Art Deco - the history, style, and characteristics of the art movement
Art Deco is the artistic and design style that, more than any other, has come to symbolize the confidence, elegance, and faith in the future of the 1920s and 1930s. With its clean geometric forms, symmetry, and love of precious materials, Art Deco combined the precision of craftsmanship with the pace of the Machine Age, and the style left its mark on everything from paintings and posters to skyscrapers, jewelry, and furniture. For anyone who loves art and wants to understand why a poster in the Art Deco spirit still feels both timeless and modern, the movement's history is a journey through one of the most influential aesthetics of the 20th century.
This fact page provides an in-depth overview of Art Deco as an art movement: its origins in Paris, its legendary breakthrough at the 1925 World's Fair, the artists and works that defined the style, and the distinctive Swedish interpretation that came to be known as Swedish Grace. We also look at how Art Deco lives on today - not least during the style's centenary in 2025-2026 - and how you can bring its visual language into your own home through carefully selected paintings and posters.
Contents
↓ What is Art Deco?
↓ The history behind Art Deco
↓ Art Deco's most important works and motifs
↓ Style, technique, and artistic signature
↓ Art Deco in Sweden - Swedish Grace
↓ Art Deco's influence and legacy
↓ Art Deco in the home - interior design guide
↓ Timeline by year
↓ Related art movements
↓ Frequently asked questions about Art Deco
What is Art Deco?
Art Deco is a decorative art and design style that flourished between approximately 1920 and 1939 and took its name from the major Paris exhibition of 1925, Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. The name is therefore an abbreviation of the exhibition's title, but the style itself had already emerged during the 1910s. Unlike the preceding Art Nouveau style, which was based on winding organic lines drawn from nature, Art Deco is characterized by straight lines, symmetry, geometric shapes, and a deliberate pursuit of modernity. The ideal was described in the 1925 exhibition catalog as seeking beauty in simplicity and luxury in the quality of materials.
Art Deco was never a unified movement with a manifesto, but rather an international trend in taste that spanned decorative arts, architecture, fashion, graphic design, and visual art. What united its expressions was a sense of glamour, a belief in progress and technological achievements, and a preference for precious and exotic materials such as ivory, lacquered wood, chrome, gilding, and rare woods. Where Art Nouveau had been floral and dreamy, Art Deco became sharp, elegant, and urban - a style born of the Jazz Age, automobile traffic, ocean liners, and the first skyscrapers.
Quick facts: Emerged during the 1910s, named after the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925 · Heyday approximately 1920-1939 · Characterized by geometry, symmetry, and luxurious materials · Key figures: Tamara de Lempicka, A.M. Cassandre, Erté, and René Lalique · Iconic architecture: the Chrysler Building in New York (1930, 319 meters) · Swedish counterpart: Swedish Grace · Record price: Tamara de Lempicka's Portrait de Marjorie Ferry sold for $21.1 million at Christie's in 2020 · The style's centenary is celebrated in 2025-2026 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris with more than 1,000 works.
The history behind Art Deco - from Paris 1925 to a global style
To understand Art Deco, one must understand the era from which it emerged. The years after the First World War were marked by a longing for renewal, pleasure, and optimism. The old order had crumbled, and in cities such as Paris, New York, and Berlin, a new urban culture emerged with jazz, film, cars, and electricity. Art Deco became the visual language of this new era - as much an expression of material success as of artistic ambition.
The background - Art Nouveau, Cubism, and the Machine Age
Art Deco did not arise out of nowhere. The style drew inspiration from several contemporary movements. From Cubism, it borrowed the geometric fragmentation of forms; from Russian ballet costumes and the Wiener Werkstätte, its decorative boldness; and from art movements such as Futurism, its worship of speed and movement. At the same time, there was a clear reaction against Art Nouveau's organic excess: where Art Nouveau had twisted and coiled, Art Deco became more austere and disciplined. The movement also looked back to ancient Egypt - not least after Tutankhamun's tomb was opened in 1922 - as well as to Aztec and African art, giving rise to the characteristic stepped and fan-shaped motifs.
The 1925 Paris Exhibition - the style's breakthrough
The decisive moment came with the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris from April to November 1925. The exhibition attracted around 16 million visitors from some twenty countries and featured approximately 130 buildings and around seventy pavilions. Here, modern decorative arts were displayed in all their splendor: furniture, glassware, textiles, jewelry, and interiors that exuded exclusivity and innovation. The exhibition became an international sensation and gave rise to the term we still use today, although the term Art Deco itself only really took off in the 1960s, when interest in the design of the interwar period was revived.
Spread across the Atlantic
After Paris, Art Deco quickly spread around the world and reached perhaps its most spectacular form in the United States. In New York and Chicago, the style found its ideal expression in the skyscraper, where stepped façades and metal-bright spires became symbols of the American dream. During the 1930s, a streamlined variant developed, sometimes called Streamline Moderne, inspired by aerodynamics and trains. From luxury goods for the wealthy, Art Deco gradually transformed into a popular style that shaped cinemas, radios, packaging, and everyday objects throughout the Western world.
Art Deco’s most important works and motifs
Art Deco was an interdisciplinary artistic movement, and its best-known works are found just as readily in architecture and graphic art as in painting. Some creations have become so iconic that they now define the entire era.
Tamara de Lempicka’s portraits
The Polish-born painter Tamara de Lempicka (1898–1980) became Art Deco’s foremost visual artist. Her portraits of elegant women and men in sharply sculpted forms, with metallic skin and cool colors, captured the self-conscious glamour of the era. Works such as Autoportrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti) from 1929 have become symbols of the modern, independent woman. That her art is still highly valued was demonstrated in 2020, when the portrait Portrait de Marjorie Ferry sold for £16.28 million – equivalent to $21.1 million – at Christie’s in London, thereby setting the artist’s auction record. The same painting had sold for $255,000 as recently as 1985, which says something about how dramatically appreciation for her art has grown.
"I live life on the margins of society, and the rules of ordinary society do not apply to those who live on the fringes." – Tamara de Lempicka
Cassandre and poster art
Nowhere did Art Deco become as widely popular as in poster art. The Ukrainian-born Frenchman A.M. Cassandre (1901–1968) revolutionized advertising’s visual language with his clean lines, bold typography, and dramatic perspectives. Posters such as Normandie from 1935, depicting the enormous ocean liner head-on, and the railway poster Nord Express are among the most famous works in graphic art history. Cassandre’s work shows Art Deco at its most dynamic: here, geometry is used not merely for decoration but to create movement and direction. The poster as an art form is at the heart of the exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration at the Sarasota Art Museum, which presents one hundred rare posters from the 1920s and 1930s between August 2025 and March 2026.
Chrysler Building and the skyscraper
If Art Deco has a monument, it is the Chrysler Building in New York. Designed by architect William Van Alen and completed in 1930, the building rises 319 meters above Manhattan and was the world's tallest building for eleven months. Its chrome gleaming, fan-shaped crown with stepped arches and steel eagle heads is perhaps the most accomplished example of Art Deco's ability to unite technology and splendor. Together with the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, it made New York's skyline a manifestation of the style.
Erté, Lalique, and the decorative arts
Alongside painting and architecture, Art Deco flourished in the decorative arts. The Russian-born Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) became the era's leading fashion illustrator with his stylized female figures on the covers of Harper's Bazaar. Glass artist René Lalique transformed everyday objects such as perfume bottles and automobile radiator mascots into sculptural masterpieces in frosted glass. Furniture designers such as Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann created showpieces in rare woods and ivory, while Jean Dunand perfected the Japanese-inspired lacquer technique. This breadth makes Art Deco unique: it was a total style that encompassed the entire living environment.
Style, technique, and artistic signature
What is it, exactly, that makes us recognize Art Deco at a glance? The style is built on a distinct visual language that recurs whether we are looking at a poster, a building, or a piece of jewelry.
Geometry and symmetry
The foundation of Art Deco is geometric form. Circles, triangles, zigzag lines, stepped motifs, and sunbursts are repeated in strict, symmetrical compositions. This geometric order gives the designs a sense of stability and elegance, while the bold angles create dynamism. Many motifs are built around a central axis, with mirrored forms on either side, creating the characteristic balance. There is a clear kinship with the fragmented geometry of Cubism, but where Cubism was analytical and exploratory, Art Deco was decorative and affirming.
Color palette and materials
In terms of color, Art Deco moves between two poles. On the one hand, the muted, elegant tones - black, gold, cream, deep green, and gemstone blue - associated with luxury and exclusivity. On the other hand, the clear, high-contrast colors of poster art, where vivid red, yellow, and blue fields are set against one another. The feel of the materials was central: gilding, chrome, silver, and lacquered surfaces created a gleaming, metallic effect that reflected the aesthetics of the Machine Age. In graphic art and posters, this is often translated into gold accents, sharp contours, and a pronounced sense of depth.
Themes and symbolism
Art Deco's imagery reflects its time. The modern woman - short-haired, independent, and elegant - appears repeatedly, alongside animals such as gazelles, greyhounds, and panthers symbolizing speed and grace. Sunbursts, fountains, lightning bolts, and stylized flowers are also part of the standard repertoire, as are references to Egyptian and Aztec cultures. Ocean liners, airplanes, trains, and skyscrapers appear as tributes to technological progress. Taken together, these motifs portray an optimistic, forward-looking culture that celebrated modern life.
Art Deco in Sweden - Swedish Grace and the Stockholm Exhibition
Sweden played a surprisingly central role in the international history of Art Deco. At the 1925 Paris Exhibition, Swedish arts and crafts enjoyed great success and were awarded no fewer than 46 gold medals, confirming the high regard for Swedish design. Swedish glass from Orrefors, featuring engraved motifs by artists such as Simon Gate and Edward Hald, attracted particular admiration and became an emblem of Nordic elegance.
Swedish Grace - the Nordic interpretation
The Swedish version of Art Deco was named Swedish Grace, a term coined by British architecture critic Philip Morton Shand. Swedish Grace combined a restrained, neoclassical elegance with sparing decoration on simple, smooth forms. The style therefore allowed ornamentation and retrospective references to antiquity, but in a significantly more subdued and controlled tone than French Art Deco. 1920s classicism is often described as a Nordic branch of Art Deco, and Stockholm's Nationalmuseum now preserves a significant collection reflecting this Swedish golden age of design.
The 1930 Stockholm Exhibition
The 1930 Stockholm Exhibition is generally considered the high point of Swedish interwar design. The exhibition was an enormous success and attracted almost four million visitors in just over four months. Here, the elegant Swedish Grace met emerging functionalism, and for many, the exhibition marked the transition from the decorative to the strictly functional. Several of the designers who had made an impression at the 1925 Paris Exhibition now presented their work to a broad Swedish audience. The Stockholm Exhibition thus stands as a turning point between Art Deco's decorative ideals and modernism's pure focus on function.
Art Deco's influence and legacy
Although Art Deco as the dominant style ebbed away with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, its visual language has never disappeared. In the postwar period, the style was long regarded as old-fashioned, but it was rediscovered in the 1960s and given the name by which it is now known. Since then, Art Deco has returned wave after wave - in film, fashion, graphic design, and interiors. Film adaptations such as The Great Gatsby have carried the style's glamour to new generations, and its geometric elegance continues to feel timeless.
Today, Art Deco is celebrated as one of the 20th century's most beloved aesthetics. During the style's centennial, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is presenting the extensive exhibition 1925–2025. Cent ans d'Art déco from October 2025 to April 2026, with more than 1,000 works spanning furniture, fashion, jewelry, and graphic art - including a reconstruction of the Orient Express carriages. At the same time, Tamara de Lempicka is being celebrated with her first major American retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, where more than 90 works are on display. In other words, interest in Art Deco has rarely been greater than it is right now. The fact that works from the style continue to achieve record prices at international auction houses further underlines that Art Deco is not merely a historical chapter but a living part of today's art market, where the elegance of the interwar period is valued more highly with each passing decade.
Art Deco at home - an interior design guide
Art Deco's timeless elegance makes the style a rewarding starting point for anyone who wants to decorate with art. An Art Deco poster immediately adds a sense of luxury and sophistication, and the beauty of it is that the style works just as well in a sleek modern home as in a more classic setting. By choosing the right design, color, and frame, you can bring in the glamour of the interwar period without making it feel overly themed.
Colors, frames, and materials
The classic Art Deco colors - black, gold, cream, and deep jewel tones - create a tangible sense of exclusivity. A graphic poster with gold accents in a slim black or brass-colored frame enhances the style's metallic character. For a softer interpretation, choose designs in muted green or blue tones against a light background. If you would like to learn more about choosing frames, read our guide to choosing the right frame for the right poster. Among our frames, you will find both slim metallic profiles and classic wooden frames that complement the geometric aesthetic.
Placement and composition in the room
Art Deco thrives in a central location where its symmetry can take center stage - above a sofa, in the hallway, or as a focal point in the dining room. Since the style is built on balance, it works excellently in symmetrical arrangements: two identical posters on either side of a mirror, or a group in a strict grid pattern. For inspiration on how to create a balanced gallery wall, read our gallery wall guide. Our collection of graphic posters and our retro and vintage posters feature several designs with a distinct Art Deco spirit, while chic posters capture its elegant glamour.
Tip: Let the Art Deco poster be the star. Keep the wall around it calm and neutral, and choose a single well-selected gold frame rather than many mismatched motifs. A metallic element in the frame or elsewhere in the room – a brass lamp or a mirrored table – ties the overall look together and highlights the poster in a way that feels considered rather than overloaded.
Timeline – The history of Art Deco by year
The development of Art Deco can be traced through several key milestones. The foundations were laid as early as the 1910s, but it was in the 1920s that the style exploded and became international. Around 1908–1912, the first geometrically oriented expressions began to emerge in French design as a reaction against Jugendstil. In 1922, Tutankhamun's tomb was opened in Egypt, triggering a wave of Egyptian-inspired motifs. In 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was held in Paris, marking the style's definitive breakthrough, where Sweden won 46 gold medals. In 1929, Tamara de Lempicka painted her famous self-portrait in the green Bugatti. In 1930, the Chrysler Building was completed in New York, and the Stockholm Exhibition was held that same year, attracting almost four million visitors. In 1935, Cassandre created his iconic poster for the ocean liner Normandie. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 marked the end of Art Deco's heyday. In the 1960s, the style was rediscovered and given its current name. In 2025–2026, its centenary is being celebrated with a major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Related art movements
Art Deco stands in close dialogue with several other movements in art history. The style emerged as a reaction against Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) and its organic lines, while borrowing the geometric fragmentation of Cubism. The transition towards a pared-back and functional aesthetic points towards Minimalism, while artists such as Gustav Klimt, with their gold ornamentation, form a clear bridge between Jugendstil and Art Deco. For a comprehensive overview of periods and styles in art, explore our complete guide to art history, and discover more artists and movements in our Knowledge Base.
Would you like to explore a related movement? Read our in-depth article about Futurism – the Italian avant-garde movement that made speed and movement into art.
Frequently asked questions about Art Deco
Would you like to bring Art Deco's timeless elegance into your own home? Explore our famous artists to find posters that capture geometric glamour - carefully printed on quality paper and ready to frame. If you prefer a softer introduction, start with a single graphic design in gold and black and let it set the tone for the rest of the room, then build on it with a symmetrical arrangement once the look feels right. Read more about the season's directions in our guide to interior design trends 2025 and about the related geometric world of forms in our guide to Bauhaus posters.
Sources and further reading: Wikipedia – Art déco, Musée des Arts Décoratifs – 1925–2025. One Hundred Years of Art Deco and Nationalmuseum – Swedish Grace.