Limoges Art déco 1925 ou faire moderne

Exhibition at the Limoges Museum, 17 October 2025 – 9 March 2026

The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris was a resounding success, attracting millions of visitors from around the world and contributing to the popularity of the Art Deco style. Renowned for their expertise, manufacturers and craftsmen from Limousin and the surrounding area wanted to contribute to this global celebration of art and industry by responding to the slogan launched by the organisers of the 1925 Exhibition: "Make it modern. "

Although it burst onto the scene in 1925, artistic modernity, promoted by major art collectors and exhibited in the Dalpayrat gallery, which was open to the avant-garde, had been evident in Limoges since the 1910s. Far from seeking to express regional uniqueness, many manufacturers in Limoges sought to collaborate with the great Art Deco designers, from Paul Véra to Maurice Dufrène, René Crevel to Suzanne Lalique, Marcel Goupy to Paul Follot, and Simon Lissim to Umberto Brunelleschi, participating in the construction of a ‘1925 style’ in all its diversity of expression.

This exhibition catalogue presents, for the first time, a reconstruction of the architectural features of the pavilion of the VIIth Economic Region – known as the Limoges pavilion – built at the heart of the 1925 International Exhibition. It also provides an inventory of the decorative art objects and products exhibited in Paris, from Limoges porcelain, enamels and stained glass to Saint-Junien gloves and Aubusson and Felletin tapestries, both in the regional pavilion and in the Grand Palais and department store pavilions.

Through thematic studies by specialists and rare iconography, the book reveals the spirit of renewal and modernity that animated Limoges and its region in the 1920s, enriching the portrait of a unique industrial city, an unsuspected Art Deco capital.