Paris. In the nave of the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD), a life-size representation of an Orient-Express carriage is placed vertically. The aim is to present full-scale models of the layouts designed by Maxime d’Angeac for the new Orient-Express which will run from 2027. Orient Express, and therefore the Accor group which “orchestrates the rebirth of the myth”as specified in the press kit, is the main partner of the exhibition commemorating the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts presented in 1925 in Paris. You actually have to go upstairs to admire a thousand objects evoking this event in which, explains Anne Monier Vanryb in the book accompanying the exhibition, « the works present[ai]ent varied aesthetics and whose artists pursue[ai]ent various goals.”At the time, this art “has no name”, as Henri Clouzot noted in the Guide Paris decorative arts, 1925 (Hachette, 1925), but everyone feels that modernity is asserting itself there – the Exhibition will welcome 15 million visitors.
Rather than giving an idea of what the 1925 Exhibition was, Bénédicte Gady, Anne Monier Vanryb and Emmanuel Bréon chose to address a wide audience by showing what, since 1966, we have agreed to call “Art Deco”. Certainly, seven posters from 1925 bear witness to the multiplicity of styles present at the Exhibition. But in the first room, the drawings and photos of emblematic buildings (the Pomone pavilion and that of the Manufacture de Sèvres), the Cloche hat (1925) by Jean Dunand, the Macassar silver and ebony tea and coffee service (1923) by Jean Puiforcat and two dresses (Evening dress worn by Mademoiselle Marcelle Frantz Jourdain […] (1925) by Frantz Jourdain and Maharanée evening dress (1925) by Jeanne Lanvin) presented next to the screen The Oasis (1924), by Edgar Brandt and Henry Favier, are enough to refocus attention on Art Deco as we know it.
Many sources
Very rich in magnificent objects, most of which belong to MAD, the route presents the beginnings, the influences, the artists, brands and amateurs who created this style. The importance of Cubism in its construction is discussed in several places. Focuses on its visual grammar highlight the motif of the fruit basket inherited from the 18th century, the return to Antiquity or even the appetite for the arts from elsewhere (Africa, Asia). To evoke the 150 jewels and accessories that the brand exhibited at the Pavilion of Elegance, the jeweler Cartier (another partner of the exhibition) brought together nearly 70 jewels and drawings dating from 1909 to 1939. period rooms“Chez Nelly de Rothschild” and “Chez Jacques Doucet” show prestigious Art Deco interiors unrelated to the 1925 Exhibition.
However, we return to a section devoted to the Society of Decorative Artists (SAD) which designed the space (two apartments and a gallery) called “A French Embassy”. “Members or not of the SAD, specifies the room text, all decorators are asked to submit projects to decorate these rooms, then vote for their allocation. Thanks to this unusual competition, the SAD exhibits a very wide diversity of aesthetic proposals, with an assumed and sometimes criticized eclecticism. » You can see the canvas Decoration professions. The furniture (1925) by Henri Rapin which appeared in the Court of Trades on which Une Ambassade française opened. However, Robert Mallet-Stevens, responsible for arranging these rooms, had to give up the works of Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay that he wanted to include there due to the veto of the SAD, which included the painter Rapin. It is a shame that “the affair of the Court of Trades”, as it was called, is not mentioned and that the 1925 Exhibition appears much more consensual than it actually was.
After devoting an important chapter to the great names of Art Deco, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and Pierre Chareau, the tour still opens with a room entitled “Contemporaries, moderns or modernists? “. The “multitude of trends that cross Art Deco” Then “the creation of the Union of Modern Artists in 1929, bringing together big names in Art Deco but also the entourage of Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, [qui] clarifies the oppositions. The proponents of decorative luxury and the advocates of rationalized mass production then stand out.. Dedicated to this “poor luxury” that was the less elitist production of Eileen Gray, Jean-Michel Frank and Francis Jourdain, who did not participate by name in the Exhibition, the end of the tour barely touches on the role of the department stores, which exhibited in 1925. Drawing on its prestigious collection, the MAD shows Art Deco as a posteriori construction of a style which continues today, at least for the partner Orient Express, and not the issues and contradictions of the 1925 Exhibition.
The capital role of the French regions at the 1925 Exhibition
Valencia (Drôme). Where was the modernity that, in 1925, dazzled visitors to the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts? In a Boucheron brooch or a piece of furniture by André Groult. But also on gloves or cracked ceramic dishes. “In Valencia, which has an Art Deco architectural heritage, explains Ingrid Jurzak, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition with Sung Moon Cho, we wanted to say how, in the regions, Art Deco irrigated architectural and decorative arts productions, but also in what way the creators, the artisans of the provinces appropriated these forms and synthesized them with more traditional, vernacular forms. » A “Maison de la Bretagne” thus presented the traditional crafts of lace, earthenware, textiles, bindings and furniture revisited by the group of artists Ar Seiz Breur. A “Basque Studio” and the gallery of French furniture sets showed the creations of Benjamin Gomez, the Alpes-Maritimes pavilion displayed the synthetic Mediterranean architectural style of Charles Delmas reflected in the furniture of Clément Goyenèche. The ribbon makers of Saint-Étienne and the silk workers of Lyon competed in creativity, the Ahrenfeldt porcelain factory in Limoges innovated with the “Rayons-nuages” decor by Jean Luce while a rustic style developed in stoneware and earthenware. It is this double aesthetic, still very present in the architecture of the French regions, that this fascinating exhibition highlights.
The Art Deco of the regions. unknown modernities,
until January 11, 2026, Musée de Valence, 4, place des Ormeaux, 26000 Valence.
