How Art Deco Saved American Design
How Art Deco Saved American Design
The classical world reborn.
Modern American culture might be defined by a word: functionality.
But there was a time when it took pride in things that were not simply practical — but beautiful as well.
That period produced some of the most visually astounding architecture, art, cars, and trains the world has ever seen.
Here’s why Art Deco has the power to renew American optimism…
What is Art Deco?
Simply put, it’s a stylistic movement born from the fusion of the classical and modern worlds.
With influences ranging from ancient Greece, Rome, Mesoamerica and East Asia, Art Deco exploded during America’s 20th-century industrial boom. The combination of seemingly disparate elements created a style bursting with energy:
Symmetry
Epic proportions
Decorative details
Geometric designs
Streamlined shapes
Classical-looking figures
Themes of victory, progress, and optimism
An American Ideal
Art Deco was born in Paris at the exposition of Arts Décoratifs. So why did it become the hallmark of America’s 20th century?
The exhibition addressed a growing concern: with industrial production taking over from handmade and locally crafted goods, designers worried that craftsmanship would give way to ugly, mass-produced forms.
Their solution was a style that embraced modern production techniques, but maintained a certain elegance. True to the name, the arts décoratifs added decorative elements to everyday items, from clocks to trains.
These intricate details meshed well with the booming American economy. While skyscrapers and train stations rose in every major city, they weren’t the impersonal monoliths we see today. Careful details like doorknobs and light fixtures kept the titanic scale of Art Deco skyscrapers from being overwhelming — it kept them human.
In America’s age of expansion and optimism, its gigantic buildings could only be reminiscent of the greatness of the classical world, and America didn’t shy away from that comparison.
Opulent, over-the-top, and dazzling, Art Deco positioned America as the new center of Western civilization — a culture that would propel the world to new heights.
Here are some designs that exemplify that golden age…
Victoire, René Lalique (1928)
Lalique took his inspiration from Winged Victory, an exquisite 2nd-century BC sculpture of Nike.
Since the head of the ancient statue was missing, Lalique imagined what it might have looked like. Victoire forgoes the flowing shapes of the original Winged Victory for stark lines. The goddess’s hair flows straight back as if blown by a powerful wind, resembling a wing.
True to Art Deco’s practicality, the sculpture is actually a luxury hood ornament — in fact, it’s still available for purchase today. Lalique’s instinct to complete the ancient statue encapsulates Art Deco: the rebirth of great cultures of old.
30th Street Station, Philadelphia (1933)
Trains and Art Deco go hand in hand. The modern, fast-paced mode of train travel unleashed by industrialization fed right into American “can-do” attitude, and sense of possibility.
Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station might be the pinnacle: a grand concourse of columns, 50-foot windows, and dramatic light fixtures. From the elegant grids on the windows to the coffered ceiling, the design humanizes its epic proportions. A great example of how Art Deco reconciled the industrial and the humane.
Ogden High School (1937)
In contrast to the flat, decentralized designs that would come to dominate American schools, the high school of Ogden, Utah offers an incredible vision of what educational buildings can be.
By 2014, however, the building began to show heavy signs of decay. Even though restoring it cost $30 million more than replacing it, the community refused to tear it down. It was painstakingly restored by the historical techniques of its original designers.
Eagles of the Chrysler Building (1928)
Rome chose the eagle as its symbol to convey courage, wisdom, and power. By following suit, America claimed its role as the next great Western empire.
The Chrysler building eagles are plated in stainless steel with lines reminiscent of sports cars, evoking America’s machine age. It was an innovative way of bringing an ancient symbol into a contemporary moment in American history.
450 Sutter Street, San Francisco (1929)
Branching out from the Greco-Roman world, Art Deco found inspiration in the colossal structures of the Aztec and Mayan empires. This gave rise to a lesser-known Art Deco subtype, the neo-Mayan movement.
450 Sutter Street takes the neo-Mayan and makes with it a skyscraper that feels personal. Instead of flat external walls typical of today’s high-rises, designers added ornamental terracotta blocks that fit between rows of windows. The undulating pattern is complex but subtle.
Inside, the famous lobby is covered in mesmerizing geometric designs that repeat the patterns of the exterior. However, it’s the dramatic light fixtures that steal the show.
The building was unveiled in 1929 to mixed opinions from the public, who found its design challenging. But the opinion of history has sided with the San Francisco Chronicle, which recognized its beauty: “A severe but thoroughly virile design, full of vitality.”
The 20th Century Limited, Henry Dreyfuss (1938)
At the furthest extreme of Art Deco’s fusion of style and function, there is the 20th Century Limited: a passenger train that connected NYC and Chicago. The 1938 design by Henry Dreyfuss cemented the reputation of one of the world’s most famous and luxurious train lines.
Dreyfuss designed every detail of it, from its clean-cut exterior to the napkins in the dining car. The detailed luxury of the design was matched by the train’s attentive service: passengers who boarded in NYC walked down a red carpet to be presented with flowers and perfume. Stewards kept careful records of passengers’ cocktail, dinner, and breakfast preferences. It was as an icon of the era’s opulence.
By the 1950s, plane travel was edging out the railroad industry. When the 20th Century Limited was decommissioned in 1968, it was clear that the era of luxurious travel had given way to a far more impersonal one.
True Art in Mass Architecture
Art Deco was the answer to the problem of mass production. It safeguarded against mass-market genericism, using new technologies to reach new heights — not cut corners.
Will Art Deco make a comeback in America? It’s possible, but its design elements are inseparable from the historical moment that gave rise to it. America’s spirit of expansive optimism seems to have dimmed since then.
The ultimate purpose of Art Deco, however, was as designer Francis Jourdain said: “to return decorative art… to the important place it held in the past.”
Even if America doesn’t return to the full drama and optimism of 20th century Art Deco, it can return to its founding principles: a sense of humanity injected into the mass production line.
If America were to re-embrace that spirit today, what would it look like? What influences would inspire it?
Well, take a look at this and judge for yourself. JPMorgan’s new NYC headquarters is going to be an ode to an all-electric future…
Art of the Week
When the Rockefellers commissioned Diego Rivera to paint a mural in their iconic skyscraper, they asked for an image of a man at a crossroads — someone beset with uncertainty, but moving with hope toward a bright future.
Rivera’s Man at Crossroads captured America’s place at the nexus of technological, political, and social progress. However, the mural included a portrait of Lenin and other elements symbolizing the communist world.
Although communism was undoubtedly a factor behind the intense crossroads at which America found itself, the Rockefellers were horrified at the idea that they might be seen as communist supporters.
So, they had it chiseled down to make room for Jose Maria Sert’s American Progress, a mural that was far more unambiguously descriptive of American values.
Dominated by the giant figures of Titans straining to build monumental cities, American Progress is a tribute to the ethos of hard work that defined the US. The mural even extends to the ceiling, where a Titan strides over the head of the viewer, with American planes circling his head. The message is clear: America builds the future and reaches for the skies.
Sert also includes the figures of the three graces in his painting to represent America’s intellectual achievements. America’s juggernaut strength, Sert implies, comes from the union of wits and strength, thinking and action.
American Progress combines classical imagery (titans, graces, muscular nudes) with new artistic tricks that are unconventional to the classics (portraying the Titan on the ceiling as stepping over the viewer, for example). It’s fitting that the Rockefeller center, another touchstone example of Art Deco, houses a mural which captures both the elements and philosophy of this all-American style.