Chromium-base, enamelled metal and brush-burnished silver Sparton Bluebird Radio, 1928.
Note the minimal design and use of metals that were typically Art Deco.
Now American Art Deco: Designing for the People 1918-1939 investigates this era when the world went through sharp economic, political, social as well as cultural change, particularly in the U.S. From stylish decorative art objects to industrial products, from compelling architecture to modern paintings, the range of works in this exhibition reflect the glamour and optimism of the Roaring Twenties. They abruptly end with the 1929 New York stock market crash. The negative ripple effects of the crash were compounded by devastating erosion, drought and unsustainable farming. Paintings like Grant Wood’s Stone City, Iowa (1930) reflected an idyllic rural life that appealed to isolationist.
With the despair of the 1930s Great Depression, citizens looked for support. Recovery efforts began in 1933 with Pres Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Programme, which included financial reforms and regulations as well as public works projects like building infrastructure and art commissions. Art Deco was very popular.
`Many Americans had access to new designs, but there were also economic and social realities that prevented many from enjoying new fashions in household goods. So the exhibition examines the aspirations and challenges of 1920s-1930s, and watches how designing for the people meant eliminating expensive materials and preferring simplistic shaping.
Frist Museum in Nashville TN, was a perfect choice for the 2021–Jan 2022 exhibition. Built in 1933–34 and financed by the US Treasury Department's Office of Construction, Frist’s lobby has art deco–style coloured marble and stone geometric forms on the floor and walls. It also has cast-aluminium doors and grillwork featuring symbols of local industry. Architecture was one of the most common idioms in which the Art Deco style was utilised in the U.S. The Frist showed iconic structures like Chrysler Building New York, Delano Hotel Miami and Griffith Observatory Los Angeles.
Chrysler Building NY, one of the most iconic Art Deco in the world
15 x 15 x 6”. Kirkland Museum Denver.
Art Deco took its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, in Paris. The Paris exhibition celebrated a new style characterised by geometric ornament, symmetry, stylisation and angularity, which was developing and changing globally. In the U.S, it combined modern style with materials used in new technologies, changing designs from architecture, cars, clothing and radios.
Modernique Clock, 1928.
Chromium-plated, enamelled metal, moulded Bakelite, silver, 8 x 6 x 4”.
Kirkland Museum Denver.
Now American Art Deco: Designing for the People 1918-1939 investigates this era when the world went through sharp economic, political, social as well as cultural change, particularly in the U.S. From stylish decorative art objects to industrial products, from compelling architecture to modern paintings, the range of works in this exhibition reflect the glamour and optimism of the Roaring Twenties. They abruptly end with the 1929 New York stock market crash. The negative ripple effects of the crash were compounded by devastating erosion, drought and unsustainable farming. Paintings like Grant Wood’s Stone City, Iowa (1930) reflected an idyllic rural life that appealed to isolationist.
With the despair of the 1930s Great Depression, citizens looked for support. Recovery efforts began in 1933 with Pres Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Programme, which included financial reforms and regulations as well as public works projects like building infrastructure and art commissions. Art Deco was very popular.
`Many Americans had access to new designs, but there were also economic and social realities that prevented many from enjoying new fashions in household goods. So the exhibition examines the aspirations and challenges of 1920s-1930s, and watches how designing for the people meant eliminating expensive materials and preferring simplistic shaping.
Frist Museum in Nashville TN, was a perfect choice for the 2021–Jan 2022 exhibition. Built in 1933–34 and financed by the US Treasury Department's Office of Construction, Frist’s lobby has art deco–style coloured marble and stone geometric forms on the floor and walls. It also has cast-aluminium doors and grillwork featuring symbols of local industry. Architecture was one of the most common idioms in which the Art Deco style was utilised in the U.S. The Frist showed iconic structures like Chrysler Building New York, Delano Hotel Miami and Griffith Observatory Los Angeles.
1928–1930
Well presented within the Frist’s own Art Deco interior, during the museum’s 20th anniversary year, the exhibition examined an international style that appeared in the U.S: a 1930 Ford Model A; decorative objects arts: furniture, glassware, vases and jewellery. And 140 paintings.
Wichita Art Museum KS will then host the exhibition from Feb-May 2022, presenting 140+ iconic art works: decorative arts, paintings and sculptures that marked this historical moment in American experience. Wichita Art Museum has works from its collection to the exhibition, including Deco paintings. Many other works were borrowed, from a fine 1925 René Lalique glass vase to a 1930 Ford Model A. They will be displayed in vignettes, including jazz music, Hollywood film clips, and custom interactives. Thus it’s easy for visitors to feel they are back in the era of social, political and cultural change.
Hupmobile Hood Ornament, 1936, chrome-plated metal, 6.25”. Yale Uni Art Gallery. Designed by Raymond Loewy with painted highlights and mounted on a custom built Art Deco base.
Electrolux vacuum, 1937. Chrome-plated steel, aluminium, vinyl, rubber, 8 x 23 x 8”, Kirkland Museum Denver. It incorporated the chrome and aluminium metals from the era, plus sleek lines and minimal design.
Well presented within the Frist’s own Art Deco interior, during the museum’s 20th anniversary year, the exhibition examined an international style that appeared in the U.S: a 1930 Ford Model A; decorative objects arts: furniture, glassware, vases and jewellery. And 140 paintings.
Wichita Art Museum KS will then host the exhibition from Feb-May 2022, presenting 140+ iconic art works: decorative arts, paintings and sculptures that marked this historical moment in American experience. Wichita Art Museum has works from its collection to the exhibition, including Deco paintings. Many other works were borrowed, from a fine 1925 René Lalique glass vase to a 1930 Ford Model A. They will be displayed in vignettes, including jazz music, Hollywood film clips, and custom interactives. Thus it’s easy for visitors to feel they are back in the era of social, political and cultural change.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Mo is the third of the travelling presentations, opening in July 2022 until Jan 2023; this museum also wants to examine the inter-war years when Americans embraced a freer, more open society. And enjoyed a more widespread confidence in the American dream. Technological advances and innovations in production and materials enabled buildings to increase in height and more people to travel, enjoy expanded leisure time, and furnish their homes with new objects. Yet in the same era, racial tensions and economic depression further disenfranchised many Americans.
Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver Co loaned objects to the exhibition, along with loans from Fisk University Galleries and Library in Nashville Tenn; Kansas City Museum Mo; Sheldon Museum of Art, Uni of Nebraska in Lincoln; Wichita Art Museum and objects from the Nelson-Atkins and Joslyn collections. Partially supported by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr Catherine Futter Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at Brooklyn Museum, curated the show.
All photo credits: Frist Museum
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22 comments:
Most people like Art Deco, including me. There were some very nice small household items in MoMA, New York.
French Deco mirrors, clocks, compacts, cigarette boxes were beautiful treasures because they were made from 18K gold. Probably "designing for the people" meant using chrome instead.
I remember Deco lectures with pleasure.
You have found us some fine examples of the art deco period. It hasn't become dated over the years just more appreciated I think.
Andrew
we have to ask why so many people still really like Art Deco, 100 years after its first appearance. I think that in a messy and often unhappy world, we can totally trust and understand Deco's clean colours, the geometric shapes and the simple, streamlined look. You don't have to decipher Greek and Roman goddesses, Biblical motifs or dense baroque decoration.
I haven't been to MoMA for ages. But if we ever get past covid, it will be one of my first places to visit.
Student
"Designing for the people" meant two important changes. Firstly, as you say, the magnificent pure gold and silver materials made the early Deco objets d'art expensive and only available to the moneyed class. Ditto the diamonds.
Secondly Deco pieces were rarely mass-produced at the beginning. But to make Deco more available to a wider range of families, mass production became more popular and cheaper.
Fun60
Right! Most art styles emerge, disappear and then many decades later can appear once again, albeit in a somewhat modified form. But somehow Deco avoided being badly dated, as the American Art Deco exhibition is showing.
I think I love Deco as much as my grandmother did.
Have a look at The Star Theatre in Launceston, a beautiful example of commercial Streamline Modernism. Interestingly the theatre opened in the late 1930s but had a short life closing down in the late 1960s. It has in recent times been converted back into a cinema, still Art Deco.
Chrysler building is mind blowing!
I'm very much for Art Deco style with its symmetry, geometry, simple, clean shapes.
I wish the american Art Deco exhibitions of this year, a big success!
Thomas
Perfect timing, thank you :) Even though the Star Theatre is in Launceston and not in the USA, the design, colours and decoration of this theatre are perfect for the "American Art Deco" conversation.
I will add a link to your post.
DUTA
couldn't agree more. There is something so clean and symmetrical about Art Deco's shapes and colours that 1918-39 designs still look very attractive now. I also hope that the American exhibitions are very successful, and that the opening dates are not covid affected.
Hello Hels, I like the early Art Deco objects--they tend to be high quality while providing relief from the highly ornate styles of the preceding eras. Also, Art Deco incorporated a lot of Egyptian Revival, which I admire and which suited the style well. Lately, some debased architecture and interior design has derived from Art Deco, but now the geometric shapes and arches have become inert and lifeless, and the flat surfaces used only to effect cheapness of production. It may have come up before, but look at Cleveland's Lorain-Carnegie Bridge for an Art Deco masterpiece.
--Jim
The Art Deco has, like Impressionism, endured great popularity. Personally, I love both movements but I do agree with Jim, above. It is often debased and vulgar - but not generally. I enjoy the Odeon cinemas and many Art Deco London Underground stations but I also admire many smaller objects such as furniture, lamps and vases.
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s joyfully jejune Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Parnassus
I don't think I have ever seen Cleveland's Lorain-Carnegie Bridge before, or I certainly would have remembered it. The four pairs of Guardians were perfectly designed to represent progress in transportation over time, from the simple past to 1930s modern. This is exactly what Deco did so well!
That prods me to ask another question. On what basis were the three US museums chosen for this travelling exhibition. Frist Museum in Nashville is easily understood; it is a palace of Deco. But Wichita Art Museum and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City might have had a lot of Deco in their own collections.
bazza
Art Deco seemed to have contributed more to spectacularly to architecture than to any other art form. Your examples, Odeon cinemas and some London Underground stations, showed that perfectly. That doesn't mean that Art Deco cigarette lighters or powder compacts weren't beautiful... but they were more limited in their dazzling ability.
I have added the URL for the Como Theatre in Perth, mainly because of the port hole windows :)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-13/como-theatre-art-deco-gem-in-perth-suburbs/6850344
Hi Hels - I enjoy Art Deco and learning more ... so thanks for this informative post. Goldsmiths had a wonderful exhibition in 2013 showing us nearly 300 of these most exquisite little "nécessaires de beauté or minaudières"... I wrote about it in July 2013. I love the Goldsmiths exhibitions ... extraordinary and eye opening.
Art Deco is an amazing movement ... cheers Hilary
Hilary
Thank you. I knew about "Ultra Vanities at Goldsmiths Hall in London: Bejewelled Makeup Boxes from the Age of Glamour" which was your exhibition :) Featuring 200+ bejewelled makeup cases from the 1920s on, the summer exhibition at London's Goldsmiths' Hall epitomised the age of elegance. The objets d'art were beyond exquisite.
https://thecitizensoffashion.com/2013/05/15/ultra-vanities-bejewelled-make-up-boxes-from-the-age-of-glamour/
Bom dia. Obrigado pela maravilhosa matéria. Sempre aprendo com você. Um ótimo domingo.
Luiz
thank you. I think Art Deco would have been very popular in the most progressive parts of Brasil.
Helen:
Enjoyed your post on art deco. The style also worked its way into religious art. There is a small stained glass window in my own parish church built in 1939 that represents the Immaculate Conception of Mary with a distinctive Art Deco look. See attached image.
Art Deco also found its way into the movies in so many ways. Have you ever written about Mona Barrie, an Australian actress who made a splash in Hollywood in the thirties and forties? Her appearance and costumes had an Art Deco look.
Dr Frank
Dr F
Yes indeed. The photos of 1930s film stars were very glamorous and very Deco. Mona Barrie of course, and Carole Lombard, Ida Lupino, Joan Blondell etc etc
http://dividingmoments.blogspot.com/2013/02/?m=0
But I am less sure about small stained church glass windows. Deco was about clean lines, progressiveness, large geometric influences and simplicity. Of course the Immaculate Conception of Mary could have been presented in a Deco form eg
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/455567318548247107/ or
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/67483694405285032/
but I am uncertain about whether the congregants would have approved or not.
I like Art Deco but its lines can be rather sharp, so I much prefer Art Nouveau with its softer, flowing, elegant style.
Viola
you are far from alone. Art Nouveau was seen as 19th century, romantic, floral, feminine, sinuous and traditional. Art Deco was seen as modern, sleek, hard edged and reflecting technical progress. I often think that harsh Deco (1919-30) was a reaction to the uber-romantic Nouveau (1890-1913).
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