Art Deco Style - Essay Example

Art Deco began in Paris around the 1920’s. It is a very mathematical form of visual art. It incorporates geometrical forms and shapes. Art Deco is also a very functional visual art form. It is a diverse form of art. Triangles, circles, rectangles, squares, and other forms of geometrical shapes form this era of art. Types of Art Deco are Cubism and Futurism. A mixture of shapes or patterns created unique visual art in this movement. Buildings and structures were also created out of these shapes.

Radio City Music Hall in New York City, USA and The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA are two of many examples of Art Deco architect. The outrageous colors, stained glass, geometrical shapes, and ornamental shapes make these two perfect examples of the Art Deco movement. The Golden Gate Bridge is geometrically shaped. It is beautiful and functional. The Radio City Music Hall has lush colors and geometrical shapes. The lavishness of these two structures demonstrates the relief that war was over in the 1920’s.

Everyone wanted to live with color, and richness, and forget about the horrible World War I. The Art Deco movement achieved the illusion of richness, while still being cheaply mass-produced for a large audience. The Art Deco movement has been popular in the 20th century. One example of an Art Deco-influenced movie is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Although this film according to Dika (2011:104) was produced to be a mainstream film by 20th Century Fox, the picture quickly became a cult classic. The over-the-top Art Deco costumes and sets did not appeal to the mainstream.

The film is loved by many but did not impress the mainstream 1975 crowds. Art Deco can be cheaply manufactured to be ornamental for the masses. Not every Art Deco piece of art appealed to the masses. The ornamental style of the Art Deco movement was in contrast to the starkness of the World War I era. Outlandish materials like zebra patterned cloth or felt, ebony, sharkskin, shiny metals, and inlaid wood were also a trait of Art Deco. The Art Deco movement encompassed the visual art, architecture, and film industries, along with every aspect of art during the 20th century.

Bibliography Dika, V. (2003). Recycled culture in contemporary art and film: The uses of nostalgia (Cambridge Studies in Film). Cambridge, USA: Cambridge University Press.