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"The Japanese Influence"

Taisho period (1900-1935),or as it is called in the Art Deco era brought many changes to that of traditional Japanese art and life.The conundrum of the era being how to embrace modernity and still keep ones quintessential Japanese traditions and values.Nowhere more clearly can this dichotomy be seen than in the lives of the Japanese woman of the time, where the stark contrast between the "moga" modern girls 
and the traditional "good and wise" wife and mother was very stark indeed.

AS ini other countries around the world the Art Deco movement in Japan was a major break away form more traditional art forms.The Japanese artists of the time endeavoured to capture the the essence of  modern life, but the also used traditional decorative elements establishing their own unique national identity to their work.The capitalist ethos of the era ,established art as a viable commercial proposition.And with improvements in transport and communication Japanese art was able to reach many part of the world where it was embraced with relish.

Resume by Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker 1893-1967 Author. Poet, Screen Writer

                                                                            Resume

                                                                     Razors pain you,

                                                                     Rivers are Damp,

                                                                     Acids stain you,

                                                                     And drugs cause cramp.

                                                                    Guns arnt lawful,

                                                                     And nooses give,

                                                                     Gas smells awful,

                                                                     You might as well live.

Resume is one of Dorothy Parker's most famous poems, based of course on a theme that  is synonymous with her , and that is suicide. It epitomises Parker's style flippant on the surface underscored by emotional pain. Revealing an inner fragility covered up by a sharp rapier like wit.

                                                                     

                                                        

The Inimitable Dorothy Parker!!

Dorothy Parker has to be one of my all time favourite writers of the Art Deco era.Her poetry is savagely humourous, particularly when she wrote about the futility of her mostly fruitless affairs.Which I am sure many women can identify with, event today.She also have a penchant for poems that sorrowfully considered the appeal of suicde.
While some dismissed her work as just "flapper "verse others considered her  one of the most  "sparkling wits" of the day.She was also known for the acidic book reviews, that she wrote for The New Yorker, writing under the pseudonym "Constant Reader".One of her more infamous reviews was that done for AA Milnes book "The House at Pooh Corner", her response to it being "Tonstant Weader fwowed up."

I like to have a martini,

Two at the very most,

After three I'm under the table,

After four I'm under my host.

The Art Deco era ushered in the Age of Flight.It saw the beginning of air travel and air frieght.Barn storming became a popular past time, daring young men in flying machines, travelling around the country landing in farmers fields and offering fights to any one with the money to pay for the privilege.

It was the age of flight milestones, famous named of the period such as Charles Lindbergh who rose to fame after flying from New York to Paris in his single seat,single engine “Spirit of St Louis”set amazing records and became house hold names.Amother was Amelia Earhart who set many record and who vanished mysteriously in 1937, while making a circumnavigational flight of the globe.

The love of aviation can be seen in the areo dynamic steammlined influence it had on art deco design.

"The Look"

Beauty was the meme of the fashion look around 1925, powder, rouge, eyeliner and lip stick heavily applied was de riguer. Deathly pale skin teamed with heavily kohled eyes and  rich scarlet lips was "The Look."

Smoking the Advertising Dream

By the 1920's techology had reached a point where mass productionhad reached the point where a large range of goods was avaiable to the average person.Advertisers sold the Hollywood dream, buy this product and you life will become the Hollywood dream. No where was this more blatant, than at cigarette smoking tagetted at women.

Purchase our brand and you to will be dressed in silk and dripping with diamonds.When you smoke our brand you will live the glamorous Hollywood life style, and will find yourself dancing in the arms of a tall dark and handsome stranger.Selling the Hollywood dream was the meme in advertising for the duration of the Art Deco era.

Flappers,Smoking and all that Jazz!!

 

It was the flagrantly outrageous behavior of the young women, known as "flappers" that has become synonymous with the Art Deco era.Shocking the older generations of the Victorian and Edwardian era with their shorter hemlines, bobbed and marcelled hair, the exuberant use of makeup,exuberant sexuality, crazy dancing and cigarette smoking.

Gone was the prim and proper Victorian young woman and the elegant beauty of the Edwardian Gibson girl.Imagine the shock of the 1920's parents to find their daughter had turned into a gum chewing, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking flapper.Imagine the parents horror over hearing said daughters speaking of going to petting parties and mentioning their favorite snuggle pups.Quelle horreur!!

                                                               Ain't Mibehavin
                                                          
                                                         No one to talk with, all by myself
                                               No one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf
                                                  Ain't misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.


                                                         I know for certain the one you love
                                              I'm through with flirtin', it's just you I'm thinkin' of
                                                  Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.


                                                        Like Jack Horner in the corner
                                                     don't go nowhere, what do I care
                                               Your kisses are worth waitin' for . . . Believe me.


                                                     I don't stay out late, don't care to go
                                                   I'm home about 8, just me and my radio
                                                 Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.


                                                    Written in 1929 by Henry "Fats" Waller                                                     

And in the Beginning

Of all the exhibitions that presented the Art Deco style to the world, it was the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris during 1925 that brought it to preminence.The exposition was a homage to of French taste and luxury goods, with a special emphasis on modernity.

Lalique fountain at the 1925 Art Deco exposition in Paris France.

But it was European desginers, directors, producers and artists arriving in Hollywod that established the style that made Art Deco synonymous with Hollywood during its golden age. Hollywood spun tales,set against luxurious backgrounds, peopled with glamourous artists dressed in the highest of fashions. Movie themes reflected the times racy women and tall dark handsome men, always upwardly mobile, sexually liberal, young and beautiful. Hollywood was selling the American dream to the world, and introducing it to the rampant consumermism that we are addicted to still.

The city of Napier in New Zealand was destroyed by the Hawkes Bay eathquake on the 3rd of Febuary 1931, it was the subsequent rebuilding process that sees it today being regarded as one of the premier Art Deco sites in the world today. It is the opinon of the World heritage that no other Art Deco site in the world, surpasses Napiers "style and coherence", as the epitome of Art Deco style.
Art Deco style is expitomised as smooth sleek lines, the use of, and repetition of symmetrical patterns. Designs were streamlined and areodynamic, and there was emphasis on the use of man made materials. Doing away with the cluttered look of previous eras, the Art Deco look was pared down  but lavish, it embraced modernism while paying respects to the past with a heavy dose of orientalism.
Embracing Modernism meant letting go of the strict morals and mores of the Victorian era. The Art Deco era ushered in loose moral and looser women, these were known as flappers. and they belonged to those know as the Bright Young Things.
After the horrors of WW1 ended and until the beginning of the Great Depression, the Bright Young Things reigned supreme.Grandparents and parents raised during the staid Victorian and Edwardian eras looked on in horror as thier children races about in a never ending series of mad cap adventures.It was the age of jazz, the charlerston, the Golden era of Hollywood and of course the age of gangesters molls and prohibition.
My own interest in this era,stems from the fact if one lives in Napier, one cant but be imbued with the excitement of the era, as twice yearly it is celebrated in  the winter and summer in festivals lasting days.And in this blog I hope to share my ever growing love of all things Art Deco.

                
                                                                     Putting on the Ritz
                                                          Written by Irving Berlin in 1929
                                     Have you seen the well-to-do, up and down Park Avenue
                                    On that famous thoroughfare, with their noses in the air
                                    High hats and Arrowed collars, white spats and lots of dollars
                                    Spending every dime, for a wonderful time
                                    If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
                                    Why don't you go where fashion sits,
                                    Puttin' on the ritz.
                                    Different types who wear a daycoat, pants with stripes
                                   And cut away coat, perfect fits,
                                   Puttin' on the ritz.
                                   Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
                                   Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
                                   Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
                                   Or umbrellas in their mitts
                                   Puttin' on the Ritz

                                  Tips his hat just like an English chappie
                                  To a lady with a wealthy pappy (very snappy)
                                  You'll declare it's simply topping to be there
                                   And hear them swapping smart titbits
                                   Puttin' on the ritz!