— Feature
Before We Were Modern
An exhibition and book on the Art Deco movement suggest a reappraisal of its influence on North American architecture and design.
When it comes to the history of modernism in architecture and design in North America, it’s common to point to the Bauhaus — a style that emphasized functional, minimalist design as the originator of all things modern. A new exhibition, Art Deco — France, North America, at the Cité de l’architecture in Paris, posits an alternate theory, and instead shows how France in the 1920s influenced the architecture, interior design, and lifestyles of North America through the very pivotal and modern Art Deco period.
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (ENSBA) has a history spanning more than 350 years, and trained many of the great artists and architects in Europe. The Beaux Arts style was modeled on classical antiquities, and today is often seen as the antithesis of modern architecture and design. As the Beaux Arts style declined in popularity after World War One, Art Deco emerged as a response to the changing cultural and technological landscape. Some architects and designers who were trained in the Beaux Arts tradition began to incorporate elements of the Art Deco style into their work, blending the grandeur and classical influences of Beaux Arts with the sleekness and modernity of Art Deco.
The influence of modernism in North America can be traced to artistic exchanges that began during the First World War, when American, Canadian, and Mexican soldiers were exposed to architecture in France that was transitioning to Art Deco. After the war, many of the memorials that went up to commemorate those who lost their lives were designed in the new style, and many of the soldiers began to study at ENSBA in Paris, the American Training Center of Art in Meudon, and the American School of Fontainebleau. These North American architects and artists returned home and began to build and furnish the new Art Deco buildings of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico, and Montréal.
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925 had a seminal impact and was designed by the French government to highlight the new style moderne—Art Deco — of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewelry, and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. When it opened, 150 pavilions and galleries presented the work of 20,000 people. Writing in 1926, the architect Frantz Jourdain concluded that it was a well-deserved success: “So it took the 1925 Exhibition to win the public over to twentieth-century art? This triumph, so laboriously earned, for the struggle was bitter and long, is largely due to the Group of Modern Architects and the Society of Decorators who were the instigators and, in a manner of speaking, the directors of the sumptuous pageantry that the world will remember forever.”
Magazines, like Condé Nast’s Vogue celebrated French modernity, where the French garçonne gave rise to the American flapper, and the modern women who would revolutionize their times, whereby Art Deco became a new state of mind. Several of the designers in the 1925 exhibition took part in the design of ocean liners, such as the Île-de-France (1926) and the Normandie (1935), which promoted French taste and know-how trans-Atlantically. Beginning in 1926, department stores, such as Macy’s, Stewart and Company, and Wanamaker’s, became huge promoters of the Art Deco lifestyle by organizing traveling exhibitions, an occasion for Art Deco-style interior designers to showcase their creations.
The founding of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in itself established in 1893, became a seminal influence on architectural design in the US. Based on ENSBA in Paris, students received an education in architecture, as well as courses in sculpture, mural painting, and interior decoration. The school also established the Paris Prize, which offered a winning student a two-and-a-half year stay in Europe and direct admission to the ENSBA in Paris. At the same time, a number of French architects would go on to teach at various American universities. For example, Jacques Carlu who designed the Palais de Chaillot near the Eiffel Tower, and the Eaton’s department store in Montréal-taught architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for nine years beginning in 1924. He influenced a number of students who would go on to design Art Deco influenced buildings like the Waldorf Astoria and the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis — the only Art Deco building by a French architect in the US.
By 1926, North American department stores — Eaton’s, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Wanamaker’s, James Oviatt, Cheney Brothers, and Stewart and Company — were all picking up new products and presenting window displays by young French or American designers, such as Jacques Carlu, Raymond Loewy, and Donald Deskey. The modernization of Macy’s, the biggest department store in New York, for example, included elevators with remarkable Art Deco grills, and featured furniture by the likes of Jules Leleu and Paul Follot. Leading industrialists, including the du Pont de Nemours family, Albert C. Barnes, and William Randolph Hearst, commissioned French artists to decorate their homes; and, the editors-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and Diana Vreeland — the emblematic New York columnist and socialite — wore only French fashion and jewelry.
By the 1930s, Art Deco was Americanized, with streamlined modern design taking over from Art Deco, and spreading into the homes of the American middle class. After a devastating hurricane in 1926 in Miami Beach, where everything had to be rebuilt, developers chose to embrace a simplified version of Art Deco, sometimes called “Tropical Deco.” Streamlined design became the popular American style for everything from pencil sharpeners, clocks, and typewriters to staplers, vacuum cleaners, and jukeboxes, designed by Donald Deskey, Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, and the French designer Raymond Loewy.
While the Bauhaus style was focused on simplicity, functionality, and practicality, the Art Deco style focused on luxury, glamour, and visual impact. It ultimately had a lasting impact on the design world and is enjoying a resurgence in design today.
When it comes to the history of modernism in architecture and design in North America, it’s common to point to the Bauhaus — a style that emphasized functional, minimalist design as the originator of all things modern. A new exhibition, Art Deco — France, North America, at the Cité de l’architecture in Paris, posits an alternate theory, and instead shows how France in the 1920s influenced the architecture, interior design, and lifestyles of North America through the very pivotal and modern Art Deco period.
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (ENSBA) has a history spanning more than 350 years, and trained many of the great artists and architects in Europe. The Beaux Arts style was modeled on classical antiquities, and today is often seen as the antithesis of modern architecture and design. As the Beaux Arts style declined in popularity after World War One, Art Deco emerged as a response to the changing cultural and technological landscape. Some architects and designers who were trained in the Beaux Arts tradition began to incorporate elements of the Art Deco style into their work, blending the grandeur and classical influences of Beaux Arts with the sleekness and modernity of Art Deco.
The influence of modernism in North America can be traced to artistic exchanges that began during the First World War, when American, Canadian, and Mexican soldiers were exposed to architecture in France that was transitioning to Art Deco. After the war, many of the memorials that went up to commemorate those who lost their lives were designed in the new style, and many of the soldiers began to study at ENSBA in Paris, the American Training Center of Art in Meudon, and the American School of Fontainebleau. These North American architects and artists returned home and began to build and furnish the new Art Deco buildings of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico, and Montréal.
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925 had a seminal impact and was designed by the French government to highlight the new style moderne—Art Deco — of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewelry, and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. When it opened, 150 pavilions and galleries presented the work of 20,000 people. Writing in 1926, the architect Frantz Jourdain concluded that it was a well-deserved success: “So it took the 1925 Exhibition to win the public over to twentieth-century art? This triumph, so laboriously earned, for the struggle was bitter and long, is largely due to the Group of Modern Architects and the Society of Decorators who were the instigators and, in a manner of speaking, the directors of the sumptuous pageantry that the world will remember forever.”
Magazines, like Condé Nast’s Vogue celebrated French modernity, where the French garçonne gave rise to the American flapper, and the modern women who would revolutionize their times, whereby Art Deco became a new state of mind. Several of the designers in the 1925 exhibition took part in the design of ocean liners, such as the Île-de-France (1926) and the Normandie (1935), which promoted French taste and know-how trans-Atlantically. Beginning in 1926, department stores, such as Macy’s, Stewart and Company, and Wanamaker’s, became huge promoters of the Art Deco lifestyle by organizing traveling exhibitions, an occasion for Art Deco-style interior designers to showcase their creations.
The founding of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in itself established in 1893, became a seminal influence on architectural design in the US. Based on ENSBA in Paris, students received an education in architecture, as well as courses in sculpture, mural painting, and interior decoration. The school also established the Paris Prize, which offered a winning student a two-and-a-half year stay in Europe and direct admission to the ENSBA in Paris. At the same time, a number of French architects would go on to teach at various American universities. For example, Jacques Carlu who designed the Palais de Chaillot near the Eiffel Tower, and the Eaton’s department store in Montréal-taught architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for nine years beginning in 1924. He influenced a number of students who would go on to design Art Deco influenced buildings like the Waldorf Astoria and the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis — the only Art Deco building by a French architect in the US.
By 1926, North American department stores — Eaton’s, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Wanamaker’s, James Oviatt, Cheney Brothers, and Stewart and Company — were all picking up new products and presenting window displays by young French or American designers, such as Jacques Carlu, Raymond Loewy, and Donald Deskey. The modernization of Macy’s, the biggest department store in New York, for example, included elevators with remarkable Art Deco grills, and featured furniture by the likes of Jules Leleu and Paul Follot. Leading industrialists, including the du Pont de Nemours family, Albert C. Barnes, and William Randolph Hearst, commissioned French artists to decorate their homes; and, the editors-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and Diana Vreeland — the emblematic New York columnist and socialite — wore only French fashion and jewelry.
By the 1930s, Art Deco was Americanized, with streamlined modern design taking over from Art Deco, and spreading into the homes of the American middle class. After a devastating hurricane in 1926 in Miami Beach, where everything had to be rebuilt, developers chose to embrace a simplified version of Art Deco, sometimes called “Tropical Deco.” Streamlined design became the popular American style for everything from pencil sharpeners, clocks, and typewriters to staplers, vacuum cleaners, and jukeboxes, designed by Donald Deskey, Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, and the French designer Raymond Loewy.
While the Bauhaus style was focused on simplicity, functionality, and practicality, the Art Deco style focused on luxury, glamour, and visual impact. It ultimately had a lasting impact on the design world and is enjoying a resurgence in design today.
