43 Facts About Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials.

Art Deco is one of the first truly international styles, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the strictly functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed.

Art Deco Architecture noted that the term was already being used by art dealers, and cites The Times and an essay named Les Arts Deco in Elle magazine as examples.

Emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, who until late in the 19th century were considered simply as artisans.

Art Deco Architecture's Stoclet Palace, in Brussels, was a prototype of the Art Deco style, featuring geometric volumes, symmetry, straight lines, concrete covered with marble plaques, finely-sculpted ornament, and lavish interiors, including mosaic friezes by Gustav Klimt.

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At its birth between 1910 and 1914, Art Deco was an explosion of colours, featuring bright and often clashing hues, frequently in floral designs, presented in furniture upholstery, carpets, screens, wallpaper and fabrics.

Vivid hues of Art Deco came from many sources, including the exotic set designs by Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, which caused a sensation in Paris just before World War I Some of the colours were inspired by the earlier Fauvism movement led by Henri Matisse; others by the Orphism of painters such as Sonia Delaunay; others by the movement known as Les Nabis, and in the work of symbolist painter Odilon Redon, who designed fireplace screens and other decorative objects.

Art Deco was not a single style, but a collection of different and sometimes contradictory styles.

In 1905 Eugene Grasset wrote and published Methode de Composition Ornementale, Elements Rectilignes, in which he systematically explored the decorative aspects of geometric elements, forms, motifs and their variations, in contrast with the undulating Art Nouveau style of Hector Guimard, so popular in Paris a few years earlier.

Art Deco used the clashing colours and designs of Fauvism, notably in the work of Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, inspired the designs of art deco textiles, wallpaper, and painted ceramics.

Art Deco was associated with both luxury and modernity; it combined very expensive materials and exquisite craftsmanship put into modernistic forms.

Good example of the luxury style of Art Deco is the boudoir of the fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin, designed by Armand-Albert Rateau made between 1922 and 1925.

Art Deco Architecture's bathroom had a tub and washstand made of sienna marble, with a wall of carved stucco and bronze fittings.

Art Deco Architecture continues to inspire designers, and is often used in contemporary fashion, jewellery, and toiletries.

Art Deco Architecture's murals were prominent in the decor of the French ocean liner SS Normandie.

Art Deco Architecture's work was purely decorative, designed as a background or accompaniment to other elements of the decor.

Art Deco Architecture studied under Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote, and borrowed many elements from their styles.

Art Deco Architecture painted portraits in a realistic, dynamic and colourful Art Deco style.

One of the best-known Art Deco salon sculptors was the Romanian-born Demetre Chiparus, who produced colourful small sculptures of dancers.

Art Deco Architecture worked with bronze, marble, ivory, onyx, gold, alabaster and other precious materials.

Art Deco Architecture was not fully recognised for his artistic accomplishments until the age of 67 at the Salon d'Automne of 1922 with the work Ours blanc, known as The White Bear, now in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

Art Deco style appeared early in the graphic arts, in the years just before World War I It appeared in Paris in the posters and the costume designs of Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, and in the catalogues of the fashion designers Paul Poiret.

The Federal Art Deco Architecture Project hired American artists to create posters to promote tourism and cultural events.

Art Deco elements appeared in engineering projects, including the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge and the intake towers of Hoover Dam.

Between 1910 and 1920, as Art Deco Architecture Nouveau was exhausted, design styles saw a return to tradition, particularly in the work of Paul Iribe.

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Art Deco Architecture first exhibited his works at the 1913 Autumn Salon, then had his own pavilion, the "House of the Rich Collector", at the 1925 Exposition.

Art Deco Architecture used only most rare and expensive materials, including ebony, mahogany, rosewood, ambon and other exotic woods, decorated with inlays of ivory, tortoise shell, mother of pearl, Little pompoms of silk decorated the handles of drawers of the cabinets.

Art Deco Architecture's furniture was based upon 18th-century models, but simplified and reshaped.

Art Deco Architecture introduced the style of lacquered art deco furniture in the late 1920s, and in the late 1930s introduced furniture made of metal with panels of smoked glass.

Art Deco Architecture attacked furniture made only for the rich, and called upon designers to create furniture made with inexpensive materials and modern style, which ordinary people could afford.

Art Deco Architecture designed his own chairs, created to be inexpensive and mass-produced.

Art Deco Architecture used a mixture of traditional and very modern materials, including aluminium, chrome, and bakelite, an early form of plastic.

Ocean liners adopted a style of Art Deco, known in French as the Style Paquebot, or "Ocean Liner Style".

Art Deco forms appeared in the clothing of Paul Poiret, Charles Worth and Jean Patou.

Art Deco Architecture designed clothing cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangular motifs.

Art Deco Architecture's styles offered structural simplicity The corseted look and formal styles of the previous period were abandoned, and fashion became more practical, and streamlined.

Art Deco Architecture had made ventures into glass before World War I, designing bottles for the perfumes of Francois Coty, but he did not begin serious production of art glass until after World War I In 1918, at the age of 58, he bought a large glass works in Combs-la-Ville and began to manufacture both artistic and practical glass objects.

Art Deco Architecture treated glass as a form of sculpture, and created statuettes, vases, bowls, lamps and ornaments.

Art Deco Architecture used demi-crystal rather than lead crystal, which was softer and easier to form, though not as lustrous.

Art Deco Architecture sometimes used coloured glass, but more often used opalescent glass, where part or the whole of the outer surface was stained with a wash.

Art Deco Architecture's work was less subtle but more colourful than that of Lalique.

Art Deco architecture began in Europe, but by 1939 there were examples in large cities on every continent and in almost every country.

In Germany two variations of Art Deco flourished in the 1920s and 30s: The Neue Sachlichkeit style and Expressionist architecture.