Art-Deco
Art Deco is a movement in decorative art and architecture, deriving its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Dcoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925. It was a major style in Europe and the US during the 1930s. It is considered to be eclectic, being influenced by the primitive art of Africa and Egypt, the Russian ballet, animal motifs and forms as well as modern technology such as radio and skyscrapers.
Many of the Art Deco designers rejected traditional materials. Instead they chose working with ebony, steel, marble and rare and expensive types of wood.
Art Deco design is known for its clean geometric lines. This style used in skyscrapers, homes, cinemas, even cruise ships is glamorous, modern and dramatic. Art Deco mixes classical and contemporary elements, including the passionate colors of Fauvist paintings, sensuous fabrics, and exotic artifacts of Egypt, Mexico, Middle and Far East.
American designers streamlined the style with modular and built-in chrome and aluminum furniture, while British designers contributed sleek materials like Bakelite and commercialized motifs like zigzags and chevrons. Art-Deco offers grace and lightness of decor at the same time trying to apprehend the speed and pressure of the approaching century.
Though Art Deco has gradually lost patronage in the West, in colonial countries such as India, it became a gateway for Modernism, and continued to use Art Deco well after, even in the nineteen sixties.
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