Art Deco

Art Deco was introduced in the 1920's and reigned through the 1930's, encompassing both the roroaring twenties and the great depression. It was and elegant style of decorative art and acrhitecture, you could say that they improved the idea of Art Nouveau with more modern sophistication. Art Deco focus's on sleek straight lines and an element of boldness so there decoration and architecture would stand out, however, some people felt that this was a bit too alraming espiecally through the great depression. The Art Deco movement affected city styles, architecture like I've already mentioned, high fashion jewelry and interior design.
The term Art Deco was not created until the 1960's by Bevis Hillier a british historian.

Some Art Deco architecture you would recorgnise would be the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building.

From Left To Right: Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building:

Some artists who were part of the Art Deco movement were Jean Dupas and Raymond Hood.

Born in 1882 in bordeaux, Jean Theodore Dupas was a French painter, designer and decorator whose work is considered the utmost example of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Dupas worked in various exponents of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco areas. His famous qoutes writes "The greater if my, the happy I am", he collaborated in the decor of famous steamships during the 1930's where he emphasized the Art Deco style of that time. Some of his work would have been seen on the SS lle-de-France and the SS Liberte, these two ships were among the first to have him design the interiors, Dupas later went on to design and decorate the grand salon on the Normandie.

Here is an image of the first salon of the SS lle-de-France.

Here is and exterior of the SS Liberte as I couldn't find an interior of the grand salon but you could image that it wouldn't be to far from what the SS lle-de-france would look.

Reymond Mathewson Hood was an early-mid twentieth century architect who worked in the Art Deco style. He was educated at Brown University, MIT and the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in paris. He met a one John Mead Howells, with whom he would work with in later years.

Some Of His works were the Tribune Tower in Chicago, the Daily News Building in New York (this building is also a model for the 'Daily Planet' where Clark Kent AKA Superman worked) and also the Rockefeller Center in New York as well.

From left to right, Tribune Tower, Daily News Building, Rockefeller Center: