Art Deco is a style of visual arts, architecture, and design that first appeared in France just before World War I and flourished internationally throughout the 1920s (the " Roaring Twenties ") and 1930s. Taking its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, the style was a deliberate turn away from the organic, flowing lines of its predecessor, Art Nouveau . Instead, Art Deco embraced the "machine age," celebrating modernity, luxury, and technological progress with a glamorous aesthetic.

It is characterized by symmetry, bold geometric patterns such as sunbursts, chevrons, and zig-zags, and the use of opulent materials, from exotic woods and ivory to modern chrome and plastic. The style drew from a wide range of influences, including the geometric forms of Cubism and the stylized motifs of ancient Egyptian art. During the Great Depression, its lavishness evolved into the more subdued, aerodynamic curves of Streamline Moderne , but its influence remains prominent in design and popular culture.

Art Deco as an aesthetic was a direct reaction to the previous standard: Art Nouveau (which was popular between the 1890s to 1910s), and eventually overtook the Beaux-Arts and neoclassical stylings that were popular in European and American architecture at the time. Art Deco actually took inspiration from various other previous aesthetics of the time: pre-modern art that could be seen in the Louvre at the time (among other art museums, Russian Constructivism, Italian Futurism, Orphism, Functionalism, Fauvism, Modernism, the recent unearthing of ancient Egyptian artifacts, and so much more). Art Deco itself eventually evolved into the style known as Streamline Moderne .

Art Deco architecture was categorized by the use of geometric shapes, most notably angular ones, ornamented patterns, and details in gold. A common motif seen in buildings during this movement was the use of verticality in constructions, made to emphasize their tall height, prestige, technological advancement, and dramatic lighting at night.

Many examples of Art Deco are still standing to this day, especially in New York City; buildings such as the Chrysler Building, the American Radiator Building, the General Electric Building, the Comcast Building, and the Empire State Building. Other examples of Art Deco architecture include the Lincoln Theater in Miami, Florida, the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, and the Robert Stanton Theater at King City High School in King City, California.

While Art Deco is primarily renowned as an architectural style, there was a definite painting style associated with the Art Deco aesthetic. The style's simplified forms and strong colors were particularly suited to the graphic arts. The most noteworthy artists associated with it were Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (commonly known as Cassandre ), Jean Dupas, Tamara de Lempicka, Reginald Marsh, Rockwell Kent, and Diego Rivera. However, the aesthetic tended to lend itself much better to sculpture, as many statues were created in the Art Deco style. Demêtre Chiparus was a Romanian sculptor who worked in Paris, and used ivory brought by Belgian merchants from Congo to make the hands and faces of his figures. Many of his artworks are polychrome (in multiple colors), standing on marble pedestals.

The Art Deco period was also one when graphic design and poster illustration flourished. The posters of Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (commonly known as Cassandre ) are very iconic. They are characterized by flat shapes, simplified icons, limited colors, and gradients. He paid careful attention to alignment and rhythm, using modular grids and combining basic shapes. His posters that present vehicles, like cruise liners or trains, are very expressive, having a highly monolithic look.

Exotic woods and luxury materials like mahogany, ebony, shagreen (a type of sharkskin), ivory and mother-of-pearl were used in Art Deco furniture. Many of the famous designers of this style prized high-quality materials, creating pieces and entire interiors that were the epitome of luxury. One of the leading designers was furniture maker Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann. Its reliance on private patrons, most notably from the French couturiers, Paul Poiret and Jacques Doucet, and its incompatibility with industrialized production ensured that Art Deco was a relatively short-lived style. From the beginning, the movement spanned work of designers like René Lalique, Jean Dunand, and Edgar-William Brandt, but also the creations of modernists like Eileen Gray, Pierre Chareau and Robert Mallet-Stevens.

The period between the two World Wars was also a time of technological innovation, thanks to advances in plastics, stainless steel, and aluminum. Items like radios, clocks, combs, and even door handles were made of Bakelite an early plastic that could be molded easily and inexpensively. Affordable objects like these brought Art Deco to many homes.

Much of the furniture was luxurious, had sinuous shapes and was produced using rich materials. Some of the most iconic pieces were produced by Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, a leading French post-WW1 cabinet maker. His creations are considered to be among the finest examples of Art Deco . They were very glossy, often with a ebony and ivory color contrast. In comparison with the Art Deco furniture that looked luxurious and fluid, some pieces were sturdy and pared-back, with angular, Modernist shapes. Much of this geometric kind of Art Deco furniture was for the US market and was mass-produced.

Another area were impressive design were produced during the 1920s and 1930s was the one of clocks. Multiple sets made to be put on mantels were produced. They are often made up of marble and/or onyx with warm colors, and usually have a bronze figurine at the top of the clock. Multiple designers, like Jean Goulden, produced Cubist -inspired pieces, that featured angular geometric shapes. Another influence of Cubism was how some clocks have square, octagonal or even triangular dials. The fonts used for the dial numbers were also Art Deco , so the entire clock looked very harmonious and homogenous.

Glass from the same period was technically very creative and expressive. Shiny effects were achieved by working with layers of glass. Here, fluid motifs taken from Art Nouveau were present, together with new, bold and modern shapes. René Lalique and the Daum bothers (aka Frères Daum) produced some of the most luxurious glass pieces.

During the 1930s, Art Deco became more popular, due to its associations with the dreamlike Hollywood lifestyle and, as a result, was eventually fully embraced by mainstream manufacturers. Because of this, kitschy mass produced Art Deco-like objects started to appear. Their quality was in contrast with the one of luxurious designs from the 1920s.

Art Deco fashion followed a lot of the same rules laid out for its art and architecture, introducing lots of geometric shapes, long lines, and exaggerated accessories. The fashion included lots of evening gowns, skirts, hats, and bias-cut dresses. For women, the Art Deco period was the time of the "flapper"; a woman who bobbed their hair, listened to jazz music, wore excessive make-up, drank, smoked, drove, had casual sex, and generally went against social norms at the time.

Jazz is the music genre most associated with the 1920s and the 1930s. However, songs of Maurice Chevalier, like Paris sera toujours Paris and Valentine , or Josephine Baker's Dis moi Josephine and La Petite Tonkinoise , encapsulate the vibe of Art Deco Paris. The creations of Busby Berkeley also capture this vibe.

The style appeared in the 1910s, before WW1. At the beginning, it was not well defined, and so it was influenced by the movements popular at the time, mainly Neoclassicism , Neo-Rococo and the Neo-Louis XVI style. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris has a small collection of furniture of this type.

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen, opened in November 1922, sparked a wave of Egyptomania. Because of this, there are some examples of 1920s and 1930s Art Deco mixed with Neo-Egyptian motifs. The aesthetic of Ancient Egypt mixed well with Art Deco due to the fact that both use simplified motifs, geometric shapes, symmetry and repetition. The combinations of intense colors found in Ancient Egyptian jewelry were reused in the 1920s.

As time passed, Art Deco became increasingly more simplified and with less ornamentation, branching out to become Streamline Moderne in the 1930s. " Streamlining " involves the contouring of objects into rounded, smoothly finished and often teardrop-shaped aerodynamic shapes so as to reduce their drag and resistance to motion through air. Streamlining was first used in the early 20th century to improve the performance of aircrafts, locomotives and automobiles when moving with high speeds. However, by the 1930s, industrial designers were using streamlining less for functional reasons, and more for making household objects look sleeker and more appealing to the consumer. Using clay models, designers created sleek, modern-looking shapes for a whole range of products, including fridges, vacuum cleaners, radios, cameras and phones. Besides design, streamline forms are also present in the architecture of the 1930s. This made buildings look like huge appliances. A key feature of them are the rounded corners, whether the balconies have them, or the facade is rounded due to the building being at the intersection of two streets. Many buildings in Miami Beach were designed in this style, which continued until the New York World's Fair in 1939.

The Art Deco period ended more or less when WW2 started. However, its decline was not linked with the war. There was a very smooth and gradual transition from the ornamented Art Deco designs from the late 1910s and the 1920s, to the minimalist designs of Bauhaus and Streamline Moderne . The designs of the latter are often simplistic, featuring round corners, giving hints of the trends of the following decades. This is because Modernists wanted to get rid of ornamentation and produce objects and buildings made up of basic shapes, that looked futuristic and machine made. However, experimental and creative shapes can be found in post-Art Deco design and architecture, particularly in Mid-Century Modern and Brutalism .