Analysis Of The Important Events Influencing The Art Deco Era

The Art Deco era was set in a time period of much turbulence, between the years of 1908 and 1935. The design era did not gain its name until 1968, when Bevis Hillier penned the phrase. With the era being set amongst a financial crisis, two world wars and the additional features that came with them. Whilst some had a long share of the time, they each changed the shape of Art Deco and the lasting effect which it had. These will explore all of these factors and the effects throughout this essay.

In 1925, the Exposition Internationale des ArtsDécoratifs et Industriels Modernes was held. This gave a direction to design movement. Other exposition had been held, but this was the one to give a design style to the era which had been at a loss after World War One. It had originally been scheduled to be held in the 1915, due to the outbreak of World War One, it was postponed until 1925. The aim for this exposition was to show was to market Paris as the place for luxury goods and to establish the French taste. It also enable France to show that they were moving past the trouble of their recent time, onto a “brighter and more optimistic future. Several designs had been working on a variety of designs which were linked through their “Sharply angled and cubist forms, the use of aluminium black lacquer, and glass, and zig zag shapes”. Design inspiration was being linked back to the electricity and to radios, which were being seen to be modern. 16 million people came to view the exposition, it allowed thousands of designers’ designs to be viewed. The US and Germany were two high profile countries who missed the exposition. Due to tensions still being high, Germany made the decision to not attend. Designers in the US didn’t comply with the requirement for designs to be original modern designs, with an emphasis on no historical style.

With the rapid spread of Art Deco style, “German, Italian and British each showed off the Deco idiom in a particular national version”. This enabled to not only continue the spread of Art Deco further, but spread the designers of specific countries to further their exposure. At the end of summer in 1929, an announcement was made by economist Irving Fisher. He stated that “Stock markets have reached what looked like a permanently high plateau”4. While Fisher had a sound reasoning behind his comment with a record high in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it became quickly clear that these predictions were wrong as the bubble burst. As the year continued on, the stock market had crashed. This happened on 24th of October and Irving Fisher’s reputation had been destroyed his reputation and left him broke by early November, after he continued to proclaim that it was only going to be temporary despite the continuous losses. In New York, the companies listed on their Stock Exchange had lost 90 percent of its value.

The great Depression had been sparked and this caused the way the world spending habits to change. Consumerism rose with the need for cheaper pricing. Bookending the Art Deco era was World War One and World War Two. These two Wars were able to help with developing the design eras that proceed them. As the Art Deco period was developing, World War One came to an end. This meant that austerity ended and wealth was being acquired, a desire and want for luxury goods was developing. The end of World War One also introduced the “lost generation”. This name was gained by them living through the period were they were either lost before or during World War Two. They had lost faith in the authority figures who had ignored them and parents who were pushing their own, different agendas. New values and priorities were set, which were against the values of their elders.

At the beginning of World War Two, these decisions were reversed, with the re-introduction of austerity measures. Popularity was never regained, with an “aesthetic of luxury, which is not at least why it failed to survive the Second WorldWar”5. After World War 2, people less desired items which were eccentric as they were seen as a desire that people could no longer be achieved and gave a reminder to a past which they would rather forget. Functionality and practicality instead became the focus of designers. With the rise of the Second World War, came the rise of the Nazi and the large changes that they made in order to benefit their own agenda. The Art Deco era is seen to be linked in a grandeur which were organized such as the way the Nazi used the Olympics games in Berlins similarly to how the Art Deco era interiors became after the desire for them after the conclusion of World War One. On theNazi’s uniform, the influence of Art Deco can be seen. The SS collar shape is as a zig zag, which is a commonly seen pattern “Aztec-stepped shapes and prismatic triangles”.

The mathematical geometric shapes which helped to shape Art Deco and the influence that Aztec shapes were able to give. Uniforms have a flashy and glamorous nature to them. The Nazi’s effect on the Art Deco era was a larger one, with the political effects on The Bauhaus. On the 11th of April 1933, the school was closed. The reasoning given behind this was producing anti-Nazi propaganda in addition to documentation which linked the Bauhaus to a communist party. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, after being interrogated, tried to reopen the school through appealing to the new minister of culture, explain that the school was not political and would keep the school out of politics in order to keep peace there. He was, however, unsuccessful in reopening “the 20th century's greatest school of art”. He marched to the Gestapo headquarters every day for three months. When on the edge of becoming bankrupt, he was given permission to reopen The Bauhaus on the condition that the curriculum was rewritten and two teachers were replaced with teachers who supported the National Socialist ideology. The school was closed quickly after this by Ludwig Miesvan der Rohe.

Through this essay, the four different events within the Art Deco era affected and were affected by it have been discussed. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes showed the world Art Deco by collating designers work. Stock markets crashing changed the way people spent their money. Austerity measures caused by the World Wars changed the design era and shaped the next ones. The Nazi’s took Art Deco influences and added them into history as well as affecting the legacy that it left behind.