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Art Deco is 100 years old

(96 Posts)
Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 08:57:10

And still looks fresh and modern today.

It is one of my most favourite periods both for the architecture, the art and style. It was the last of the total styles.

Our house built in the 30s reflects this period, with its huge bay windows, rising sun gates, and the new “built in kitchen’. So whilst I have embraced more modern design in the kitchen, bathroom etc, I have retained the art deco style for the living rooms etc.

I love it. I also find the history of that period fascinating. So much of the intellectual thinkers, from Keynes, to Huxley to Picasso to Orwell to Christie to Freud and so much more.

My goodness what a wealth of riches that period produced.

Ilovecheese Fri 14-Nov-25 09:07:54

The Hoover Building!

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:15:19

DeLaWare Pavilion

Eltham.

luluaugust Fri 14-Nov-25 09:17:00

My beautiful yellow and black tea and coffee service. Thank you granny

Lathyrus3 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:17:47

Yes I love the flowing lines of the decor of that period.

And more and more my reading is focused on authors of that era. Such a command of language, such an ability to create mood and ambience in words chosen with care and thought.

I’m a fan.

Casdon Fri 14-Nov-25 09:20:03

Studying the Art Deco period is my winter project this year. I’m particularly into jewellery of the period, and I’ve developed a penchant for stained glass windows. I love it. For anybody who hasn’t seen it, Art That Made Us series on iPlayer is excellent.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:28:07

I love the style of Art Deco. Instantly recognisable isn’t it? Charles Rennie Macintosh a firm favourite.
And yes, authors.
Edith Wharton for one. Superb prose, cracking stories. I think “House of Mirth” is my favourite.

TerriBull Fri 14-Nov-25 09:43:17

I do like Art Deco, I imagine it looked thoroughly modern and almost futuristic when launched, as in the Metropolis poster from the 1920s film, love it. The Hoover building and the De La Warr Pavillion, what a fab name, as already mentioned and the Oxo Tower the restaurant at the top has great views over London. I loved the Chrysler Building and the Empire State when I first visited New York, they're just so iconic. That period very much comes across as the birth of the modern era, throwing off the Victorian/Edwardian age and developing styles that were quite unlike anything that went before.

TerriBull Fri 14-Nov-25 09:48:11

At one time I got the style of Art Nouveau a bit mixed up with Art Deco, but the former is very early 20th century, I do like that style too . I think Art Deco represented sharp linear lines quite different really.

TerriBull Fri 14-Nov-25 09:52:40

Your windows sound wonderful WW, it appears they got to grips with curving glass in the '30s. I always think it's a real shame when people get rid of those iconic features.

Oreo Fri 14-Nov-25 09:54:39

I don’t like anything at all about Art Deco style, architecture or jewellery or pottery, I find it hard and somewhat cold.
Art Nouveau to me is much more preferable, flowing instead of hard lines and in tune with natural forms, nature.Each to their own of course.

Lathyrus3 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:54:57

TerriBull

At one time I got the style of Art Nouveau a bit mixed up with Art Deco, but the former is very early 20th century, I do like that style too . I think Art Deco represented sharp linear lines quite different really.

Oh, I think I might be muddled as well.

Never mind. I like it all.

Granmarderby10 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:56:39

whitewavemark2 you lucky woman I am imagining myself into your living room😊
Their were a lot of individual architect built houses from that era in a prime spot near where I used to live and there’s something about them.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 09:57:03

I also loved the Hollywood style if the period. Think “Top Hat” and all those glorious films with the women in slinky dresses - beautifully styled. The style of the rooms - glorious.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:01:56

Granmarderby10

whitewavemark2 you lucky woman I am imagining myself into your living room😊
Their were a lot of individual architect built houses from that era in a prime spot near where I used to live and there’s something about them.

Yes I’ve tried to copy the Hollywood style in the main living room - so cream carpet and curtains with lamp shades you see in Poirot , and various art deco ornaments. Art deco styled fireplace - I do have an original lamp inherited from a great aunt which is a nude lady sat posed with a glass sun behind her and lighted from behind.

I also love the furniture from that period, but they tend to be rather too big.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:03:52

If it is curly and flowery it is Art Nouveau if straight lines art deco.

Although there are some exceptions

Rosie51 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:05:00

Whitewavemark2 I assume you mean Eltham Palace in your post 09:15? I know it extremely well, it's a lovely example of Art Deco crafted by the Courtaulds. They did a remarkable job marrying the house to the Great Hall.

I love Art Nouveau too, quite different but equally distinctive.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:06:31

The ideas from that period have also been so influential.

Look at Keynes and Freud! The astounding intellectual family if the Huxleys.

IOMGran Fri 14-Nov-25 10:12:57

We visited the Macintosh house in Scotland and it all seemed quite small and some of of was pretty crude. Although I love his designs. We have Archibald Knox here on the Isle of Man, his art is prolific and beautiful.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:18:14

Near us is Charlestown Farmhouse occupied by the Bloomsbury set, and further East is Sissinghurst. I do think as a group they were a tad up themselves, but the creativity was explosive.

Lathyrus3 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:19:47

Whitewavemark2

If it is curly and flowery it is Art Nouveau if straight lines art deco.

Although there are some exceptions

Nouveau?

My front door.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:26:32

My guess would be Art Nouveau. How old is your house, although that would necessarily make any difference. I guess the question is how old is the door.

Maybe it is the “style of” 😊

TerriBull Fri 14-Nov-25 10:38:07

I think architecture reached a zenith in the 30s before it all went tits up and the war came, afterwards architecturally there was nothing much to write home about. I don't like the Brutalist style of the 60s, maybe late 50s?. I know flats in the Barbican for example, typical of that style, are highly sought after, but slabs of concrete as opposed to bricks aren't attractive to me.

Lathyrus lovely door. I think Art Nouveau was inclined to the curly and flowery, Beardsley prints and William Morris so intricate, I do love that style too.

RosieandherMaw Fri 14-Nov-25 10:39:15

Whitewavemark2

Near us is Charlestown Farmhouse occupied by the Bloomsbury set, and further East is Sissinghurst. I do think as a group they were a tad up themselves, but the creativity was explosive.

Do you mean Charleston @*WWm2 ?
Garnett, Clive Bell and Maynard Keynes lived at Charleston for considerable periods; Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry were frequent visitors. Inspired by Italian fresco painting and the Post-Impressionists, the artists decorated the walls, doors and furniture at Charleston

Whitewavemark2 Fri 14-Nov-25 10:46:59

Yes! That’s the one. The church is worth a visit as well as they daubed scenes on the wall.

The wall art to my mind is pretty primitive, but certainly of it’s time.

The garden is interesting.