Art Moderne
Smooth curves, horizontal lines, and streamlined woodwork reflect the speed and precision of machine age design.
What Is Art Moderne?
Art Moderne, often called Streamline Moderne, is an architectural and decorative style that gained prominence during the 1930s. Closely related to Art Deco, it emphasizes smooth surfaces, rounded corners, long horizontal lines, and restrained ornament. Its streamlined forms draw inspiration from modern transportation and industrial design.
The style appeared in commercial and public buildings, theaters, transportation terminals, apartment buildings, and houses. Flat roofs, bands of windows, curved canopies, and glass block give buildings a distinctive modern character. Interiors carry these ideas into rounded furnishings, built-in cabinetry, metal details, and wood mouldings with smooth contours and repeated parallel lines.
The Collection
Art Moderne Characteristics
Art Moderne architecture combines simple geometric volumes with a strong horizontal emphasis. Rounded corners and continuous bands connect wall surfaces, windows, and projecting canopies. Smooth stucco and other streamlined finishes provide a setting for glass block, metal trim, and restrained decorative accents. Nautical details reinforce the connection to ocean liners and modern transportation.
- Long horizontal lines and bands
- Rounded corners and curved building forms
- Flat roofs with parapets
- Smooth walls with limited applied ornament
- Horizontal windows and glazing around corners
- Glass block and aluminum or stainless steel details
- Curved canopies, pipe railings, and porthole windows
ART MODERNE MOULDINGS
Art Moderne mouldings use smooth contours, softened edges, and repeated parallel lines. Door and window casings, crown mouldings, and baseboards bring definition to openings and wall edges through changes in profile and projection. Linear bands and rounded details echo the streamlined forms of the architecture.
Coordinated trim connects doors, windows, wall panels, and built-in cabinetry. Natural wood finishes add warmth and grain, while painted treatments can emphasize the continuity of the profiles. The overall effect depends on proportion, repetition, and carefully controlled detail.
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Period Details & Drawings
History of Art Moderne
Art Moderne gained prominence during the 1930s as architects and designers explored streamlined forms inspired by modern transportation and manufacturing. It developed in close relationship with Art Deco, sharing an interest in modern materials and geometric design while placing greater emphasis on horizontal lines, rounded corners, and smooth surfaces. Aviation, automobiles, rail travel, and ocean liners provided influential models.
The economic conditions of the Great Depression encouraged manufacturers to compete for limited consumer spending through distinctive product design. Industrial designers including Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy, and Henry Dreyfuss helped bring streamlined shapes to locomotives, automobiles, appliances, and everyday objects. Smooth casings and flowing lines communicated speed, efficiency, and technological progress, even when an object had no practical need for an aerodynamic form.
Architects adapted this design language to buildings through curved walls, horizontal window bands, projecting canopies, and polished metal details. The style was particularly suited to commercial and entertainment settings seeking a modern public image, including theaters, shops, service stations, and transportation terminals. Apartment buildings and private houses also adopted its distinctive forms.
Art Moderne remained influential into the 1940s, forming a distinct strand of the broader Modern movement alongside approaches such as the International Style. Its combination of smooth curves, repeated horizontal lines, and restrained decoration carried the visual language of industrial design into architecture, furnishings, and interior woodwork.
