Why was this iconic style embraced by many artists regardless of their field, why it still has such cultural significance and great influence on current design works?

Referred to as Deco and first appearing in France in 1925, it is a style of visual arts, architecture and design.

It combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials, representing luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.

Influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism, bright colors and exotic styles of Japan, India, Persia, China and Maya art, it brought the originality and shaped the distinctive styles.

The Empire State Building and Chrysler Building are some of the best-known examples of Deco style architecture, built with modern materials such as steel, plate glass and designed with high level of ornamentation in bright metallic colors, featuring dramatic shapes that often have a graphic, flattened appearance.  

The Art Deco style had broad cultural and lifestyle significance and inspired many artists. One of  them was a designer Cedric Gibbson  inspired by Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus masters works, Art Deco in Paris and Frank Lloyd Wright’s experiments with the open planning.

He championed the notion that movie design decor should move beyond the commercial framework of the popular cinema. His work was recognized as representing the finest in motion picture design sets and settings.

The book ‘MGM Style’ showcase over 175 lavish illustrated duotone photographs featuring the sumptuous life and times of this legendary designer and art director at MGM during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

It is a pure Art Deco jewel allowing you to travel back in time and be inspired over and over!

The Jazz Age, between 1918 and 1929, was when Hollywood eclipsed Paris in terms of influence on design, and Britain started looking towards America for the lead in matters of taste and style. In this time Art Deco evolved into the more streamlined Art Moderne style.

Art Moderne is essentially a machine aesthetic focused on mass production, functional efficiency, and a more abstract aesthetic coming from the Bauhaus in Germany and the White architecture of Europe called as The International Style.

‘At Deco Complete’ is an opulent and attractive book, one of the Alastair Duncan’s monumental works and one with a special place our design library. It includes the work of all important designers and furniture makers from the 1920s and 1930s, from creators of the popular Art Deco to Streamline Moderne style.

Showcasing the most  glamorous decorative arts style that shaped popular ideas of modern luxury it covers furniture and interior decoration, sculpture, paintings, graphics, posters and bookbinding, glass, ceramics, lighting, textiles, metal work, and jewelry.

Another book we recommend is Living with the Art Deco Style. This is an educative, thorough and beautify illustrated by Judith Miller, an antique expert who explores the key markers of the movements and what to look for as a passionate collector.

With its streamlined shapes and forward-looking approach, Art Deco style has changed and moved to Streamline Moderne style. Using innovative technologies and materials designers and crafts people made elegant pieces.  Living with the Art book explores  all the key collecting areas, from  furniture, glass, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork to prints and posters, rugs and textiles.