Art Deco or Hard Deco?

Art Deco reached across every form of creative endeavor including painting, jewellery, fashion, industrial design, graphic design, film, architecture, automotive design, photography and furniture. 

On 28 June 2008 the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) opened the most comprehensive exhibition ever staged on one of the most glamorous and popular of all artistic styles. Art Deco 1910–1939 came exclusively to Melbourne from London’s famed Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and was the fifth exhibition in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series at the NGV. 


Organised by the V&A, the exhibition captured the spirit of the Art Deco period by combining important masterworks from the V&A’s acclaimed collection with public and private works from around the world. 

Elegant Art Deco French Forties armchairs 

by Alfred Porteneuve.

Ebonized beech with brass sabots - France, c.1940

Jade Parfitt and Esther De Jong in Art Deco ensembles by John Galliano, London, March 1998. 
© 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation.

Avedon left Vogue in 1988 and joined The New Yorker in 1992 as the magazine’s first staff photographer. In addition to portraiture, he did occasional studio sessions featuring the latest contemporary fashions. 

In this photograph, he presents the couture creations of John Galliano as evidence of the more romantic and theatrical side of fashion that emerged at the end of the 20th century. In this photograph, his designs are paired on two models, one in a finely tailored black jacket and another in a long lush evening wrap. Both pieces featured art deco-inspired prints that emphasize the models dramatic silhouettes as skillfully portrayed by Avedon in this composition.

THE PRIVATE WORLD OF YVES SAINT LAURENT AND PIERRE BERGE (U.S. Edition)

“As he did with fashion, Yves seized at one moment in time, a taste that was in the air, only to show his mastery. During the 1970s exoticism and Marrakech were currents in the air and St. Laurent became the authority. He was interested in Art Deco before it became fashionable, even before Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld . . . St Laurent’s and Bergé’s taste is an expression of a culture and is always a story. When they decorated a house it was no longer an ordinary house: it became a story to tell.” ~Jacques Grange