The Strange Case of the Reception of Art Deco: Reflections and Speculations

Abstract The Exposition International des arts décoratifs et industriels in Paris in 1925 launched a style that spread worldwide, but when the Musée des Arts Décoratifs put on two exhibitions in 1966 and 1976 to commemorate the 1925 show, the curators were strangely apologetic. Rather than celebrate the innovation, quality, and humanity of Art Deco, the curators compared the style unfavorably to Modernism and talked of nostalgia and perversity. And yet the 1960s and 1970s was a period of revived interest in Art Deco in Paris and elsewhere, and the principles of Modernism were being criticized and seen as outdated. The comparison with modern architecture originated at the time of the 1925 exhibition, and in this paper, I try to understand why this was. I reflect also on whether the balance between Modernism and Art Deco needs to be more fully re-evaluated.