08 GERRIT RIETVELD, RIETVELD SCHRÖDER HOUSE 09 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, HOLLYHOCK (BARNSDALL) HOUSE 01 LÉON BAKST, BOEOTIAN 10 RAYMOND HOOD AND COSTUME DESIGN FOR THE ANDRÉ FOUILHOUX, AMERI- BALLET NARCISSE CAN RADIATOR BUILDING 02 PABLO PICASSO, CHINESE 05 ARMAND-ALBERT RATEAU, 03 RENÉ LALIQUE, DEUX PAONS 25 WILLIAM VAN ALEN, CONJURER COSTUME FOR CHAISE LONGUE (TWO PEACOCKS) CHRYSLER BUILDING THE BALLET PARADE 12 ANDRÉ GROULT, CHIFFON- 15 OSWALD HAERDTL, 31 MAURICE PICAUD (PICO), 06 JEANNE LANVIN, EVENING NIER AMBASSADOR SERVICE LA DANSE ENSEMBLE WINE DECANTER 13 ÉMILE-JACQUES RUHL- 42 ROBERT ATKINSON, 27 RAYMOND TEMPLIER, MANN, ÉTAT CABINET 30 ENOCH BOULTON, JAZZ GINGER RECEPTION HALL OF THE BRACELET WITH BROOCH JAR AND COVER DAILY EXPRESS BUILDING 28 EILEEN GRAY, SCREEN 43 CHARLES JAMES, 44 JEAN DUPAS, THE CHARIOT 47 GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE WEDDING DRESS 34 JEAN DUNAND, LA FÔRET OF POSEIDON ARCHITECTUREFASHION & JEWELRY FURNITURE GLASS & CERAMICS OVERVIEW 07 SONIA DELAUNAY, FABRIC DESIGN NO. 6 14 JEAN THÉODORE DUPAS, 17 A.M. CASSANDRE, LES PERRUCHES L’INTRANSIGEANT 21 PAUL COLIN, PLATE 35 FROM LE 19 HEINZ SCHULZ-NEUDAMM, TUMULTE NOIR METROPOLIS 22 TAMARA DE LEMPICKA, JEUNE 20 MADAME D’ORA, FILLE AUX GANTS JOSEPHINE BAKER 24 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, RADIATOR 23 EDWARD STEICHEN, FRED BUILDING—NIGHT, NEW YORK ASTAIRE 11 EDGAR BRANDT, THE OASIS 29 ERTÉ, STAGE DESIGN FOR 32 EDUARDO GARCÍA BENITO FOLDING SCREEN “VICTOR HERBERT” CANDEE 16 FRANZ HAGENAUER, MIRROR 33 BERNARD BOUTET DE MONVEL, 36 RENÉ VINCENT, BUGATTI 04 FRANÇOIS POMPON, WITH WOMAN’S HEAD THE MAHARAJA OF INDORE IN OURS BLANC OCCIDENTAL DRESS 38 JOHANN VON STEIN, ROTTER- 26 JACQUES LE CHEVALLIER, DAMSCHE LLOYD 18 DEMETRE CHIPARUS, LAMP 35 HERMAN SACHS, SPIRIT (OR FINALE SPEED) OF TRANSPORTATION 40 PIERRE FIX-MASSEAU, 46 GORDON MILLER BUEHRIG, EXACTITUDE 39 PAUL LANDOWSKI & AUBURN 851 SC BOATTAIL 37 EUGÈNE-ROBERT POUGHÉON, HECTOR DA SILVA COSTA, SPEEDSTER LE SERPENT 49 JOSEPH BINDER, NEW YORK CRISTO REDENTOR WORLD’S FAIR 48 JEAN PUIFORCAT, SOUP 41 TAMARA DE LEMPICKA, ADAM 45 PAUL MANSHIP, TUREEN AND EVE 50 ERTÉ, AUTUMN SONG PROMETHEUS METAL WORK PAINTING PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHY SCULPTURE ART DECO 50 WORKS OF ART YOU SHOULD KNOW Lynn Federle Orr PRESTEL Munich · London · New York CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 14 JEAN THÉODORE DUPAS Les Perruches (The Parakeets) 50 01 LÉON BAKST Costume for a Boeotian 24 15 OSWALD HARRDTL Ambassador Service 02 PABLO PICASSO Wine Decanter 52 Chinese Conjurer Costume 26 16 FRANZ HAGENAUER 03 RENÉ LALIQUE Mirror with Woman’s Head 54 Deux Paons (Two Peacocks) 28 17 A.M. CASSANDRE 04 FRANÇOIS POMPON L’Intransigeant 56 Ours blanc (Polar Bear) 30 18 DEMETRE CHIPARUS 05 ARMAND-ALBERT RATEAU Finale 58 Chaise Longue 32 19 HEINZ SCHULZ-NEUDAMM 06 JEANNE LANVIN Metropolis 60 Evening Ensemble 34 20 MADAME D’ORA 07 SONIA DELAUNAY Josephine Baker 62 Fabric Design No. 6 36 21 PAUL COLIN 08 GERRIT RIETVELD Plate 35 from Le Tumulte noir 64 Rietveld Schröder House 38 22 TAMARA DE LEMPICKA 09 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT Jeune fi lle aux gants Hollyhock House 40 (Young Woman with Gloves) 66 10 RAYMOND HOOD & ANDRÉ FOUILHOUX 23 EDWARD STEICHEN American Radiator Building 42 Fred Astaire 68 11 EDGAR BRANDT 24 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE The Oasis Folding Screen 44 Radiator Building—Night, New York 70 12 ANDRÉ GROULT 25 WILLIAM VAN ALEN Chiffonnier 46 Chrysler Building 72 13 ÉMILE-JACQUES RUHLMANN 26 JACQUES LE CHEVALLIER État Cabinet 48 Lamp 74 27 RAYMOND TEMPLIER 40 PIERRE FIX-MASSEAU Bracelet with Brooch 76 Exactitude 102 28 EILEEN GRAY 41 TAMARA DE LEMPICKA Folding Screen 78 Adam and Eve 104 29 ERTÉ 42 ROBERT ATKINSON Stage Design for “Victor Herbert” 80 Reception Hall of the Daily Express Building 106 30 ENOCH BOULTON 43 CHARLES JAMES Jazz Ginger Jar and Cover 82 Wedding Dress 108 31 MAURICE PICAUD (PICO) 44 JEAN THÉODORE DUPAS La Danse 84 The Chariot of Poseidon 110 32 EDUARDO GARCÍA BENITO 45 PAUL MANSHIP Candee 86 Prometheus 112 33 BERNARD BOUTET DE MONVEL 46 GORDON MILLER BUEHRIG The Maharaja of Indore Auburn 851 SC Boattail Speedster 114 in Occidental Dress 88 47 GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE 116 34 JEAN DUNAND La Fôret (The Forest, or Wild Animals 48 JEAN PUIFORCAT at a Watering Place) 90 Soup Tureen 118 35 HERMAN SACHS 49 JOSEPH BINDER Spirit (or Speed) of Transportation 92 New York World’s Fair/The World of Tomorrow 120 36 RENÉ VINCENT 50 ERTÉ Bugatti 94 Autumn Song, from The Twenties Remembered Suite 122 37 EUGÈNE-ROBERT POUGHÉON Le Serpent 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY / PHOTO CREDITS 124 38 JOHANN VON STEIN Rotterdamsche Lloyd 98 39 PAUL LANDOWSKI Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) 100 8 INTRODUCTION straction, geometric and linear patterning, and restrained ornamentation. In their in- herent shapes and surface decoration, Art Deco creations of all types embraced the modern age—the machine age—and its precisionist vocabulary. Although perhaps partly a thin-skinned bravura to mask the insecurities of the mo- ment, new attitudes also prevailed. After the trauma of recent war, including the fi nancial and physical ruin of much of Eu- Fig. 1 George Barbier, Au revoir, 1920, pochoir, in George rope, novel life-affi rming experiences were Barbier, Le bonheur du jours, ou, Les graces à la mode, Paris: the order of the day. Fun, if not joy, was Meynial, 1920, The British Library, London to be grabbed whenever the opportunity Say “Art Deco” and a succession of imag- presented itself (fi g. 1), at the nightclub, es—a sassy long-legged fl apper, a taper- racetrack, or tennis court; life was to be ing skyscraper, a windswept roadster, the savored in every cigarette, cocktail, or zigzag pattern on a cigarette case—fl ash outing in a fast car. Cultivated relentlessly, by like frames of a movie. They seem unre- glamour pervaded one’s personal style; the lated, yet each is in sync with an era that “high” arts of painting and sculpture, ar- exuded glamour, pleasure, and escape. chitecture and architectural decor, unique Evocative of a unique historical moment, one-of-a-kind decorative objects, and Art Deco—as it is now called—embod- even “lowbrow” mass-produced domestic ies the passion for modernity that ani- wares. In all realms, the soft curvilinear mated the years between World War I and forms and baroque extravagances of Art World War II (1918–39). Western society Nouveau—already discredited among experienced rapidly shifting social and artists and elite collectors before the economic fortunes that precipitated incom- war—were dismissed as decadent and parable structural, behavioral, and material old-fashioned. In its place a new mode of changes: with dizzying speed nearly every personal and artistic expression seemed facet of life was recast. Mechanization in keeping with the postwar mood. And an intruded everywhere, and the dynamic infectious sense of new beginnings left its forms and rhythms of factory machinery— visual imprint on everything. from the repetitive geometries of gears Women liberated out of necessity during to the streamlined volumes of the drive- the war years refused at war’s end to re- shaft—imbedded themselves in the public turn to the status quo. Standing in for men imagination. And a new aesthetic language away at the front, women had worked jobs emerged, characterized by a love for ab- requiring ease of movement, resulting in 10 less restrictive clothing with bothersome hair tucked under a cap and/or cut short. The assertive young woman of the Roar- ing Twenties appeared in her classic shift and bobbed hairdo, sporting ideas about limitless possibilities. Pert and stylish, she featured in innumerable advertising campaigns. She was immortalized as the tomboy in Victor Margueritte’s hit novel La Garçonne (The Bachelor Girl, 1922) and as the fl apper heroine of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925). Convention-break- ing stage icons, such as African American Josephine Baker, scandalized and beguiled society. And once getting into the act, Hollywood promoted the modern woman in fi lms distributed worldwide. Whether a “classy dame” played by Claudette Colbert or Greta Garbo’s exotic dancer-turned- Fig. 2 Georges Lepape, Cover of British Vogue, January 1925, spy Mata Hari, the beautiful, leggy (and photo courtesy of the National Art Library, London mouthy) movie star became a cultural idol. Coalescing fi rst in Paris between 1908 and Howard Carter’s sensational 1922 discov- 1912, this new modern style took as its ery of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen’s starting point the then current mechanized tomb fueled a worldwide craze for things world. But designers also mined many Egyptian. Concurrently, contemporary art other sources, most importantly historic with its succession of avant-garde isms— European styles. At the same time, inter- Cubism, Fauvism, Constructivism, Futurism, national exhibitions introduced an expand- Neoplasticism—provided a wellspring of ing range of enticingly “exotic” (to use a motifs for the innovative designer. contemporary term) non-Western design Among other formative experiences was traditions. Inspiration came from newly the 1909 arrival of Russian impresario discovered (or rediscovered) cultures, as Sergei Diaghilev and his spectacular bal- diverse in time and place as ancient Meso- let troupe. Innovative and edgy, the pro- america and African tribal arts. Other Af- ductions of the Ballets Russes electrifi ed rican infl ections, derived from the musical Paris’s creative community. Diaghilev’s asymmetries and spirit of American Jazz, company served as an incubator, fostering soaked into the visual rhythms of decora- innovation in all the performing arts. Not tive designs. Photographs reconstructing satisfi ed with the conventional in any fi eld, 11.