Virtual tour

The Deco World

Canopy Bed	Jacket for a women	Michael O'Connell: 'Bacchantes', furnishing fabric

Carried on the winds of commerce and capitalism, Art Deco spread quickly after 1925. A dynamic new age of communications ensured its global reach. As the rich travelled the world in luxury on Art Deco ocean liners, films and magazines transmitted the style to a worldwide audience.

In many parts of the world, Art Deco stood for modernity and the escape from convention. It offered an accessible image of modern life and progress, more fun than competing forms of design such as Modernism. At the same time, designers could adapt Art Deco to convey national or local identities and meanings, using native decorative forms and subject matter.

From Shanghai to Mexico City, Art Deco influenced the design of the cityscape and the homes of the rich. Above all, it became the style of the pleasure palaces of the age - hotels, cocktail bars, night-clubs and cinemas. Everywhere, it came to represent new aspirations and desires, notably the search for youth, glamour, fantasy and fun.

Back to top