Week 7: Art Deco and Industrial Design

Mundelein College Entrance, Loyola, University, Chicago. c. 1929
Designed by Nairne Fisher

Art Decoratifs, commonly known as Art Deco was a sub-division of Modernism that became popular in France when the French Government sponsored a world's fair to support French Decorative arts as they believed Germany was leading them in that area. It lasted briefly between the two World Wars from 1920's-1939.

The movement stemmed from the Decorators who valued labor-intensive craftsmanship, an elite market and were not very concerned with the social theory, unlike the Functionalists who were geared towards function, simplicity, mass production and design for the masses. The decorators started a
new focus on luxurious interior designs after they became tired of just functional designs. The movement was one of mood, celebration, and liberation.

Etat Cabinet by Emile-Jacques-Ruhlmann. 1922
Medium: Macassar ebony, amaranth, ivory, oak,
lumber-core plywood, poplar, chestnut, mahogany, silvered brass

Mundelein College Building

Ironically, a group of objects in the Art Deco period that were made to appeal the elite appealed the masses while the opossite was the case for some modernist projects that intended to appeal thre masses but instead, appealed the elite.

Although there are buildings from the Art Deco period, Art Deco, like Art Nouveau, had the most concentration and it's finest works on interiors, furniture, and other design objects and this makes it unique.

Chrysler Building, New York City,
 by William Van Alen
 completed 1930

Art Deco traveled really quickly from France to the United States where it was very popular and other areas like Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia, which made it become an international phenomenon. 

Pivolo Aperitif Advertisement
by A.M. Cassandre, 1925

There were two types of Art Deco: The more feminine kind which was elegant with a smaller scale and superb craftsmanship and the more masculine kind based on machines as well as the use of chrome and plastic. General elements of the style included high-quality exotic design, hand crafted patterns, geometric designs, ivory inlay in furniture, decorative glass, and popular laquered wood.

Pivolo Aperitif Advertisement (1925) by A.M. CassandreIndustrial design blended Art Deco ornamentation with slick forms of streamlining. Industrial designers solved problems of design, usage, and production by studying the interaction of humans with devices and environments. It was characterized by design interested in industrial production, less emphasis on aesthetic goals and more on commercial goals of increased sales and new technology. 

Current Applications:

Art Deco inspired Interior

Charlotte 4 Drawer Accent Chest by Heather Ann Creations

One Step Further...

Rivoli. Small serving table.
Made of Polished chromium-plated tubular steel frame.
Top in high gloss lacquer.

Eileen Gray was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland in 1878. She spent her childhood in London and took up painting in Slade in 1898 and later had an apprenticeship in a London lacquer workshop. 

The experience she gained in working in lacquer influenced her profoundly when she moved to Paris in 1902. She furthered her training in lacquer work and cabinet making and became one of the leading designers of the lacquered screens and decorative panels.

Roquebrune, made of pure wool.
Hand-knotted at 80 knots per square inch.

In 1922 she opened her own gallery, Jean Désert, in Rue du FauboUrg Saint Honoré and during the 1920s and 1930s, she became one of the leading exponents of the revolutionary new theories of design and construction. She worked closely with modernist designers including Le Corbusier and J.J.P Oud. Her interior design schemes of the period seem both modern and stylish even today.

Brick Screen. Made of Stainless steel rod framework,
Polished solid bronze shims, spacers and end caps,
coated with clear varnish.
Panels with high-gloss handcrafted lacquer finish

She was encouraged by Le Corbusier and J.J.P Oud and designed two houses considered to be the purest examples of domestic architecture and interior design of her time in the Alpes Maritimes, one at Roquebrune which was built from 1926-1929, and the other at Castellar, built from 1932-1934. Both houses are considered to be among the purest examples of domestic architecture and interior design of the period.

After the war, she continued to work as a designer on both major projects like the Cultural and Social Centre, which occupied her from 1946-1949, and on a number of smaller furniture designs which continued till she died in Paris in 1976.