Art Deco is a design style that took the world by storm during the 20-year period between the two World Wars. Although it’s hard to find any two art critics who would define Art Deco in the exact same way, there is a broad consensus that the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes not only gave the design style its name, the event was also largely instrumental in spreading its acceptance from the most cosmopolitan urban centers to places like Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
Dan Klein in ArtDeco.com, the website of the Art Deco Society of New York (very cool), wrote –
The clearest hallmark of Art Deco is its geometry, which was largely derived from Cubism. Everything from flowers to the human form became angular. Shapes became bolder and simpler as geometry took over. Subjects that were particularly well suited to this treatment featured frequently and have now come to be called the symbols of Art Deco. The sunburst with its clearly defined circle surrounded by radiating lines is one of them; the ziggurat is another, as is the formalized fountain motif with its arc-shapes.
Other important aspects of Art Deco were streamlining and jazziness. Speed was considered to be one of the great marvels of the twentieth century-‘speed is our God’, wrote the Futurist poet Marinetti-and the sleek lines – imposed by the laws of aerodynamics became more and more a feature of design. A good example is Lalique’s car mascot Victoire or Spirit of the Wind, a moulded sculpture in tinted glass of a maiden with streaming hair set in a frozen geometric pattern of parallel diagonals. Decorators and designers took particular delight in applying these features of Art Deco to recent technological discoveries or improvements. Light-fittings underwent a complete transformation, becoming sculptural, ingenious or streamlined to complement other ideas within a total scheme.