Paris 1900 The City of Fashion, Luxury and Night Entertainment

A couple of days ago I took the opportunity to visit the ongoing exhibition at the Petit Palais Musée des Beaux-Arts in Paris titled, Paris 1900, The City of Entertainment, and described as "an invitation to the public to relive the splendour of the French capital at the time when the Paris Exposition Universelle was heralding the arrival of the 20th century". It runs until August 17th. Overall it was an excellent exhibition with some 600 beautiful works on display including a rich array of original vintage posters by some of the great artists of the day. 

Posted: May 15, 2014 | Tagged: Art Nouveau, Expo 1900, Fashion, France, Luxury, Paris

From Art Nouveau to Art Deco - A Brief Look Back

Today Art Nouveau (1890-1914) is justifiably celebrated and loved for its beauty, originality, elaborate ornamentation. We admire the incredible talent the artists had to have to produce such astounding artwork. However, as people were entering the 20th century they felt it had a long enough run and were growing tired of this style. As much as they had initially loved it for the same reasons we admire it today, they started disliking it for its extravagance and association with decadent elitism. It quite frankly became boring, outdated and embarrassing - attributed to grumpy art academics unwilling to relent and constantly talking about the great noodle or vermicelli style (another name for the Art Nouveau movement)

Shortly after the end of WWI, a French art movement called “Art Deco” was born. It wasn’t long before the it spread like wildfire and the entire world was caught up in its bright colours and bold designs of the movement, which continued to enjoy global popularity until the 1930’s-1940’s. It was a long standing trend in design that continues to be popular as “vintage art” to this day.

Posted: Mar 06, 2014 | Tagged: Art Deco, Art Nouveau