Art Deco is the popular name for the design movement that flourished from the 1920s through the early 1940s. The style encompasses architecture, fashion, industrial design, fine and decorative art.
While the origins of Art Deco were primarily European, its impact spread all over the globe, finding an enthusiastic home in America. Designers pulled from many ethnic influences including Mayan, Asian, Latin, and Egyptian – particularly after the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1923.
Designers adapted Art Deco to new materials like aluminium, bakelite, fiberglass, and neon to create a streamlined 20th Century look. The style suggests speed, power, and opulence, and includes geometric patterns, streamlined shapes, and heroic human forms. Art Deco expresses a fundamental belief in progress, human improvement, futurism, and the beneficial relationship between man and machine.
Art Deco is a marvelously modern, glamorous, not-so-remote part of American History and well worth preserving.