China’s art deco influence: how the East redefined the French design movement
- A Hong Kong exhibition explores the origins of art deco in France, the mutual exchange of influences with China, and the style’s development in the East
- Rising in popularity in the 1920s, the movement swept around the world
The 2013 release ofThe Great Gatsby reignited the fashion for 1920s nostalgia, and not just for the joie-de-vivre that is symbolic of the era – but also for the opulence of the art deco design movement known for its rich colours, bold geometry and decadent detail work.
Art deco captured the energy of the moment, and like Jay Gatsby for Daisy Buchanan, we can’t get enough.
City University of Hong Kong’s CityU Exhibition Gallery is evoking those heady days of fringed flappers and subterranean speakeasies with its latest showcase, “Art Deco: The France-China Connection”.
Served with a 1920s twist, it focuses on the origins of art deco in France, the mutual exchange of influences with China, and the new style’s development in the East. This exchange with China resulted in a “East meets West” fusion, that became part of an acclaimed art de vivre, or art of living.
“Art deco is a distinctive style,” says art historian Isabelle Frank, one of the show’s two chief curators. “It is very unusual in that it is the only style that has really gone global; though, modernism also did it in a large way.