Art Deco Style Remains Forever Cool, as an Upcoming Exhibit at Sarasota Art Museum Shows

Not every piece of art can still look thoroughly modern and contemporary approaching its 100th anniversary. Somehow, the works designated by the term “Art Deco” seem to achieve that, as an upcoming exhibition at the Sarasota Art Museum will prove. 

Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration, opening at SAM Aug. 31 to run through March 29, celebrates the centennial of that art movement, forever defined by its streamlined, cool-looking aesthetic, whether depicting ocean liners, trains, cars, planes or other machines with geometric precision. The show will display more than 100 Art Deco posters dating from the 1920s and ’30s, from the collection of part-time Sarasotans Bill and Elaine Crouse. It will also feature furniture of the era on loan from the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami, and, to round out the Roaring ’20s ambiance, some cunningly constructed cocktail shakers that will have visitors ready to swig some Prohibition-era booze.

Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at SAM, who’s been working on organizing the show for months, says it will present some “very rare, visually stunning and ingenious posters,” by well-known names including French artists A.M. Cassandre, Jean Carlu and Charles Loupot. Some sculptures will be on view as well, bringing to three-dimensional life the early age of “speed, modernization, progress and luxury” that typifies Art Deco designs.

“There is this simplicity, precision and elegance, embodying how to sell the desire and aspirations of modern life,” says Yoon. “Our time is defined by excitement and fears and anxiety about AI. In the 1920s and ’30s, it was all about this actual physical machinery, made possible by mass production. These beautiful aesthetic objects also capture the optimism between the two world wars. The lines were really clean, the colors simplified—all very cosmopolitan and sophisticated.”

As she puts it, “A lot of these posters are selling desires. If you buy these clothes in this department store, you can dress like these elegant dandies. You can go to exotic places by taking ocean liners; you can buy this automobile and experience speed and excitement. These products are really conveyed in an eye-catching way.”

Certainly, the works purchased for their collection have been catching the eyes of the Crouses for many years. “To us, it’s timeless,” says Bill. “We can look at a piece that’s 100 years old and it’s easy to imagine that it was just designed today.” And, “For those of us who are history buffs,” adds Elaine, “the period and time are quite interesting, between the wars. If you have some understanding of what was going on. It’s the beginning of modernism.”

Starting out as collectors, the couple admits, they made some early mistakes. “I bought a lot of pedestrian, uninteresting posters at first,” says Bill. But, Elaine explains, “As you build upon your knowledge base, your taste becomes more refined, and you can laugh at your own mistakes. You’re elevating yourself, year after year.”

While they’ve been assembling their collection for decades, ending up with more than 1,000 posters along with other Art Deco items, the fever to collect has not abated. Bill bought a poster just a few weeks ago, he says, “that’s extremely rare, a 1922 depiction of the Italian Grand Prix” that will be in the SAM show.

As they’ve focused on buying the rarest, most beautiful Art Deco posters, they have frequently loaned pieces to major museums (a recent show at the Poster House in New York was, Elaine says, “a wild success”), and Bill even wrote two now out-of-print books on the subject.

To sum up the movement’s lasting appeal, Elaine says, “Art Deco was glamorous. The objects were using new material, sleek designs—complementing the early industrial age, the era of the building of the skyscraper. All these pieces fit together to support the luxury and the glamour of Art Deco. I’m happy that the show is coming to Sarasota, and to share it with the community.”

During the exhibition’s run, there will be various programs scheduled, some featuring the Crouses and curators from other museums as well as SAM. Stay in the loop by visiting sarasotaartmuseum.org.