A Son of the Rock

I caught the programme whose title was the same as this post on BBC4 on Monday night. It was about the cultural revolution of the 1920s and 30s and focused on Art Deco/Modernism. As a result many of the buildings I have mentioned in passing – the De La Warr Pavilion, the Hoover Building – or shown myself – the Midland Hotel – were highlighted, along with others such as Saltdean Lido and the New Victoria Cinema (not, I think, the one in Edinburgh but more probably this) and a whole host of 20s and 30s buildings from the 1925 Paris Exposition Des Arts Decoratifs (where the term originated) onwards.

The impact of Hollywood on the dissemination of Art Deco style was said to be crucial as was the impression of speed, streamlining being the original “go faster” stripes.

Where I took issue a bit was when it suggested that the perfection and optimism embodied in the form was intended to be extended to humans. Some people at the time did expound eugenics, for example, but that was surely more a distortion of social Darwinism than a consequence or expression of Art Deco.

Apart from the movies the most Deco thing about the era was, of course, the posters, whether of railways or holiday destinations or ships. Some of these are just fantastic. More than a few were displayed in the programme which is on the iPlayer if you want to take a look.

There’s a new series of programmes on Art Deco Icons starting tonight (Wed 22/10/09) on BBC4. The first features Claridge’s.