Paris Exhibition Celebrates 100 Years of Art Deco Design

PARIS — More than a century after its birth, Art Deco is once again having a moment. 

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is celebrating the seminal design movement of the Roaring 1920s with a blockbuster exhibition that includes some 1,200 items ranging from lacquer screens to diamond brooches — and even a flying train. 

“We thought big. After all, Art Deco truly lies at the heart of our institution,” Anne Monier Vanryb, curator in charge of the 1910-60 collections at the museum, told WWD. “In our view, we hold the world’s most exceptional museum collection of Art Deco design, and we wanted to show it all.” 

Titled “1925–2025: One Hundred Years of Art Deco,” the exhibition opening on Wednesday celebrates the 100th anniversary of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925 with a comprehensive overview spanning furniture, jewelry, interior design, graphic art and fashion. 

Special sections showcase the work of three design stars of the era — Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Eileen Gray and Jean-Michel Frank — alongside jewels from the likes of Cartier and Boucheron, dresses by Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet and others, and precious objects from heritage brands including Lalique, Christofle and Puiforcat. 

Many items originally featured in the 1925 Paris showcase, which cemented the French capital’s reputation as the trendsetter for modern decorative arts, though the design movement originated a decade earlier and the term Art Deco wasn’t coined until much later. 

Among the highlights is the complete library room designed by Pierre Chareau for the French Embassy pavilion presented by the Societé des artistes décorateurs, or Society of Decorative Artists, the leading French grouping of its time.

The room, alongside other key exhibits, had not been seen for seven years, after a small fire prompted the extended closure of the museum’s permanent Art Deco galleries. 

“We’re thrilled to be able to share our masterpieces once again. It makes this exhibition especially meaningful for the museum, as many of these works are returning to view after a long absence,” Monier Vanryb said. 

“The fire did not damage the collections but there was smoke, which of course meant a thorough decontamination process, both of the building and the artworks. It took a great deal of time to fall back on our feet,” she added. 

Movement With No Manifesto

The diversity of the exhibits partly explains why the movement eluded definition for a long time. It wasn’t until a major show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1966 that the term Art Deco became widely used.

“The aim of this exhibition is really to show just how broad and varied Art Deco is,” Monier Vanryb said. “There’s no single manifesto or unifying theory behind it. It’s more about individuals expressing the spirit of the time through their aesthetic choices.”

The functional minimalism of a closet designed by Gray for her Villa E-1027 on the French Riviera stands in stark contrast to an anthropomorphic chest of drawers by André Groult, made of rare materials including shagreen, mahogany and ivory, she noted. 

A section featuring items that belonged to fashion designer and art collector Jacques Doucet is similarly eclectic. Yves Saint Laurent, Andy Warhol and decorator Jacques Grange — who curated a room in the exhibit — attended an auction of Doucet’s collection in 1972, kickstarting an Art Deco revival that sent prices spiraling.

Those market fluctuations have not impacted the museum, which acquired many important pieces when they were originally made, and later received donations from artists or their heirs. “This history of early and continued support not only helped shape the collection, but also reinforces our legitimacy in this field,” Monier Vanryb said. 

In the museum’s soaring central nave, a section dedicated to the Orient Express juxtaposes an original 1927 cabin with three full-scale models of the updated version of the luxury train, conceived by French architect and interior designer Maxime d’Angeac, ahead of its planned relaunch in spring 2027. 

Visitors enter under a suspended replica of the so-called “King of Trains” and “Train of Kings,” immortalized in Agatha Christie novels and James Bond movies. Elements such as lamps, wood paneling and tableware from 1925 are displayed alongside their contemporary counterparts. 

“What we created is not about nostalgia or imitation. It’s a reinvention that stays true to the DNA of the brand,” d’Angeac said. “Art Deco, unlike Art Nouveau, never truly went out of style, mainly because it was never just a passing trend to begin with.”

The architect tapped France’s top craftspeople to work on every detail of the train’s interior, from the clocks developed with Cartier to the wooden panels embroidered with Japanese beads. 

“There are 35,000 on each panel, with 70,000 hand-embroidered perforations, all crafted 200 kilometers from Paris. It’s like the interior design version of haute couture,” he said during a walk-through of a model suite, complete with high-tech glass shower, marble sink and velvet couch that transforms into a double bed.

The exhibition also features sections of the train’s future bar car, complete with a call button for Champagne service, and dining car, with walls featuring a “rail” motif inspired by Suzanne Lalique’s original tapestry designs for the first Orient Express trains. 

Exporting Style

D’Angeac was keen to underline that the exhibit was not a marketing exercise, and that it was the museum that reached out to Accor, the hospitality group that operates the Orient Express. “We’re not here to promote ourselves — we’re here to share the work we do,” he said.

Indeed, the architect — who is used to operating behind the scenes for private clients — struggled to describe the feeling of seeing his work displayed in the temple of French design.

“It moves me to tears,” he said. “When I started studying architecture at the Beaux-Arts and working in this field, I never imagined I’d one day find myself here, in this position. It’s hard to put into words, but I’m deeply honored.”

For Monier Vanryb, showcasing Art Deco’s relationship with travel is crucial to understanding both its international influence and enduring appeal. 

A room in the exhibition shows how depictions of boats and trains were recurring motifs, and how France — using precious resources obtained through colonization — exported Art Deco style through ocean liners like the Normandie, which boasted light fixtures by René Lalique, furniture by Ruhlmann and tea sets by Christofle.

“Cruise ships really served as instruments of soft power to showcase what France was capable of achieving,” she remarked. 

The room includes a scale model of the Tourism Pavilion designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens that flanked the Grand Palais for the duration of the 1925 exhibition. Like almost everything built for the occasion, it was subsequently torn down.

“People thought it was pretty shocking at the time to spend so much money on a temporary exhibition and to destroy buildings, especially just after the war,” Monier Vanryb said. 

“Still, the exhibition itself was a big success. It drew around 15 million visitors — not quite as many as the huge World’s Fairs like the one in 1900, but it was a lot of people for that time. It was a really lively, popular event. You had everything: rides, attractions, restaurants — enough to keep you busy for the whole day,” she recounted. 

Though Monier Vanryb admitted it was impossible to convey the scope of the original event, she hopes the exhibition will give visitors a glimpse of the energy of the period by bringing it all to life in living color — whether through the geometric motifs of a jacket designed by Sonia Delaunay, or a pink furnishing fabric depicting pineapples.

“A lot of what we know about Art Deco comes from black-and-white photos, so people often forget how vibrant and playful it actually was. It’s full of life, full of humor,” the curator said.