Art Deco USA

After the success of the 1925 Paris exhibition the USA was greatly influenced by French Art Deco. The Americans loved the bright surfaces and abstract patterns of the style. The Art deco motifs of the rising sun and the stepped ziggurat became popular. At the 1933 World’s Fair ‘Century of Progress’ in Chicago the shapes and designs of Art Deco were prominent.

The skyscraper designs of the Chrysler building designed by William van Alen in 1930 had sleek aluminum-banded facades, arches and a pointed spire. Donald Deskey designed the interior of Radio City Music Hall built in 1931. The Empire State buildings is another example of this magnificent style. Ely Jacques Kahn designed Art Deco skyscraper entrance lobbies using brilliant colours and luxurious materials with the Art Deco motifs designs and shapes.

Large department stores and theaters had brilliantly coloured carpets with abstract designs. The US embraced the style and made it their own. In the home linoleum in the bold colours and designs of Art Deco ensured it would continue to be popular as did parquet floors. Zebra skin rugs and other animal skin rugs were in vogue and placed over plain wall to wall carpets.

In the USA Art Deco designs became more geometric and linear. This married well with the rise of the minimized modern design. Art Deco items could easily be mass production making the style available to the masses.