Art Deco Painting

by Edward Lucie-Smith

Art Deco was one of the liveliest and most comprehensive of 20th century trends, embracing decorative arts, fine arts and fashion. This book looks at the least known of these - painting. The renowned art critic, Edward Lucie-Smith, analyzes the characteristics of the style, period and history of the movement, and discusses the various Art Deco painters, French, Italian, Russian, British and American. These artists, such as Tamara de Lempicka, Jean Dupas and Bernard Boutet de Monvel, were drawn to the luxury of the classical scene and the beauty of the speeding car, to the streamline of the metal skyscraper and the flesh of the rich and famous, which they portrayed in a most refreshing manner.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith, known as Edward Lucie-Smith, was an English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster.

Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and, after a little time in Paris, he read History at Merton College, Oxford from 1951 to 1954.

After serving in the Royal Air Force as an Education Officer and working as a copywriter, he became a full-time writer (as well as anthologist and photographer). He succeeded Philip Hobsbaum in organising The Group, a London-centred poets' group.

At the beginning of the 1980s he conducted several series of interviews, Conversations with Artists, for BBC Radio 3. He is also a regular contributor to The London Magazine, in which he writes art reviews. A prolific writer, he has written more than one hundred books in total on a variety of subjects, chiefly art history as well as biographies and poetry.

In addition he has curated a number of art exhibitions, including three Peter Moores projects at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; the New British Painting (1988–90) and two retrospectives at the New Orleans Museum of Art. He was a curator of the Bermondsey Project Space.

Edward Lucie-Smith died in July 2026, at the age of 93.

Information about Lucie-Smith's death from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Eva Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book. Some nits. He kept referring to posters and I wish they were included. I wanted to see the difference between the art deco posters versus paintings. He did not seem to like this art style and used the term art deco almost as an insult. Finally, He had more images of the “lesser” artists than the stronger artists.

[Dfordoom · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the conventional view of art history presents 20th century art as the triumphal progress of modernism Lucie-Smith’s book book demonstrates that figurative art was alive and well in the 1920s and 1930s. Art deco painting was in fact an intriguing blend of modernism and classicism.

A great book, profusely illustrated. Highly recommended.

[Thomas Van Boening · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about art deco in college, and I wished I could have seen more in the medium of painting in the art deco style. This was that book.

Most paintings really capture the art deco aesthetic and the landscape and portraiture is very unique.

If you enjoy this movement of art, then this book is for you.