Art Deco Painting

The Art Deco style was all pervasive during the 1920s and 1930s affecting the decorative arts, fine arts and fashion. This text specifically examines Art Deco painting and defines it as a genre. The author analyzes the characteristics of the style, period and history of the movement, explaining its relationship to Classicism, the Symbolists, the Precisionists, photography and Cubism. It discusses the frequent use of classical imagery, the importance of society portraiture, the portrayal of the «demi-monde» and the lure of decorative exoticism. French, American, Russian, British and Italian Art Deco painters, who are all represented here, were attracted as much to the skyscraper and the automobile as they were to the classical nude. The result was a remarkable mix of traditional and modern: the sleek, seductive portraits by the Polish emigre Tamara de Lempicka, the fantastical classical allegories of Jean Dupas, the elegant high-style compositions of Australia by Charles Meere and the evocative «real-life» scenes of Glyn Philpot.