During the period between c. 1910 and 1939, the multifaceted design style known as Art Deco took root, blossomed, flourished and faded, only to be revived again, as are most classics sooner or later, in the recent past. From its rich Parisian beginnings - pure, high-style Art Deco - to its jazzy, Streamline Moderne American offshoots, Art Deco has come to be viewed as the most exciting decorative style of the century, introducing or utilizing such diverse elements as the richly lacquered, Oriental-style screen; the sleek, tubular-steel chair; the ebony-veneered, ivory-dotted writing desk; the vivid, geometric-patterned carpet; the sunburst-decorated stained-glass window; the starkly angular ceiling or wall light fixture; the classically or coquettishly draped glass figurine; the stylized ceramic polar bear. It also ushered in the era of the 'total' interior.
The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the world's fair held in Paris in 1925 and from which the style derives its name (although the term 'Art Deco' did not come into widespread use until the late 1960s), played a central and crucial role in dictating the appearance of the Art Deco interior. Not only did the Exposition feature the works of Ruhlmann, Süe et Mare, Chareau and others, but it also represented the apogee of pure French Art Deco - an opulent, luxuriant design style whose own origins extended as far back as the eighteenth century, appropriately enough to the great French ébénistes such as Jean-Henri Riesener and Charles Cressent; it also recognized the influence of African tribal art, Japanese lacquer-work, contemporary abstract painting and sculpture, and diverse other elements In truth, the Art Deco interior is many things to many people, and even in its country of origin it was a horse of variegated colours. There were the opulent, plush salons of antiquity-inspired Armand-Albert Rateau and Ballets Russes-influenced Paul Poiret, dripping with tassels, awash with puffy pillows and floor cushions, and punctuated by exotic, often glittering, patterns on walls, floors and screens; there were also starker Modernist settings, for ex-ample, by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray, with their chromed-metal and leather chaises-longues, pure-white walls, sleek modern floors covered with carpets woven with complementary geometric motifs, and simple, squared-off end tables, surmounted perhaps by abstract or primitive sculptures. And there was a host of permutations in between, incorporating elements of the opulent Deco and the minimal Moderne, making new and exciting statements, borrowing from past sources and exotic cultures.