By the end of the 19th century in France, many of the notable artists, architects, and designers who had played important roles in the development of the Art Nouveau style of architecture began to feel that it was becoming incredibly last-century.
With the destruction brought with the wars, and a new Industrial Revolution taking hold, contemporary life became very different from a few decades earlier.
It was time for something new, something that would shout “20th Century” from tasteful, modernist rooftops. That is how Art Deco became a trademark of the years after the pandemic: the “Roaring Twenties”.
Both, core aesthetic as well as pragmatic and conceptual reasons for this development of Art Deco. The architecture became vertically oriented with skyscrapers climbing to lofty heights and largely unornamented exteriors, graceful curves, and horizontal emphases symbolized sturdiness, quiet dignity, and resilience.
Today, a century later, with 2020 ending, the world has been in a crisis situation for a while. A pandemic, along with a crash in the oil markets, and a severe economic crisis, the world is reeling from the damage.
Moreover, in Art Deco, futurist artists used lines to indicate movement, known as “speed whiskers” which would streak out from the wheels of fast-moving cars and trains. In addition, practitioners of Art Deco utilized parallel lines and tapering forms that suggest symmetry and streamlining. The new world is headed towards new speeds, and this symbolism could potentially be put to great use again.
Could this mean that Art Deco can potentially make a comeback? The situation is the same, the ingredients, the drivers, for the style, are the same. With modern technology present today, it only makes it easier.
