ART DECO

The Exposition Internationale

des Arts Dcoratifs et
Industriels Modernes
(International Exposition of
Modern Industrial and Decorative
Arts) was a World's fair held in
Paris, France from April to
October 1925.
The term Art Deco was derived by
shortening the words Arts
Dcoratifs in the title of this
exposition.

The central body of exhibits

seemed to present the
fashionable products of the
luxury market, a signal that,
after the disasters of World
War I, Paris still reigned
supreme in the arts of
design.

This important exhibition gave the name Art Deco to a rich vein of decorative
design across a wide range of applications, from cinemas to ceramics, textiles
to tableware, and graphics to gramophones. The underlying aim of the
landmark 1925 international exhibition in Paristhe center of the
contemporary arts worldwas to re-establish French decorative arts, fashion,
and luxury goods at the forefront of international developments in the field.
There had been increasing concern about the diminishing standing of French
work in design and the decorative arts in the years before the First World War,
with economic and aesthetic competition from German manufacturers and
designers in particular giving increasing cause for comment. During this
period there were a number of proposals to mount an international exhibition
as a means of showing French decorative arts to advantage.

In keeping with the promotion of her national interests, supported by the Ministries of
Commerce and Fine Arts, French manufacturers, decorative artists, craftsmen, and
retailers dominated the 1925 exhibition. The majority of exhibiting nations were
European, although Germany was not invited to participate until it was too late for
her to make a credible contribution. The United States was another notable
absentee, declining on the grounds of having insufficient original designs to exhibit,
although the refusal was more likely to have been for economic reasons than any
real inability to comply with the exhibition regulations that strictly excluded all copies
and imitations of old styles.

The ethos of the 1925 Exposition was

epitomized by the outlook of leading designer of
luxury goods and cabinetmaker Ruhlmann. The
lavish, brightly colored interiors for his Pavilion
of a Collector contained the work of many
leading contemporary French craftsmen,
characterized by a use of expensive materials
and high-quality decorative motifs. His own
furniture designs drew on the traditions of
French craftsmanship but were also infused
with an unmistakably contemporary feel.

Jacques-Emil Ruhlmann
(1879 1933), was a renowned
French designer of furniture and
interiors, epitomizing for many the
glamour of the French Art Deco style
of the 1920s.

In 1919 Ruhlmann founded, with

Pierre Laurent, the company
Ruhlmann et Laurent, specializing in
interior design and producing luxury
home goods that included furniture,
wallpaper and lighting. By this time,
Ruhlmann was making formal
elegant furniture using precious and
exotic woods in combination with
ivory fittings, giving them a classic,
timeless appeal.

Ruhlmann, desk, 1919

Eileen Gray

Eileen Gray was born on 9 August 1878 into an

aristocratic family near Enniscorthy, a market town
in south-eastern Ireland; Grays father, James,
was a painter who encouraged his daughter's
artistic interests. He took his daughter on painting
tours of Italy and Switzerland which encouraged
her independent spirit. In 1898, Gray attended
classes at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she
studied painting. In 1900 her father died and she
went on her first visit to Paris with her mother
where she saw the Exposition Universelle, a world
fair that celebrated the achievements of the past
century. The main style at the fair was Art
Nouveau and Gray was a fan of the work of
Charles Rennie Mackintosh which was on exhibit.
The style she would work in displayed
characteristics of the Art Deco Style. She
developed a design concept she called transat
theme to define her interest in transportation.

Gray,
Villa E. 1027,
1927

In 1924 Gray and Jean Badovici began work on the house E-1027 in
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in southern France (near Monaco) which she was
designing for their own use. The codename stands for the names of the
couple: E for Eileen, 10 for Jean (J is the tenth letter of the alphabet), 2 for
Badovici and 7 for Gray. Rectilinear and flat-roofed with floor-to-ceiling and
ribbon windows and a spiral stairway descending to a guest room, E-1027
was both compact and open. It resembled the decks of an ocean liner and is
considered an excellent example of the Art Deco style. Gray also designed
the furniture as well as collaborating with Badovici on its structure. Her
circular glass E-1027 table and rotund Bibendum armchair were designed for
this villa.

Gray, Villa E. 1027, 1927

Gray, Villa E. 1027, 1927

Villa E. 1027 was a space

designed for Gray to dwell and
work, it was a living/working
machine as she wanted it, a
space which can be constantly
changed such as furniture having
multi-purpose. Eileen loved a
challenge, it is believed that was
why she chose such a difficult
site. She built on existing
structures which anchored the
house, based her house on ship
structures, using forms that were
long and narrow, with many
decks for views and levels for
storage.

Gray, Villa E. 1027, 1927

Gray developed the concept

transat theme to refer to her
references to transportation. Her
furniture designs were intentionally
fabricated so that they could be
easily transported like luggage or
baggage.

Gray, table for Villa E. 1027, 1927

Transat Themes:
This table in tubular steel
is designed to be
lightweight and easy to
move around. It also has
the interesting feature of
having a table top that
can be moved and
adjusted to different
levels.

Gray, table for Villa E. 1027, 1927

Tubular
steel

Chrome
plating

Gray, screen, 1923: the transat theme works itself out here in the movable
panels that can be adjusted and in the way the screen can be relocated and
moved around to function as a room divider.

Gray, Bibendum chair, 1933

Eileen Grays innovative

Bibendum Chair (1933) was
one of the 20th centurys most
recognizable furniture designs.
Its back/arm rest consists of two
semi-circular, padded tubes
encased in soft leather. The
name that Gray chose for the
chair, Bibendum, originates
from the character created by
Michelin to sell tires and is thus
a good example of Grays
borrowing from transportation
references for her transat
theme designs. The Bibendum
Chair was relatively large. The
visible part of the frame of the
Bibendum i.e. the legs, were
made of a polished, chromium
plated, stainless steel tube.

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

William Van Alen (1883-,

1954) was an American
architect, best known as
the architect in charge of
designing New York City's
Chrysler Building (192930).

The Chrysler Building is an Art

Deco skyscraper in New York City,
located on the east side of
Manhattan; it stands 1,047 ft. tall.
It was the world's tallest building
for 11 months before it was
surpassed by the Empire State
Building in 1931. After the
destruction of the World Trade
Center, it was again the secondtallest building in New York City
until December 2007, when the
spire was raised on the 365.8metre (1,200 ft) Bank of America
Tower, pushing the Chrysler
Building into third position.

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

The Chrysler Building was

designed by architect William Van
Alen for a project of Walter P.
Chrysler. When the ground
breaking occurred on September
19, 1928, there was an intense
competition in New York City to
build the world's tallest
skyscraper. Despite a frantic
pace (the building was built at an
average rate of four floors per
week), no workers died during the
construction of this skyscraper

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

Construction commenced
on September 19, 1928. In
total, almost 400,000 rivets
were used and
approximately 3,826,000
bricks were manually laid, to
create the non-load bearing
walls of the skyscraper.

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

Van Alen's original design for the

skyscraper called for a decorative
jewel-like glass crown. It also
featured a base in which the
showroom windows were tripled in
height and topped by twelve
stories with glass-wrapped
corners, creating an impression
that the tower appeared physically
and visually light as if floating on
mid-air.

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

Van Alen obtained permission

for a 56.3-metre (185 ft) long
spire and had it secretly
constructed inside the frame
of the building. The spire was
delivered to the site in 4
different sections. On October
23, 1929, the bottom section
of the spire was hoisted onto
the top of the building's dome
and lowered into the 66th floor
of the building. The other
remaining sections of the spire
were hoisted and riveted to
the first one in sequential
order in just 90 minutes.

The Chrysler Building is also well renowned and recognized for its terraced crown.
Composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen's design of the crown is
constructed into seven concentric members with transitioning setbacks, mounted
up one behind each other. The stainless-steel cladding is ribbed and riveted in a
radiating sunburst pattern with many triangular vaulted windows, transitioning into
smaller segments of the seven narrow setbacks of the facade of the terraced
crown. The entire crown is clad with silvery "Enduro KA-2" metal, an austenitic
stainless steel developed in Germany by Krupp and marketed under the trade
name "Nirosta" (a German acronym for nichtrostender Stahl, meaning "non-rusting
steel").

William van Alen,

Chrysler Building, NYC,
1923

The Chrysler Building is considered a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. The

distinctive ornamentation of the building based on features that were then being
used on Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floor are graced with
eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments; on the 31st floor, the
corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps. The
building is constructed of masonry, with a steel frame, and metal cladding. In
total, the building currently contains 3,862 windows on its faade . The building
was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, NYC, 1923

The bold use of stepped forms and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous,
natural curves of the Art Nouveau), chevron patterns, the ziggurat, the
fountain, and the sunburst motif are typical of Art Deco. Some of these
motifs were ubiquitous for example, sunburst motifs were used in such
varied contexts as ladies' shoes, radiator grilles, the auditorium of the
Radio City Music Hall, and the spire of the Chrysler Building.

Exotic Egypt and Africa both

influenced the emerging styles of
Art Deco. In 1922, archaeologists
discovered and opened the tomb
of the boy king, Tutankhamen and
set off a wave of "Egyptomania," a
"media event" that expanded and
mushroomed into all aspects of
popular culture, producing
sweeping changes and new fads.
Parisian jeweler Pierre Cartier
designed faux Egyptian jewelry
and Maurice Couet created an
Egyptian temple gate clock.

Claudette Colbert starred in

Cleopatra, the Folies
Bergere dancers cavorted
about the stage with
Egyptian style ostrich fans,
George Cole designed a
movie palace with an
Egyptian temple-like facade
decorated with lotus-topped
columns. People named
their dogs "Tut" and danced
to the "Tutankhamen
Rag"...the public
imagination was fired by the
ancient cultures of Egypt..."
not to mention ancient
Babylon, Mesopotamia, and
Mesoamerica.

Donald Deskey,
interior design of the Radio City
Music Hall, 1932
Deskey's geometric Art Deco
designs incorporate glass,
aluminum, chrome, and leather
in the ornament for the theater's
wall coverings, carpet, light
fixtures, and furniture.
Paralleling radiating curves
signify the expansion of light,
electricity, wealth, happiness.
He also uses exotic, expensive
wood veneers to add to the
luxury, glamour.

Miami Beach, Florida,

has a large collection of
Art Deco buildings, with
some thirty blocks of
hotels and apartment
houses dating from the
1920s to the 1940s. In
1979 Miami Beach's Art
Deco Historic District
was listed on the
National Register of
Historic Places. Nearly
all the buildings have
been meticulously
restored and painted in
their original pastel
colors.