What is art deco? The answer to that question can be found in the origin of the name itself. During the late 1960s, there was a renewed interest in the decorative arts of the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately, back during that time period, there was no name for it. All the artwork at the time was called modern art. And all the art of the 1960s was also called modern art. Something had to be done so there would be no confusion. They did some historical research and found a solution.
During the early 1900s, France was no longer the center of “haute cultur” - high culture. France was used to being at the forefront of the art world, whether it was dance, opera, music, painting, or sculpture. France wanted to be back in the spotlight. A group of artists, called Société des artistes décorateurs or the Society of Decorative Artists, thought that the time had come to do a massive art exposition which would completely focus on decorative arts. It was going to be held in 1912, but it was delayed until 1914. But then the first world war forced a postponement. The event finally took place in 1925 in Paris as a way of permanently putting France in limelight and expand the decorative arts. It temporarily succeeded in the first goal and fully accomplished the second. The name of the event was the Exposition Internationale des Artes Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, interpreted as International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. The researchers from the 1960s took the “Artes Decoratifs” from the title and shortened it to art deco. The researchers now had a name for decorative art made during the 1920s and 1930s.
What styles did art deco borrow from? There were many. The most influential one was cubism. Started around 1906, it became the first major style which focused on abstraction. Those who engaged in cubism felt that art needed to be changed and revitalized to fit with the new modern age of the twentieth century. They abandoned the popular 3D perspective which was prevalent in art and embrace using a flat 2D perspective. Objects were simplified through the use of geometric shapes to represent them. The artists often used abstraction of a scene instead of duplicating exactly what they saw. Lastly, they could provide multiple perspectives of the same scene instead of one viewpoint.
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented cubism at the same time because they were always working together. In fact, during the early years, their works were so similar that people had difficulty determining the difference between the two. Yet, despite inventing the style, Picasso and Braque were not the ones who popularized it. While the two men focused on their artwork, others had to step up and promote cubism.
One of the key figures in making it popular was a man named Jean Metzinger. He worked with Albert Gleizes and Jacques Villon to form a group called the Section d’Or. It was also called the Groupe de Puteaux. In 1911, the organization presented an art show which focused on cubism. The gallery proved to be very controversial, but it provided exposure for the very first time. A year later, in 1912, Metzinger worked with Albert Gleizes to write the first major thesis on the relatively young style and called it “Du Cubism”. He helped form a cubist school and remained involved with the style until 1930. Afterward, he abandoned the style and experimented with realism, classicism, surrealism, and decorative art.
Although cubism had a large impact in the art world, it also influenced the scientific community with the help of Danish physicist Niels Bohr. In 1913, he came up with a basic model of an atom, the one which is taught in schools throughout the world. He received a Nobel Prize in 1922 for his work in studying atom radiation and atom structure. During the month of September in 1943, the Danish Resistance warned Bohr that he was about to be arrested by the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage. He fled to Sweden, where he was able to persuade King Gustaf to publicly declare that Sweden would open its doors to all Jewish refugees from Denmark. By the end of World War II, 7,000 people had sought protection. When Bohr arrived in America, Bohr got involved with the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The endeavor led to the development of the atomic bomb.
During his early research of the atom, Niels Bohr used cubism to formulate the Principal of Complementarity in quantum physics. It states, “Something can be a particle and a wave at the same time, but it will always be measured to be either one or the other.” He came up with this principal after reading a thesis on cubism. According to the work, the artist can show all the viewpoints of a particular scene. However, the viewpoint that a person chooses is what the painting is about.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from cubism : Angular corners; simple designs; clean, straight lines; and the use of geometric shapes.
Fauvism began in 1904 as the first European style of the twentieth century. Andre Derain and co-founder Henri Matisse made everything possible. Their first works were collectively called Les Fauves, translated into English as The Wild Beasts, and led to the style’s name. Serving as a bridge between impressionism and cubism, fauvism emphasized simplification but fouced primarily on landscapes. Artists painted loosely with large brushstrokes, avoided preparation, and refused to mix their paints. They used strong, bright colors and often applied them in unnatural ways. It would not be surprising to see an artist color the clouds pink, the grass white, and water green. When they depicted objects, painters chose to represent them in an emotional way rather than a natural one. In addition to Derain and Matisse, other famous fauvists included Maurice de Vlaminck and Georges Braque.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from fauvism : simplification;
strong colors; bright colors; and conflicting colors.
Neo-Classicism began in the 1700s, thanks to a German historian, artist, and archaeologist named Johann Joachim Winckelmann. As the father of art history, he was the first person to differentiate between Greek, Roman, and Greco-Roman art. He was also one of the first to separate Greek art into periods. On top of that, he wrote one of the most important, influentual books on ancient art.
In 79 AD, the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the volcano Mount Vesuvius. The two towns were located along the west coast of Southern Italy in the region of Campania. Vesuvius is still considered active, though its last major eruption took place in 1944. Despite this, three million people still live within the danger zone. This makes Mount Vesuvius one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world.
In 1592, Pompeii was discovered and architect Domenico Fontana was given the task of excavating the site. After six years, he stopped the project. There were no other expeditions and Pompeii was forgotten once more. The same thing happened to Herculaneum. Prince d’Elbeuf started digging in 1709, but stopped after he had removed some statues from the site.
Herculaneum was rediscovered in October 1738 and Winckelmann visited the site, observing and documenting the discoveries. (018) Ten years later, in 1748, Pompeii was rediscovered with the excavation being done by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. Once again, Winckelmann was on the scene and wrote about the endeavor. His literature on the diggings and findings fueled the desire to embrace the ancient art styles and movements of Greece and Rome. The fervor spread throughout the world and started neo-classicism. The most influential book of the time regarding neo-classicism was Winckelmann’s 1764 book “The History of Art in Antiquity. The style was at its zenith during the late 1700s and early 1800s. It then kept a steady presence in some areas but a diminished presence in others. As an example, neo-classical painting completely died out by the twentieth century.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from neo-classicism : Greek and Roman pillars and arches, Greek and Roman fonts and symbols; and elebration of the ideal human form. Lastly, modernists who used neo-classicism often tried to add their own spin by using modern tools and materials.
Neo-Gothicism was a revitalization of the gothic style, which originated during the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages from 1000 to 1500. The gothic style featured towers, spheres, portals and typanum, rib vaults, flying buttresses, and the extensive use of stained glass. A renewed interest led to the start of neo-gothicism, which also went by the names of gothic revival and Victorian Gothic. It began in the 1700s and gained momentum during the 1800s. However, its popularity waned during the early 1900s. Artists still used neo-gothic in their art deco, but not very often. Most preferred to mix modern methods with the designs. An example of this would be an artist taking the pattern or feature and attaching it to a steel structure.
Futurism originated in Italy during 1909 by poet Filippo Tomamaso Marinetti. He believed that Society and government needed to turnaway from the past methods of running things. This was needed in order to move forward and grasp the promise of the future. And so he called for a war against the status quo to be started by the lower classes rising up for a new way of life. For Marinetti, technology and the machine served as symbols for a future which focused on the power of the people. Many futurists embraced fascism. At the time of the social movement’s formation, Northern Italy was industrialized while Southern Italy was rural and agricultural. The futurists saw Mussolini and his brand of government as way to modernize all of Italy and bring about a new way of life, fullfilling their dreams of destroying the old world and establishing a new one. After the end of World War Two, the futurists had a difficult time making a living because of their allegiance to fascism. However, not all futurists embraced the dictator.
The futurist philosophy of the early twentieth century found its way into the Italian art community. The artwork was filled with politics and philosophy. It also emphasized technology, urban settings, and modern inventions such as cars and planes. They felt it was necessary to abandon art of the past and embraced cubism.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from futurism : celebration of the future and themes of technology, inventions, and urban settings.
Originating in Russia during 1914, Vladimir Tatlin started constructivism. He beleived that art should be used for the expression of social concerns on issues of the day. There should be no “art for art’s sake”. It should serve a purpose or function and do something useful. For example, a person could use art to promote industrialization or advertise something.
The artists felt that the viewer must become an active one. They combined futurism and cubism by taking objects and making abstract forms out of them. When it came to architecture, they used glass and steel. Constructivism was popular in Russia during the 1920s, but it was replaced by Soviet Realism in 1932, which lasted until 1988.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from constructivism : the application of glass and steel in architecture and the practice of using art for practical purposes such as advertising.
Despite all the styles and movements, there were other things which influenced art deco. One such influence was the advent of the automobile. From the transformative invention, art deco borrowed the use of rounded corners,aerodynamic shapes, and chrome.
Strong interest in old civilizations was developed by archaeological discoveries. People became interested in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Babylon, and the Mayans. This interest resulted in the old motifs and designs showing up in decorative art. The most common ones borrowed from the Babylonian and Mayan cultures were glyphs, carvings, and zig-zag patterns. However, these two civilizations seemed to keep their influence inside the United States. The real star of the show was Ancient Egypt, which spread its influence throughout the world.
The popularity of Ancient Egypt skyrocketted with the discovery of King Tut’s tomb on November 26, 1922. It was discovered in the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter. The excavation which followed brought stardom to the little-known King Tutankhamen. Tombs and pyramids had been discovered before, but the sheer amount of priceless artifacts and riches was overwhelming. Soon after the news spread, Egypt-mania spread across the world. And with it, there came an interest in adopting the designs, writings, and styles into decorative art.
During this time, people had a fascination with exotic locations. The most popular one was Africa. This was often reflected by the popularity of movies centering around the exploration of the jungles of the Dark Continent. It was also reflected in art through the use of African designs, patterns, and animals.
Artists involved with art deco often used expensive materials such as ivory, jade, gold, silver, and opal. They also worked with modern materials like plastic, chrome, concrete, stucco, steel, aluminum. In addition, they dealt with glass and mirrors in many of their works.
During the early 1900s, France was no longer the center of “haute cultur” - high culture. France was used to being at the forefront of the art world, whether it was dance, opera, music, painting, or sculpture. France wanted to be back in the spotlight. A group of artists, called Société des artistes décorateurs or the Society of Decorative Artists, thought that the time had come to do a massive art exposition which would completely focus on decorative arts. It was going to be held in 1912, but it was delayed until 1914. But then the first world war forced a postponement. The event finally took place in 1925 in Paris as a way of permanently putting France in limelight and expand the decorative arts. It temporarily succeeded in the first goal and fully accomplished the second. The name of the event was the Exposition Internationale des Artes Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, interpreted as International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. The researchers from the 1960s took the “Artes Decoratifs” from the title and shortened it to art deco. The researchers now had a name for decorative art made during the 1920s and 1930s.
What styles did art deco borrow from? There were many. The most influential one was cubism. Started around 1906, it became the first major style which focused on abstraction. Those who engaged in cubism felt that art needed to be changed and revitalized to fit with the new modern age of the twentieth century. They abandoned the popular 3D perspective which was prevalent in art and embrace using a flat 2D perspective. Objects were simplified through the use of geometric shapes to represent them. The artists often used abstraction of a scene instead of duplicating exactly what they saw. Lastly, they could provide multiple perspectives of the same scene instead of one viewpoint.
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented cubism at the same time because they were always working together. In fact, during the early years, their works were so similar that people had difficulty determining the difference between the two. Yet, despite inventing the style, Picasso and Braque were not the ones who popularized it. While the two men focused on their artwork, others had to step up and promote cubism.
One of the key figures in making it popular was a man named Jean Metzinger. He worked with Albert Gleizes and Jacques Villon to form a group called the Section d’Or. It was also called the Groupe de Puteaux. In 1911, the organization presented an art show which focused on cubism. The gallery proved to be very controversial, but it provided exposure for the very first time. A year later, in 1912, Metzinger worked with Albert Gleizes to write the first major thesis on the relatively young style and called it “Du Cubism”. He helped form a cubist school and remained involved with the style until 1930. Afterward, he abandoned the style and experimented with realism, classicism, surrealism, and decorative art.
Although cubism had a large impact in the art world, it also influenced the scientific community with the help of Danish physicist Niels Bohr. In 1913, he came up with a basic model of an atom, the one which is taught in schools throughout the world. He received a Nobel Prize in 1922 for his work in studying atom radiation and atom structure. During the month of September in 1943, the Danish Resistance warned Bohr that he was about to be arrested by the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage. He fled to Sweden, where he was able to persuade King Gustaf to publicly declare that Sweden would open its doors to all Jewish refugees from Denmark. By the end of World War II, 7,000 people had sought protection. When Bohr arrived in America, Bohr got involved with the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The endeavor led to the development of the atomic bomb.
During his early research of the atom, Niels Bohr used cubism to formulate the Principal of Complementarity in quantum physics. It states, “Something can be a particle and a wave at the same time, but it will always be measured to be either one or the other.” He came up with this principal after reading a thesis on cubism. According to the work, the artist can show all the viewpoints of a particular scene. However, the viewpoint that a person chooses is what the painting is about.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from cubism : Angular corners; simple designs; clean, straight lines; and the use of geometric shapes.
Fauvism began in 1904 as the first European style of the twentieth century. Andre Derain and co-founder Henri Matisse made everything possible. Their first works were collectively called Les Fauves, translated into English as The Wild Beasts, and led to the style’s name. Serving as a bridge between impressionism and cubism, fauvism emphasized simplification but fouced primarily on landscapes. Artists painted loosely with large brushstrokes, avoided preparation, and refused to mix their paints. They used strong, bright colors and often applied them in unnatural ways. It would not be surprising to see an artist color the clouds pink, the grass white, and water green. When they depicted objects, painters chose to represent them in an emotional way rather than a natural one. In addition to Derain and Matisse, other famous fauvists included Maurice de Vlaminck and Georges Braque.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from fauvism : simplification;
strong colors; bright colors; and conflicting colors.
Neo-Classicism began in the 1700s, thanks to a German historian, artist, and archaeologist named Johann Joachim Winckelmann. As the father of art history, he was the first person to differentiate between Greek, Roman, and Greco-Roman art. He was also one of the first to separate Greek art into periods. On top of that, he wrote one of the most important, influentual books on ancient art.
In 79 AD, the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the volcano Mount Vesuvius. The two towns were located along the west coast of Southern Italy in the region of Campania. Vesuvius is still considered active, though its last major eruption took place in 1944. Despite this, three million people still live within the danger zone. This makes Mount Vesuvius one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world.
In 1592, Pompeii was discovered and architect Domenico Fontana was given the task of excavating the site. After six years, he stopped the project. There were no other expeditions and Pompeii was forgotten once more. The same thing happened to Herculaneum. Prince d’Elbeuf started digging in 1709, but stopped after he had removed some statues from the site.
Herculaneum was rediscovered in October 1738 and Winckelmann visited the site, observing and documenting the discoveries. (018) Ten years later, in 1748, Pompeii was rediscovered with the excavation being done by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. Once again, Winckelmann was on the scene and wrote about the endeavor. His literature on the diggings and findings fueled the desire to embrace the ancient art styles and movements of Greece and Rome. The fervor spread throughout the world and started neo-classicism. The most influential book of the time regarding neo-classicism was Winckelmann’s 1764 book “The History of Art in Antiquity. The style was at its zenith during the late 1700s and early 1800s. It then kept a steady presence in some areas but a diminished presence in others. As an example, neo-classical painting completely died out by the twentieth century.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from neo-classicism : Greek and Roman pillars and arches, Greek and Roman fonts and symbols; and elebration of the ideal human form. Lastly, modernists who used neo-classicism often tried to add their own spin by using modern tools and materials.
Neo-Gothicism was a revitalization of the gothic style, which originated during the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages from 1000 to 1500. The gothic style featured towers, spheres, portals and typanum, rib vaults, flying buttresses, and the extensive use of stained glass. A renewed interest led to the start of neo-gothicism, which also went by the names of gothic revival and Victorian Gothic. It began in the 1700s and gained momentum during the 1800s. However, its popularity waned during the early 1900s. Artists still used neo-gothic in their art deco, but not very often. Most preferred to mix modern methods with the designs. An example of this would be an artist taking the pattern or feature and attaching it to a steel structure.
Futurism originated in Italy during 1909 by poet Filippo Tomamaso Marinetti. He believed that Society and government needed to turnaway from the past methods of running things. This was needed in order to move forward and grasp the promise of the future. And so he called for a war against the status quo to be started by the lower classes rising up for a new way of life. For Marinetti, technology and the machine served as symbols for a future which focused on the power of the people. Many futurists embraced fascism. At the time of the social movement’s formation, Northern Italy was industrialized while Southern Italy was rural and agricultural. The futurists saw Mussolini and his brand of government as way to modernize all of Italy and bring about a new way of life, fullfilling their dreams of destroying the old world and establishing a new one. After the end of World War Two, the futurists had a difficult time making a living because of their allegiance to fascism. However, not all futurists embraced the dictator.
The futurist philosophy of the early twentieth century found its way into the Italian art community. The artwork was filled with politics and philosophy. It also emphasized technology, urban settings, and modern inventions such as cars and planes. They felt it was necessary to abandon art of the past and embraced cubism.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from futurism : celebration of the future and themes of technology, inventions, and urban settings.
Originating in Russia during 1914, Vladimir Tatlin started constructivism. He beleived that art should be used for the expression of social concerns on issues of the day. There should be no “art for art’s sake”. It should serve a purpose or function and do something useful. For example, a person could use art to promote industrialization or advertise something.
The artists felt that the viewer must become an active one. They combined futurism and cubism by taking objects and making abstract forms out of them. When it came to architecture, they used glass and steel. Constructivism was popular in Russia during the 1920s, but it was replaced by Soviet Realism in 1932, which lasted until 1988.
Art deco borrowed the following elements from constructivism : the application of glass and steel in architecture and the practice of using art for practical purposes such as advertising.
Despite all the styles and movements, there were other things which influenced art deco. One such influence was the advent of the automobile. From the transformative invention, art deco borrowed the use of rounded corners,aerodynamic shapes, and chrome.
Strong interest in old civilizations was developed by archaeological discoveries. People became interested in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Babylon, and the Mayans. This interest resulted in the old motifs and designs showing up in decorative art. The most common ones borrowed from the Babylonian and Mayan cultures were glyphs, carvings, and zig-zag patterns. However, these two civilizations seemed to keep their influence inside the United States. The real star of the show was Ancient Egypt, which spread its influence throughout the world.
The popularity of Ancient Egypt skyrocketted with the discovery of King Tut’s tomb on November 26, 1922. It was discovered in the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter. The excavation which followed brought stardom to the little-known King Tutankhamen. Tombs and pyramids had been discovered before, but the sheer amount of priceless artifacts and riches was overwhelming. Soon after the news spread, Egypt-mania spread across the world. And with it, there came an interest in adopting the designs, writings, and styles into decorative art.
During this time, people had a fascination with exotic locations. The most popular one was Africa. This was often reflected by the popularity of movies centering around the exploration of the jungles of the Dark Continent. It was also reflected in art through the use of African designs, patterns, and animals.
Artists involved with art deco often used expensive materials such as ivory, jade, gold, silver, and opal. They also worked with modern materials like plastic, chrome, concrete, stucco, steel, aluminum. In addition, they dealt with glass and mirrors in many of their works.