Acquiring its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art), ´Art Deco´ has been used to describe architecture and interior and industrial design from the 1910s through the 1930s.
Art Deco was truly a fusion of diverse movements, including African, Egyptian and Aztec influences, as well as Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau and Futurism. Other influences included technology of the Machine Age, for example, modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, the ocean liner and the skyscraper.
Popular motifs in Art Deco were zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled shapes, flat and abstracted garlands of flowers, flowing fountains, running deer, lightning and sunbursts. Typical materials often included stainless steel, aluminum, glass, lacquer, inlaid tortoise shell, eggshell, zebraskin and shagreen (sharkskin.) The resulting fractionated and crystalline form was elegant, functional and truly celebratory of man-made materials and the rapid modernization of the world. Art Deco became popular in the United States during the Great Depression for its practicality, simplicity and its suggestion of ¨progress¨ and ¨the American Dream.¨
Well-known examples of Art Deco include New York´s Chrysler Building and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.