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This year marks the centennial of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, a landmark international design expo held in Paris to celebrate and promote the latest design concepts in architecture, furniture, clothing, jewelry, interiors and an array of related crafts. Exhibits from 20 countries were viewed by 16 million visitors during the expo’s run from April–November 1925 with its most daring ideas quickly spreading around the globe. Art Deco, as the new modern style came to be known, was characterized by bold, symmetrical patterns, elongated forms and solid materials. The look found its way into the movies early on. In films such as Fritz Lang’s science fiction dystopia Metropolis (1927) and the Jazz Age Joan Crawford vehicle Our Dancing Daughters (1928), art directors and costume designers mobilized the streamlined elegance of the Art Deco look to evoke both the optimism and anxiety of the day. Art Deco’s association with wealth and taste became equally linked to the emerging Hollywood studio system and its emphasis on production value as a display of quality (and capital) throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The Archive is pleased to partner with the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles on this special series highlighting the Art Deco look in cinema. Please also check the Art Deco Society’s website for other Art Deco Centennial celebration events!
Series programmed by Margot Gerber, Art Deco Society of Los Angeles and Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm. Notes written by Paul Malcolm.
Special thanks to Margot Gerber, Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.
