nourishing obscurity

Queens, NY

Art Deco was an opulent style, and its lavishness is attributed to reaction to the forced austerity imposed by World War I, making use of many distinctive styles, but one of the most significant of its features was its dependence upon a range of ornaments and motifs.

Stacy Reed

The style is said to have reflected the tensions in the cultural politics of its day, with eclecticism having been one of its defining features.  In the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the distinctive style of Art Deco was shaped by ‘all the nervous energy stored up and expended in the War’.

Stained glass UK

Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer and inlaid wood. Exotic materials such as sharkskin (shagreen), and zebra skin were also in evidence. The bold use of stepped forms and sweeping curves, chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif are typical of Art Deco.

Miami Beach

A parallel movement called Streamline Moderne, or simply Streamline, followed close behind. Streamline was influenced by the modern aerodynamic designs, including those emerging from advancing technologies in aviation, ballistics, and other fields requiring high velocity. The attractive shapes resulting from scientifically applied aerodynamic principles were enthusiastically adopted within Art Deco, applying streamlining techniques to other useful objects in everyday life, such as the automobile.

Prague hotel

Internationalism rose about that time and the ideals of the style are commonly summed up in four slogans: ornament is a crime, truth to materials, form follows function, and Le Corbusier’s description of houses as “machines for living”.  Three principles were the expression of volume rather than mass, balance rather than preconceived symmetry and the expulsion of applied ornament.

1920s postcard

It’s not such a large leap to Soviet Socialist Realism and you only need go into the Moscow Underground [until 2003] to see some fine examples, also in architecture around the nation.  Clearly what they represented was anathema to us [see the Reds post earlier] but the style was nothing if not dynamic and I quite like it.

Filed under: Politics & economics