Art Deco

Art Deco is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that began in Paris in the 1910s, just before World War I, and became popular worldwide from the 1920s into the early 1930s. Its name is short for the French *Arts décoratifs*, meaning "Decorative Arts." The style shaped both the exterior and interior of everything from massive buildings to small items, including clothing, fashion, and jewelry. At its peak, Art Deco stood for luxury, glamour, exuberance, and a strong belief in social and technological progress.

The term "Art Deco" came into use after the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. The style drew from the bold geometric forms of the Vienna Secession and Cubism, and was influenced by the bright colors of Fauvism and the Ballets Russes, as well as exoticized art from China, Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt, and the Maya. At the time, it was also called style moderne, Moderne, modernistic, or style contemporain, and was not seen as a single, uniform style. The movement used rare and expensive materials like ebony and ivory, along with exquisite craftsmanship, while also introducing new materials such as chrome plating, stainless steel, and plastic. Buildings from the 1920s and 1930s in New York, like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, are monuments to the style, and the largest concentration of Art Deco architecture is in Miami Beach, Florida.

During the Great Depression, Art Deco became more subdued. In the 1930s, a sleeker version called Streamline Moderne emerged, with curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces. Though an international style, Art Deco lost its dominance after World War II to the functional, unadorned styles of modern architecture, especially the International Style.

The name "Art Deco" first appeared in print in 1966, in the title of an exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, *Les Années 25 : Art déco, Bauhaus, Stijl, Esprit nouveau*, which covered major styles of the 1920s and 1930s. That same year, a newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in *The Times* used the term to describe the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco became a widely used stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on it, *Art Deco of the 20s and 30s*. He noted that art dealers were already using the term, citing *The Times* (2 November 1966) and an essay in *Elle* magazine (November 1967). In 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, detailed in his book *The World of Art Deco*. Many other labels have been used for Art Deco architecture, including Odeon Style, Liberty style, Style Moderne, Jazz Moderne, Zigzag Moderne, Streamline Moderne, and dozens more.

New materials and technologies, especially reinforced concrete, were key to Art Deco's development. The first concrete house was built in 1853 in the Paris suburbs by François Coignet. In 1877, Joseph Monier introduced reinforcing concrete with a mesh of iron rods. In 1893, Auguste Perret built the first concrete garage in Paris, followed by an apartment building, a house, and in 1913, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. One critic denounced the theatre as the "Zeppelin of Avenue Montaigne," claiming it was Germanic and copied from the Vienna Secession. After that, most Art Deco buildings were made of reinforced concrete, offering greater freedom of form and fewer supporting pillars. Perret also pioneered covering concrete with ceramic tiles for protection and decoration. Architect Le Corbusier learned reinforced concrete while working as a draftsman in Perret's studio. Other new technologies important to Art Deco included cheaper methods for producing plate glass, allowing larger and stronger windows, and mass-producing aluminium.