Art Deco and Avant-Garde Jewelry

Art Deco, an expression widely used today to refer to creations from the interwar period, was invented a posteriori during the exhibition “Les années 1925 – Art Deco, Bauhaus, Stijl, Esprit Nouveau” at the Museum of Decorative Arts, in 1966. This style touches all areas of artistic creation: jewelry, goldwork, furniture, architecture, glassware, fabric, painting and sculpture. After the First World War, the vitality of French creation made Paris the center of the world. The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts inaugurated on April 29, 1925 gave considerable impetus to the “modern” and “industrial” creation of works of “new inspiration and real originality executed and presented by artists, craftsmen, manufacturers".

Jewelers belonging to the avant-garde of Art Deco sought simple, geometric shapes, adopting an aesthetic inspired by machines and speed: crankshaft, toothed wheel, connecting rod, valve. The combinations of colors and materials become more distinct, matte surfaces rubbed shoulders with polished surfaces, sapphire with emerald, diamond with lacquer, gold silver with ivory...

• Size: 23 x 30.5 cm
• 256 pages
• 350 color and black & white illustrations
• Hardcover under dust jacket
• ISBN: 978-2-9155-4220-2

Text in French only

Co-edition Editions Norma / Les Arts Décoratifs

• (dir.) Laurence Mouillefarine et Évelyne Possémé
• (préface) Hélène David-Weill
• (avant-propos) Béatrice Salmon
• auteurs Arlette Despond Barré, Michel Wlassikoff, Hélène Andrieux, Melissa Gabardi

Laurence Mouillefarine anime la rubrique consacrée aux collectionneurs dans Madame Figaro et collabore régulièrement à la revue Architectural Digest. Elle est également l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur les collections et l’art de collectionner.