Skip to main content
art deco

art deco

6 4.4
A style of art and building design from the 1920s and 1930s with bold geometric shapes and rich decoration
  • noun
  • /ɑrt ˈdɛkoʊ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : art déco
  • She entered the vast station, an art-deco museum piece restored by preservation activists.
  • art deco style
  • art deco building
  • art deco furniture

Evo Chandor, of course, he, he was lived during the birth of Art Deco.

Examples

  • The city's skyline includes several buildings adorned with art deco details, making it a unique architectural landmark.

  • How much for four chairs like that, an art deco table and the lamp?

  • Everything in here is all art deco, isn't it?

  • Roads, bridges, and great art-deco towers were being built by the dozens.

    Blog text (28)
  • Midtown Manhattan, an elegant, art deco office building with a prestigious piano showroom on the ground floor.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • The black-and-gold, art-deco themed theater is actually more closely associated with "The Phantom of the Opera" than standard concerts.

    Blog text (24)
  • The original RST was a 1,400-seat art deco cinema-style theater designed by Elizabeth Scott and opened in 1932.

    Blog text (25)
  • The museum features a stunning collection of art deco furniture that showcases bold geometric designs.

  • She decorated her living room with art deco elements, including a beautifully patterned rug and stylish lighting.

Synonyms

deco
vsart deco
19 8.2

A style of design from the 1920s and 1930s with bold geometric shapes and rich materials

is the fuller, more formal term for the same visual and architectural style

How Ornate

rococo
  • Specialized
2 9.9
baroque
6 8.1
art deco
  • Specialized
6 4.4
modernism
4 7.1
minimalism
5 6.5

Surface Forms

art deco singular
art decos plural

Morphology

art + deco

The term is transparently compositional: combining 'art' (artistic work) with 'deco' (decorative style) yields a type of decorative art/architecture. A B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer it refers to a decorative artistic style (and the label is cognate with French 'Art déco', which aids recognition).

Etymology

The term art deco comes from a big Paris design show in 1925 called 'Arts Décoratifs'. The name joins art and a short form deco, from the word 'decorative', because the show featured bold shapes, rich colors, and shiny materials. That's why art deco now means the bold, decorative style of the 1920s and 1930s.