1925-2025 : cent ans d’Art déco

Exhibition at MAD, Paris, 22 October 2025 - 26 April 2026

An aesthetic and artistic movement that emerged before the First World War, Art Deco flourished in the 1920s, when a new lifestyle broke with previous decades: speed, movement and freedom were now the watchwords of society. Protean and elusive, this movement brought together a range of modern forms, patterns, materials and techniques used by designers such as Jean Puiforcat, Maurice Marinot, Suzanne and René Lalique, Pierre Chareau, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and André Groult.

In 1925, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts propelled Art Deco onto the world stage. Many decorators, manufacturers, magazines, department stores, artists, and even foreign nations competed fiercely to take over Parisian buildings, while others erected temporary structures to showcase their latest creations.

One hundred years after the 1925 Exhibition, this exhibition catalogue pays tribute to a major style and its success. Through eight essays, twelve focus sections and image portfolios, it covers the many incarnations of Art Deco, from its beginnings in the 1910s to its golden age during the Exhibition and its contemporary reinterpretations. Sculptural furniture, precious jewellery, objets d'art, drawings, posters and fashion pieces recount the richness, elegance and contradictions of a style that continues to fascinate.