Visual & Decorative Arts Blog

We may be halfway through the year, but we've still got six months left to indulge ourselves in some beautiful art. With that being said, we've compiled a list of the top 10 worldwide exhibitions that you can still visit throughout the year. Grab your tickets!

Topics: Museums & Galleries, Art Deco, Masterpieces of Art, Flame Tree Calendars, british art, religious art, art

This week marked the long awaited re-opening of museums and art galleries throughout the UK. We can finally indulge in some wonderful art culture again, so here’s a list of ten of the top UK exhibitions this year. Grab your tickets quick, we suspect they’ll be in high demand!

Topics: Museums & Galleries, street art, digital art, Banksy, Art Deco, Masterpieces of Art, Flame Tree Calendars, british art, religious art, art

The Art Deco movement came to fruition in the early 1900s. In 1925 the Exposition Internationale, which focused on Art Deco design then called Moderne, opened for a six-month run that garnered over sixteen million visitors. The United States did not exhibit at the show because, according to then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (1874–1964), they did not have a sufficient collection of modern products to display. The United States did, however, attend the show. They sent over eighty delegates who were captivated by the designs they saw. It fell in sync with American optimism and American wealth and would come to heavily shape the style we now associate with classic Americana. They didn’t just replicate the art deco style but developed it in to something that was specific to American design.

Topics: Art Deco, Masterpieces of Art, raymond loewy

Our visually stunning art calendars feature a fantastic collection of works from prominent and beloved artists. Here’s a rundown of 10 of our best 2017 wall calendars featuring work from 20th-century artists.

Topics: visual arts, Art Deco, Art Calendars, Modern Art, Flame Tree Calendars

The twentieth century saw many radical changes in people’s lives: an increased pace of technological and industrial change; the rapid spread of large urban centres; the development of new means of transportation and communication; innovative scientific discoveries such as the X-ray and the theory of relativity; the growth of consumerism on a large scale; and the chilling reality of mass warfare. Against this background of social, political and technological developments, Western art also underwent a series of radical shifts.

Topics: Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Art Movements, futurism, bauhaus

The beginnings of the graphic art of Art Deco lie in the inspirational works of commercial artists such as the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, who revolutionized poster art in Paris in 1895, and the French artists Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Their sensational poster depictions of cabaret at the Moulin Rouge in Paris influenced a generation of illustrators.

Topics: Art Deco

The elegant figures and geometrical, bold designs of Romain de Tirtoff (1892–1990) – better known by the French pronunciation of his initials, Erté – are instantly recognisable and have left a lasting legacy in the art and fashion industries. Much of Erté's success stems from the sheer range of materials his works encompass, with his sinuous shapes and vibrant designs gracing not only magazine covers and book illustrations, but also jewellery, furniture, textiles, stage sets and costumes. Hailed as 'the father of Art Deco', the designer produced more than twenty thousand designs during his long life, and as a keen experimenter, he was growing in fame and continuing to sample new mediums for his art well into his nineties. Today we'll be taking a tour of the myriad forms his iconic, sleek designs took and how his eagerness to learn new techniques kept him and his work at the forefront of the design world.

Topics: Art Deco, Erte

The Art Deco movement reached its apotheosis in the 1920s and 1930s. Instead of taking roots in historical influences it became an embodiment of the modern and the contemporary. Art Deco was originally synonymous with a luxury that limited it to the higher social classes, however mass production soon made it available to the middle classes that were emerging at the time. The style really took off in the United States but it was also the first truly global fashion, having found its way into all forms of design and into societies all over the world.

Topics: Art Deco, Art Calendars

History was made this past weekend as the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Of course, news of this monumental event put an extra cheer into the Pride day celebrations on Saturday. Elaborate outfits and exceptional fashion paraded its way down the streets of London as pure love for the gay community was visually expressed. Reminiscing in all the outfits and designs, one would only know that the famous Art Deco designer, Erté, would have loved to be a part of this celebration.

Topics: Art Deco, Erte

With the tagline 'the world's greatest museum of art and design', the Victoria and Albert Museum (better known as the V&A) certainly creates high expectations and promises a lot, and it sure does deliver. Currently, there are over two thousand years of art in almost every medium in the museum's collections, from a multitude of places all over the globe. The contrast between walking through the grand archway that is the main entrance into the museum and the humongous, abstract Dale Chihuly chandelier hanging over the information desk in the lobby wonderfully illustrates just how much the V&A holds. While their special temporary exhibitions are very much worth seeing, it's a must-do to go and see the vast array of art the V&A has on permanent display. Here are just a selection of the movements and artists that the museum covers…

Topics: Museums & Galleries, Art Deco, Art Calendars, William Morris