Art Deco originated around 1920 in Europe and was a reaction to the applied art of Art Nouveau that lasted from around 1890 to 1920. The style of Art Deco is expressed not only in applied art, but also in architecture, graphic art, visual art, furniture design and industrial design.
The most important characteristic of Art Deco is the geometric, more abstract lines, rich colours and the use of exotic materials such as ivory in visual art, galuchat and tropical veneers in furniture design. Art Deco was a reaction to Art Nouveau, in which nature was depicted as accurately as possible in applied art, such as glass art. The straight lines of Art Deco were also a reaction to the moving, curved lines of Art Nouveau.
History of Art Deco
In 1900, the Art Nouveau World Exhibition was held in Paris, in which Dutch pottery factories, such as Rozenburg and Gouda/Zuid-Holland, also participated with their Art Nouveau pottery. A new movement of artists developed new ideas for the design of applied art and architecture in France, partly under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland, the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, and the Munich Sezession in Germany.
In 1925, the World Exhibition in Paris was entirely devoted to the modern development of applied art: L’Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. The term Art Deco arose as a result of this World Exhibition.
The use of the term Art Deco only took off after 1971 as a result of the exhibition organized by Hillier at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts under the name Art Deco, and the report of it published as a book: The World of Art Deco.