Art Deco and the modernist movement in America

When the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels was held in Paris in 1925, the United States did not participate because the European modernist movement had little impact on residential design in this country. There were skyscrapers and commercial buildings popping up in major American cities that had linear and geometrical designs incorporated into the facades, but those received mixed reviews among critics.

By the last half of the 1920s, what became known as the Art Deco style invaded coastal California and southern Florida, where there was a concentration of wealthy homeowners with lavish lifestyles that reflected the influence of the new film industry. Eschewing the embellishments of the previous beaux arts period, architects such as Eliel Saarinen were designing houses with sleek exteriors and were incorporating synthetic materials into the specifications for windows, doors and exposed surfaces — smooth stucco in predominantly neutral colors was the preferred finish on many of these houses.

Gone were the wood frames around windows and elaborate door surrounds, replaced by metal frames with little or no reveal to define the expansive apertures. Walls of windows featured horizontal louvers or awning panels, and vertical casement sashes that provided cross ventilation in pre-air-conditioned America.

Curved window walls and stepped down detailing at the entrances were other earmarks of the period, when organic forms and asymmetrical design replaced the carefully planned symmetry of classic architectural periods. Business was booming for companies that manufactured angled and corner windows, with aluminum frames that were featured in the French pavilion’s domestic architecture display during the 1925 exposition.

America embraces Art Deco with gusto

By the 1930s, American designers surpassed their more conservative counterparts in England with the use of manufactured materials for interiors.Linoleum was available in custom patterns that featured simplistic designs in complementary colors; parquetry was installed in bleached and stained planks to create interesting patterns and wall-to-wall carpeting replaced solid wood floors as a sign of prosperity.

Fireplaces were built as sculptural elements with polished metal or mirrored surrounds and, if mantles were used at all, they were more decorative than useful. In barrier-free interiors, spaces were defined with partial dividing walls, stepped cabinets, planters or metal railings.

The abundance of natural light was enhanced by indirect lighting installed on the periphery of rooms, concealed from view by gutters or wood troughs. Pendant lighting, chandeliers and wall sconces from the Art Deco period seem to predict the space age with their streamlined designs.

It was not unusual to see entire rooms of built-in furniture incorporated into the overall design schematic — a space saving technique for smaller houses and for apartments. However, during the 1930s, many homeowners remodeled with built-ins to follow the chic new trend for interiors.

American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and English interior designer Syrie Maugham were proponents of cleverly concealing bars and dressing rooms behind false walls.

Hardware manufacturers introduced new materials for doors, cabinets and decorative trim, including Bakelite, the earliest form of plastic. First used as an insulator for electrical wiring, its durability and versatility made it a good material for handles, moldings and even jewelry.

Influence on arts and fashion

World War I, which ended in 1918, was still a recent memory for Europeans who had experienced the most profound devastation of their homelands in recorded history. There was a cultural shift in architecture and in the arts, generating more interest in technological advances used during the war that could be applied to peacetime living. Because of their shared experiences, Americans were no longer isolated from European influences in arts and fashion.

Romain de Tirtoff, a Russian-born French artist, disappointed his parents by not following in his father’s footsteps in the Russian Navy, instead pursuing art in tony Paris studios. To avoid embarrassing his family, he used the pseudonym Erté, the pronunciation of the first letters of his first and last names, and launched a design career that took him to California in 1925 as a set designer for the burgeoning film industry.

Prior to moving to the West Coast, his avant garde drawings of fashion models caught the eye of Harper’s Bazaar, for which he designed more than 200 covers from 1915 to 1937. Erté died in 1990 but prints of his exotic models draped in the theatrical clothes of the roaring ‘20s are still on the market and are considered collectible as prime examples of the Art Deco period.

Having designed costumes for the Folies Bergere in Paris, among other theatrical productions, in the 1920s, Erté may have had a more profound influence on fashion than fashion on his art, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alexander Calder was a renowned American sculptor of the era that invented the mobile, a suspended moving sculpture usually made of metal. Educated as a mechanical engineer, he was the son and grandson of sculptors and painters and had his own studio in his parents’ home from the time he was 8. His enormous public sculptures are now found in parks all over the world.

Also known as a painter his entire life, Calder worked in several media and produced his own prints for sale. In the interior design field, boldly colored area rugs adapted from his geometric and abstract designs are popular for contemporary interiors.

Local examples of Art Deco design

The offices, museum and visitors center of the Ocmulgee National Monument on Emery Highway are housed in a building designed in 1938 by National Park Service architect James T. Swanson, who defined the style as “Art Moderne,” a more comprehensive description of the Art Deco style.Swanson paid homage to the Lamar period of civilization with a terra cotta frieze design found on pottery of that era. The glass block used in the clerestory level topping the building, the curved smooth white stucco walls, the absence of frames around the metal windows and the stylized entrance are typical Art Deco details.

If you were buying gas appliances in the 1950s, the building on Second Street, near the intersection with Mulberry Street, with the Art Deco design on the façade, was the local office and showroom for the branch of Atlanta Gas Light Company. Before it was purchased by the natural gas company, it was the repository of many happy memories for World War II soldiers stationed at Camp Wheeler and Macon’s answer to cosmopolitan dining, as the New York Café, owned by the Culver family, who lived above the restaurant for a while in the 1930s.The late Chuck Culver, a local attorney and son of the owners, recounted tales of exploring Macon on his bicycle with Jim Smith III, the son of another downtown restaurateur who owned Smitty’s, a predecessor to S&S Cafeterias, still owned by the Smith family.

Fortunately, Mercer University, which has been an integral partner in the Second Street corridor plans, has purchased the building and is restoring it as an off-campus classroom facility. There are other examples of Art Deco architecture in the commercial and residential areas of Macon — if you slow down long enough to notice. Fortunately, it has experienced renewed interest with the retro craze — evidenced in local antique shops and malls — by furniture and accessories that pre-date many of its aficionados.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Art Deco and the modernist movement in America."