Art Deco Artists

Tom Purvis

Tom Purvis was a British painter and a commercial poster artist. He was born in Bristol, 1888; the son of a sailor turned marine painter (TG Purvis, 1861-1933). He studied at Camberwell School of Art and worked at an advertising firm before becoming a freelance designer. His work was influnenced by the Beggarstaff Brothers and many others. Most of his images were 2D clock colour posters. From 1923 to 1945 Purvis worked for the London and North East railway as a poster designer; he also designed posters for Austin Reed. He gave up poster design after the second world war. He gave up poster designing to paint portrait, and in the last few years of his life he painted religious pictures. He died in 1959.

Art Deco Artists

Jean Carlu

Jean Carlu was born in France, 1900. He came from a family of architects and studied that profession. At the age of eighteen he lost his right arm and then turned to graphic design instead. Carlu had a fascination of angular forms and elements of cubism. Carlu decided to create a symbolic language in which colour, line and content would represent emotional values. His work achieved a distinctive, streamlined economy, rarely incorporating an narrative or illustrative elements. Carlu spent some time in the United States and designed a number of posters for the government.

A M Cassandre

A M Cassandre was born in Ukraine, in 1901. He became a poster artist and designed hundreds of posters in a bold, geometric, Art Deco style. Cassandre's posters are noticed for the emphasis on typography. From 1934 he taught at an Art Deco art school and then ran an art school of his own for a while. From 1936 to 1939 Cassandre lived in New York where he freelanced as a commercial artist. 

In 1963, Cassandre designed Yves Saint Laurent's monogram.

Art Deco

Art Deco was an art movement which began in the 1920s and lasted up until 1920. It all started in France with a group of French artists and designers at an event called Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderns - the name Art Deco was later taken from that title.
This movement was very 'modern' at the time, and it celebrated the beauty of technology in the early 20th century. It mixed art with science and made references to trains, planes, cars and skyscrapers. Bold colours, rays, and other geometric heavy patterns were a trademark of Art Deco. Many human figures which are in Art Deco are often very stylized, like in this painting below:

Tamara de Lempicka entitled Sleeping Woman.

This painting is very geometric, the head looks as though it's been carved out of a single sphere and her arms, neck and fingers all look like they've been carved from.
Although this movement ended in the 40s, Art Deco is still used today, often as an emelent in design which references positivity in the 1920s and 30s. 

The Art Deco style was influenced by several other art movements. Some which had a major influence on Art Deco were Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism and Vorticism. This has lead to Art Deco influencing many things such as architecture. Chicago is one of the most Art Deco-influenced cities in the world. Some of the most notable structures are:

LaSalle National Bank

The Chicago Board of Trade 

Adler Planetarium