Abstraction and the Applied Arts
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
During the interwar years, movements developed that promoted extremely abstract styles. Among the most important of these was the Dutch De Stijl (“The Style”) movement and the Russian constructivist and suprematist movements. Founded in the wake of world warfare, and in the case of Russia a major political revolution, these movements looked to a utopian future for inspiration.
Streamlined Modern
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Although some American designers worked in a style closely akin to French art deco, many more embraced the concept of streamlining. Giving objects, even stationary ones, streamlined shapes was seen as a sign of progress and dynamism in the Depression years of the 1930s. Thanks to the emerging profession of industrial design and the need to enhance slumping sales figures, streamlined silhouettes were given to everything from buildings to buses and from cocktail shakers to vacuum cleaners.
The "International Style"
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Modernist designers in the United States and central and northern Europe created an international language of form in the 1920s and 1930s that was widely emulated around the world in the decades that followed.
Egyptian Funerary Relief
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The following essay is from the 1996 publication Gods, Men, and Heroes: Ancient Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Egypt: Royalty and the Afterlife
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The following essay is from a 1996 publication that highlights prominent Egyptian art objects from the DMA's collection.
Plastics: Art Deco and Streamlined Modern
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Today much of our environment is constructed of plastic and the material is no longer considered exotic. Before WWII this was not the case. Early plastics like Bakelite (invented 1907) were considered manmade “miracles” because they were among the first wholly synthetic materials and could be molded into virtually any shape.
French Art Deco
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
During the first quarter of the 20th century, French designers, manufacturers, and merchants became increasingly worried about their country’s position as a leader in the field of design. To bolster France’s reputation, a trade fair was held in Paris in 1925.
2004.48.5, Denaides vase, Rene Jules Lalique (designer), French, c. 1926
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This swelling cylindrical vase in frosted glass, molded in low relief by French glass designer René Jules Lalique, was inspired by Greek mythology. According to Greek mythology, the Danaïdes were the fifty daughters of Danaus forced by their uncle Aegyptus to marry their fifty cousins.
2009.7.a-b, Box, John Nicholas Otar (designer), c. 1933
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This dynamic copper and brass work is amongst the largest and most sophisticated examples of émigré metalsmith John Nicholas Otar’s modern boxes. A whirling spiral of stacked and fixed triangular plates — with a brass plate alternating with every six copper ones — the box suggests movement through its wildly undulating profile.