The forthcoming centenary of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts) in Paris provides an opportunity to review this major event in terms of its influence on art and culture in the twentieth century. Although the event appears, ostensibly, to have been widely studied, it is clear that many unexplored dimensions still beg attention: the organisational, economic, technical, and urbanistic aspects; the art of gardening, and, above all, the Exposition’s material legacy, whether or not it falls within the scope of cultural heritage. The remnants of the Exposition - the edifices, archive material, publications, related products, and, of course, works and objets d’art, which were presented in the Exposition or are documented in public or private collections, or which are circulating in the art market - have not always been sufficiently identified and highlighted.

Geographical and thematic expansion

Following the interest demonstrated for more than half century by heritage curators, museum curators, researchers, architects, designers, artists, and art market professionals in Art Deco artefacts,[fn]See in particular BRUNHAMMER, Yvonne (ed.), Les Années 25. Art déco, Bauhaus, Stijl, Esprit nouveau, exhibition catalogue, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 3 March16 May 1966; Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs (UCAD), Paris, 1966; HILLIER, Bevis, Art Deco of the 20s and 30s, Studio Vista, Dutton Pictureback, London, New York, 1968; BOUILLON, Jean-Paul, Journal de l’Art déco. 1903-1940, Skira, Geneva, 1988; BENTON, Charlotte, and BENTON, Tim & WOOD, Ghislaine (ed.), Art deco 1910-1939, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A Publications, London, 2003. the issue of In Situ. Revue des Patrimoines will primarily focus on what remains here and there of the ephemeral aspects of the 1925 Exposition and the objects and works of art held in public and private collections, and which circulate in the art market. It will cover the technical aspects of crafts and industrialisation. It will focus on the conservation and restoration of the objects and edifices. The issue will highlight, in particular, the innovative approaches.

Nevertheless, the diverse sources of inspiration reflected in the Exposition (antiquity, Palladian architecture, Baroque art and architecture, neoclassicism, the Viennese Secession, the Ballets Russes, African arts, cubism, expressionism, De Stijl, and many others) serve as a basis for broadening and clarifying their geography and scale. Born out of multiple influences in France, Art Deco immediately spread in Europe, in the Americas, Asia, in large cities and in holiday resorts, and, of course, in countries under colonial administration. The phenomenon extended from the monumental to the mundane, and from the lavish to the unrefined, and affected the art of gardening, religious and industrial heritage, as well as urban planning, particularly in the framework of the rebuilding work following the two world wars. What is commonly called Art Deco appears to have been the art of combining formal and cultural influences, as well as the art of combining scales, ranging from the objet d’art to urban layouts, and invariably embracing the concept of the total work of art.

Chronological expansion

It should be remembered that the term ‘Art Deco’ came into general use only after a 1966 retrospective. The historiography invites us to consider the importance of the 1925 Exposition itself, but the aim of this issue of In Situ is to extend the corpus to include initial studies, as well as focus on them and even epiphenomena, and review the artefacts that preceded and followed the Exposition, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the second third of the century. Art Deco can subsequently be considered an international style that preceded - but was also concurrent with - the International Style established by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1932. Earlier, it followed and incorporated the Beaux-Arts aesthetics that held sway before - and even after - the First World War. Art Deco was both concurrent and hybridised with these two prevailing movements, like the other two no less significant movements in architecture and art: Art Nouveau and Regionalism. This issue of In Situ will, for example, review the distinction between Art Deco and the avant-garde movements, which is now obsolete, but which for a long time structured the historiography and the process of integrating Art Deco into the cultural heritage.

After this initial attempt at chronological expansion, we could venture another attempt. Indeed, ‘Neo-Art Deco’ (this is not a standard term) could constitute a possible subject of study; the style emerged in the 1960s together with postmodernism, and, above all, with neo-traditional architecture. Neo-Art Deco developed before our eyes, all over the world, and in the fields of both architecture and furniture, and extended to the kitsch and the mundane.

Based on the material legacy and heritage of the 1925 Exposition in Paris, as well as the artefacts that preceded and followed the exposition, this thematic issue of In Situ will aim not only to renew the historiography, but also to better examine the historical and contemporary issues relating to a re-examination of this event.