Regeneration…

Many art deco themes revived old ethnic patterns.  Designers and architects who favored Art Moderne design features were really culling the past for inspiration.  It was a time of enjoying the exploration of the globe and all its ethnic influences.  Picture merchant ships from around the world all docking at the same port and the richness in pattern, texture, and material all went straight to artist’s heads!  They couldn’t resist the use of foreign influences in their designs.

Ghislaine Wood, the curator for the 2003 art deco show from the Victoria and Albert Museum (the same year Karl Lagerfeld sold his art deco collection for 8 million dollars!), said there are three sources in art deco: folk art, ancient cultures and European avant-garde art movements.  Basically, anything non-mainstream European and unfamiliar was worth exploring.

So, basically, anything was fair game.  There’s a great quote from Lucy Fischer (who writes on art deco film), “Art Deco’s appropriation of the primitive, ancient, and exotic was both contradictory and problematic.”  Exactly.  How does something old become “moderne?”

I think there are 3 things that help: (1) the artist has used the pattern in a novel manner; (2) it is a pattern that everyone recognizes as ethnic, but it is clever and unique; and (3) the artist makes a stylized reference to the work, rather than copying it directly.  It’s called regeneration, the revival of the old, which is exactly what we are doing today with art deco, and that makes it fun!