Art Auctions: Art Deco

In the field of modern art, art deco plays a large anddeco includes furniture, metalwork, clocks, glasswork
impressively lavish role. The strong colors andand screens as well as paintings and other fine art
sweeping curves lend art deco the trademarktypes of pieces.
boldness that expressed much of the progress andThe art deco style is known for its lavishness and
modern advances of the twentieth century. Artepicurean flairs that are attributed to the austerity of
auctions around the world still move many art decoculture brought about by World War I. Strong
pieces of various kinds. If you're interested inpatterns and bold colors and shapes were used, as
collecting art deco, there are many art auctions bothwere many particular motifs used universally.
online and off that deal primarily in art deco.For example, the sunburst motif was used in
In the twentieth century the decorative artseverything from the Radio City Music Hall auditorium,
converged in what is known as the art decoimages of ladies' shoes, the spire of the Chrysler
movement, which grew to influence architecture,Building and several other pieces of art, architecture
fashion, the visual arts as well as design. The termand design. Other ubiquitous motifs found in art deco
'art deco' was derived from a World's Fair held inwere stepped forms, the zigzag, chevron patterns
Paris, France, called the Exposition Internationale desand sweeping curves.
Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in the yearIn the West, art deco lost its steam around the
1925.Second World War, but continued to be used all the
Though the movement and term comes from theway into the 1960s in colonial countries such as India,
Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs etwhere it served as a gateway to Modernism. Then in
Industriels Modernes, the term was not widely usedthe 1980s art deco made a comeback in graphic
until the late 1960s. Especially pre- World War Idesign. Art deco's association with 1930s film noir led
Europe influenced the art deco movement, thoughto its use in both fashion and jewelry ads.
many cultures influenced and were influenced by thisToday art deco is revered by many and dismissed as
art movement. Much of the world was experiencingold news and overly gaudy by others. Though it
similar shifts in modern technological advances.undoubtedly played a major role in art history, as
For the most part, the art deco movement waswith most art, individual taste frames the individual's
brought about and inspired by the rapid advances ofinterpretation and like or dislike of art deco styles.
technological and social facets of the early twentiethArt deco is one of the most well known art
century. As culture responded to these increasinglymovements. This is mostly due to its wide base of
changing times, the art deco movement was aninfluences and influenced art forms and cultures. Since
outgrowth of these modern phenomena.much of the world was experiencing many of the
Art deco is considered generally to be an eclecticsame advances in technology and mass production,
type of decorative modernism that was influencedmany of the same ideas and symbols were relevant
by a variety of artists and particular art forms. Artin various parts of the world.