Glamour and geometry. Art Deco in illustration. Blackbox #17

Paris, 1925: The “Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes” celebrates the triumph of a new aesthetic. Around 15,000 exhibitors from 18 nations present what would later go down in design history as Art Deco at this world exhibition of decorative arts – a style whose name was only derived retrospectively from the title of the show.

One hundred years later, the Bröhan Museum is taking this anniversary as an opportunity to once again focus on the eccentric yet elegant design language of Art Deco: the style found a particularly dazzling stage in illustrations for magazines and advertising. These graphic testimonies had a decisive influence on the image of modernism—they made the luxury of the new era visible, reproducible, and appealing to the masses. Yet they were anything but trivial: fashion magazines of the time were small works of art, printed on fine paper and produced using the elaborate au pochoir process. In this technique, the color is applied by hand with ink-soaked tampons and fine stencils – a process that produces delicate, almost relief-like structures and, at the same time, intense, luminous colors. The process was perfectly suited to reproducing the designs of the great couturiers and couturières such as Paul Poiret, Jeanne Lanvin, and Madeleine Vionnet without detracting from their radiance. Renowned fashion houses also had extremely elaborate, often large-format luxury catalogs printed in gold and silver on heavy handmade paper. Such exquisite printed products contributed significantly to shaping the glamour and opulent radiance of Art Deco In addition to fashion, interior design became a preferred medium for expressing style and individuality. The lavish furnishings of one’s own four walls provided an opportunity to display wealth and refined taste.

The exhibition “Glamour and Geometry” is dedicated to these extraordinary printed works and offers a fascinating insight into the outstanding art of illustration during the Art Deco period. All of the works on display come from the Lucius private collection in Stuttgart, which is being shown in Berlin for the first time with this presentation.

Design: Gerwin Schmidt, 2025