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The Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building, built 1928-1930,
Art Deco (French: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes) was a twentieth century movement in the decorative arts, that grew to influence architecture, design, fashion and the visual arts.
Overview
The name Art Deco derived from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a World's fair held in Paris, France in 1925, though the term was not used prior to the late 1960s. Art Deco was influenced by many different cultures, particularly pre-World War I Europe. The movement occurred at the same time, and as a response to, the rapid social and technological advances of the early 20th century.
Paris was at the center of the high end of Art Deco design, epitomized in furniture by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, the best-known of Art Deco furniture designers and perhaps the last of the traditional Parisian ébénistes, and Jean-Jacques Rateau, the firm of Süe et Mare, the screens of Eileen Gray, wrought iron of Edgar Brandt, metalwork and lacquer of Jean Dunand, the glass of René Lalique and Maurice Marinot, clocks and jewelry by Cartier.
The term Art Deco was coined during the Exposition of 1925 but did not receive wider usage until it was re-evaluated in the 1960s. Its practitioners were not working as a coherent community. It is considered to be an eclectic form of decorative Modernism, being influenced by a variety of sources:
Early work from the Wiener Werkstätte; functional industrial design, with roots in the later nineteenth century
"Primitive" arts of Africa, Egypt, or Aztec Mexico, partly mediated through Decorative Cubism
Early work and thinking of the Weimar Bauhaus in its expressionist phase.
Ancient Greek sculpture and ceramic design of the less naturalistic "archaic period"
Léon Bakst's sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
Fractionated, crystalline, facetted form of decorative Cubism and Futurism
Fauve color palette
Severe forms of radical Neoclassicism: Boullée, Schinkel
Everything associated with Jazz, Jazz Age or "jazzy"
Animal motifs and forms; tropical foliage; ziggurats; crystals; "sunbursts"; stylized fountain motifs
Lithe athletic "modern" female forms; flappers' bobbed haircuts
Machine age technology such as the radio and skyscraper.

Asheville, North Carolina City Hall, 1926–1928 epitomizes the American Art Deco style.
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 zigzag and stepped forms, and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous curves of the Art nouveau), chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif. Some of these motifs were ubiquitous — for example the sunburst motif was used in such varied contexts as a lady's shoe, a radiator grille, the auditorium of the Radio City Music Hall and the spire of the Chrysler Building.
Art Deco was an opulent style and this lavishness is attributed to reaction of the forced austerity caused by World War I. Its rich, festive character fitted it for "modern" contexts including interiors of cinema theaters and ocean liners such as the Ile de France and Normandie. A parallel movement called Streamline Moderne or simply Streamline followed close behind. Streamline was influenced by manufacturing and streamlining techniques arising from science and the mass production shape of bullet, liners, etc., where aerodynamics are involved. Once the Chrysler Air-Flo design of 1933 was successful, "streamlined" forms began to be used even for objects such as pencil sharpeners and refrigerators.
Art Deco slowly lost patronage in the West after reaching mass production, where it began to be derided as gaudy and presenting a false image of luxury. Eventually the style was cut short by the austerities of World War II. In colonial countries such as India, it became a gateway for Modernism and continued to be used well into the 1960s. 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.
Noted Art Deco designs

Rounded edges and nautical themes are characteristics of Art Deco - The Normandie, by French graphist Adolphe Mouron Cassandre

Chicago's Carbide and Carbon Building
Kansas City Power & Light Building
Empire State Building, Manhattan, New York City
Arsenal Stadium, London, UK
Chrysler Building, Manhattan
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
Fisher Building, Detroit, Michigan
Guardian Building, Detroit
Mapes Hotel, Reno, Nevada
The Bund, Shanghai, China
Buffalo City Hall, Buffalo, New York
Eskom Building, Johannesburg, South Africa
Ocean liners Ile de France, Normandie and RMS Queen Mary
Montreal Eaton 9th floor restaurant is a copy of the huge SS Ile de France first class dining room
Napier, New Zealand was rebuilt in Art Deco style after the 1931 Napier earthquake
The Hoover Building, Perivale, London
Anzac War Memorial, Sydney, Australia
Radio City Music Hall, New York City
Université de Montréal central building, Montreal, Canada
Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa
Marine Building, Vancouver, British Columbia
Asheville, North Carolina city hall
Waterman Phileas fountain pen
Chicago Board of Trade Building, Chicago
Carbide and Carbon Building, Chicago
Ocean Drive (South Beach), Miami Beach, Florida
Former Pennsylvania Railroad 30th Street Station and Suburban Station, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Far Eastern University Campus, Manila, Philippines
Price Building (aka Édifice Price), home to the Hotel Clarendon Quebec City, Quebec
Temple Beth-El, Pensacola, Florida
GE Building, Manhattan, New York City
Wells Fargo Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Qwest Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Aldred Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Hoover Dam, Arizona, USA
OXO Tower, London, England
Noted Art Deco artists and designers
Maurice Ascalon
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre
Jean Dunand
Jean Dupas
Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) (1892-1990)
Alexandra Exter
Eileen Gray
Georg Jensen
René Lalique
Jules Leleu
Oscar Bach
Joseph Kiselewski
Tamara de Lempicka
Paul Manship
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann
Sue et Mar
Walter Dorwin Teague
Carl Paul Jennewein
Noted Art Deco architects

Far Eastern University Campus in downtown Manila, Philippines
Albert Anis
Pablo Antonio
George Coles
Ernest Cormier
Banister Flight Fletcher
Oliver Hill
Charles Holden
Raymond Hood
Victor Horta
Ely Jacques Kahn
Henry Vaughan Lanchester
Edwin Lutyens
James McKissack
George Val Myer
William van Alen
Wirt C. Rowland
Giles Gilbert Scott
Clifford Strange
Joseph Sunlight
Ralph Walker
Thomas Wallis
Ernest A. Williams
Owen Williams
Further reading
Duncan, Alastair. Art Deco Furniture: The French Designers, Thames and Hudson, 1984. ISBN 0500234124
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