cubist concepts while standing in opposition to traditional art formats.
Decline
Art Deco slowly lost patronage in the West after reaching mass production, when it began to be derided as gaudy and presenting a false image of luxury. Before destruction in World War II, Manila demonstrated many Art Deco buildings; Theatres and Office Buildings have been lost in the war and recently demolished and abandonded for new development.A resurgence of interest in Art Deco came with graphic design in the 1980s, where its association with film noir and 1930s glamour led to its use in ads for jewelry and fashion. South Beach, Miami, FL has the largest collection of Art Deco architecture remaining in North America. Napier, New Zealand has an almost entirely Art Deco town center, rebuilt after a devastating 1931 earthquake, and mostly left unchanged since then.
Modern applications
Although Art Deco fell out of vogue in the 1940s, it has had small rebirths over subsequent decades. In media, such examples are obvious in Batman: The Animated Series from the early 1990s in which the shows creators used Art Deco stylings fused with a deliberate darkness to create an Art Deco variant style often refered to as Dark Deco. Films such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Dick Tracy, and King Kong have various Art Deco elements as well. In Marilyn Manson's The Golden Age of Grotesque, he demonstrates an Art Deco style mixed with his gothic trademark.
In Long Beach, California, much of the recent city development has been presented in an Art Deco-like, postmodern style.
Art Deco is used popularily in video game graphic design. Bioshock takes place in an underwater community heavily influenced by Art Deco. Fallout's design was heavily influenced by Art Deco. The film noir-type adventure game Grim Fandango takes largely place in an very pronounced Art Deco environment. The computer game Sim City 4 makes heavy use of Art Deco buildings.
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