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Rampage in Design

by Paul Niquette
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How suddenly Deco appeared! The time was 1925; the place was Paris.

Banished that year were the serene and curvilinear flourishes of Art Nouveau, surrendering to straight lines, curves of constant radius. The revolution was signalled by...

All at once, the aesthetic scene was dominated by arcs and angles, bakelite and chrome -- those were the shapes and substances most amenable to factories. The hell with Nature; let's talk Production. You can write equations for Art Deco -- linear equations, equations of the second degree. The locus must be a line segment or the arc of a circle, never an ellipse or catenary. No third derivatives in Deco's calculus. Inflection points are forbidden. It's as if rampaging geometry students wielding straight-edges and calipers had overthrown the world of design.
 
Art Deco Clock Photograph
Photo {c} Don Kellogg
KELLOGG PHOTOGRAPHY
26 Medway Road, Studio5
San Rafael, CA 94901
415/459-4415
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