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Paris World's Fair 1925: Art Déco on an International Scale with Dr. Jennie Hirsh

Paris World's Fair 1925: Art Déco on an International Scale with Dr. Jennie Hirsh


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

This seminar takes a trip back in time to visit the Paris International Exposition of Industrial Design and Decorative Arts in Modern Life, the fair that put decorative arts and modern industrial design on the map. Originally planned for 1915, but postponed first due to the outbreak of World War I and then due to the presence of other fairs in the early 1920s, this event finally opened in April 1925 and attracted a total of 14 million visitors before closing in October of that year.

Comprising 131 pavilions, this exposition focused on what became known as Art Deco, the style that combined references to the machine age, primitivism, cubism, constructivism, futurism, Egyptology, and more to create a new, angular, and geometrically rich aesthetic. Moreover, through the lens of decorative arts, the fair underscored the relationship between art and industry, showcasing together the work of craftsmen, decorators, designers, and fine artists. Highlights will include the pavilions on the Place des Invalides sponsored by Paris' grandest department stores, including Au Bon Marché, Au Printemps, Les Magasins du Louvre, and Galleries Lafayette, as well as a selection of national pavilions.

And, rather than insisting almost exclusively on the twin themes of peace and progress, as at other World's Fairs in Paris, this exposition aimed to re-establish the French as tastemakers in design and fashion. Other highlighted pavilions will include Le Corbusier's Esprit Moderne and Konstantin Melnikov's glass constructivist contribution as well as the structures that housed Baccarat crystal, Christofle tableware, Lalique glass, and Sèvres ceramics.

Led by an expert on modern and contemporary art, architecture, and design, Dr. Jennie Hirsh, this Conversation will not only provide a virtual tour of this exhibition through photographs, advertisements, and plans but also analyze the lasting contribution made by this fair. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased appreciation for not only how this event inaugurated and enhanced cross-cultural conversations about the decorative arts but also world's fairs more generally.

This seminar has been designed to be enjoyed as a standalone experience or as part of Dr. Hirsh's extended series spotlighting each World's Fair in turn. For more details, click here.

Jennie Hirsh (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College) is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Columbia Universities, as well as pre-doctoral fellowships from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Wolfsonian FIU. Hirsh has authored essays on artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Yinka Shonibare, and Regina Silveira, and is co-editor, with Isabelle Wallace, of Contemporary Art and Classical Myth (Ashgate 2011).

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
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M
M.M. (Miami Beach, US)
Comprehensive deep dive into the 1925 Paris Expo

I thoroughly enjoyed Jennie Kirsh's very well organized and illustrated presentation on the 1925 Paris Exposition, so important as it is usually viewed as the "birthplace" of much of the Art Deco movement in Europe and North America. I am a member of the Miami Design Preservation League in Miami Beach, Florida, where we give walking tours of the art deco historic district here and make frequent reference to the 1925 Expo. So it that sense, I already knew a fair amount but did not have the context the presenter gave of the preceding and following world's fair that is so important to understanding its place in history. And I had never seem many, many of the illustrations.

L
Lynette Allen (San Diego, US)

Guest did not leave comment

A
Anonymous (Orinda, US)

Guest did not leave comment

L
Laura (Monterey, US)
Love Parid

This seminar about the Paris World’s Fair was fabulous. I love Paris and enjoyed learning so much more about Paris. I look forward to a visit to Paris when the world opens again in a safe way.

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
100%
(6)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
M
M.M. (Miami Beach, US)
Comprehensive deep dive into the 1925 Paris Expo

I thoroughly enjoyed Jennie Kirsh's very well organized and illustrated presentation on the 1925 Paris Exposition, so important as it is usually viewed as the "birthplace" of much of the Art Deco movement in Europe and North America. I am a member of the Miami Design Preservation League in Miami Beach, Florida, where we give walking tours of the art deco historic district here and make frequent reference to the 1925 Expo. So it that sense, I already knew a fair amount but did not have the context the presenter gave of the preceding and following world's fair that is so important to understanding its place in history. And I had never seem many, many of the illustrations.

L
Lynette Allen (San Diego, US)

Guest did not leave comment

A
Anonymous (Orinda, US)

Guest did not leave comment

L
Laura (Monterey, US)
Love Parid

This seminar about the Paris World’s Fair was fabulous. I love Paris and enjoyed learning so much more about Paris. I look forward to a visit to Paris when the world opens again in a safe way.

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment