Art Deco

Originating in the 1920s and 30s, Art Deco took its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art), which was an exhibition held in Paris in 1925. Art deco was seen throughout many mediums including architecture, furniture, pottery, glass and jewelry. Many of the Art Deco designers rejected traditional materials for their work and chose instead to work more unusual materials like ebony, steel, marble and rare, expensive types of wood. Their designs tended to be geometric with clean unfussy lines. Art Deco is widely considered to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism that celebrated the Machine Age through use of man-made materials, repetition, and symmetry but was influenced from a wide range of factors from very different periods. The earliest influences came from the "primitive" arts of Africa, Egypt, and Aztec Mexico and the industrial designs of the machine age/streamline technology such as modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, the ocean liner and the skyscraper. Fractionated, faceted forms of decorative Cubism and Futurism , and crystalline were expressions of the industrial design influences.
Themes in art deco were trapezoidal, zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled shapes and were characterized by materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, terra cotta tile,inlaid wood and the stepped forms, sweeping curves, chevron patterns, and the commonly used sunburst pattern. The art deco became a major part of American design during the Great Depression
because it was practical and had some simplicity, but was still a reminder of the “American Dream” and better times.