Art Deco Flashcards
When was art deco?
1925-1939
Art deco features
It embraced both hand-crafted and machine production, exclusive works of high art and mass produced products in affordable materials. It responded to the human need for pleasure and escape.
Geometric forms and patterns, bright colours, sharp edges, and the use of expensive materials such as enamel, ivory, bronze and polished stone are well known characteristics of this style. However, the use of chrome & coloured glass also enabled Art Deco designs to be made at low cost.
Where did art deco get its inspiration from?
Geometric forms – trapezoidal, zig-zagged, geometric fan motifs. Sunburst motifs were widely used for many fashion and architectural items.
Simplified sculptural forms of African, Egyptian and Aztec Mexican art. The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 sparked the world’s interest in all that was ancient Egyptian and Art Deco responded with some quite literal interpretations.
Art Deco celebrated the machine age through the use of man-made materials such as aluminium, glass and stainless steel, as well as symmetry and repetition. Architecture celebrated man’s technological achievements in building skyscrapers and ocean liners.
Who was Eileen Gray?
Gray successfully combined lacquer and rare woods, geometric abstraction and Japanese-inspired motifs into her work. She worked as an independent furniture designer and then as an interior decorator. Gray began work on their vacation house, E-1027 in southern France. This was her first major work and blurred the border between architecture and decoration with a highly personalised design to fit in with the lifestyle of the occupants.
