Straddling two World Wars and the Great Depression, ushering in the Jazz Age and the era of the automobile and skyscraper, and shaping everything from the Golden Gate Bridge to the humble desk lamp, the story of Art Deco is the story of our modern world.
In its purest forms, it developed from a characteristically French image of luxury and refinement. Later, modernist European and American designers incorporated metal and plastic in styles described as ‘Streamline Moderne’, but which are now called ‘Deco’. Although Paris was the spiritual home of the movement, Art Deco was a truly global style, with designers from every country in Europe and the Americas inspired by a vast international catalogue of artistic and craft traditions.
