Revisiting Art Deco in the UK
Massey, Anne (2019) Revisiting Art Deco in the UK. In: The Routledge Companion to Art Deco. Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 115-127. ISBN 9780429032165
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This chapter reconsiders the adoption and adaptation of the style in the UK, combining approaches taken from design history and recent work in the study of the contemporary interior with reference to Hollywood Beyond the Screen: Design and Material Culture (Massey 2000).
The adoption of Art Deco in the UK in the 1930s is complex and came at a moment when the global presence of Britain and its Empire was coming increasingly under threat. The contemporary, British perception of Art Deco was that it represented a heady combination of superior French haute couture styling and American commercial success. Although it was seen as a threat by cultural commentators, who instead promoted its antithesis, modernism, there is no doubting its popularity amongst the lower middle and working classes. The chapter then conducts a detailed analysis of rooms in the Regent Palace Hotel.
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