Exhibitions/ Masterpieces of French Art Deco

Masterpieces of French Art Deco

August 4, 2009–January 23, 2011

Exhibition Overview

French Art Deco is one of the great strengths of the Metropolitan's modern design collection. The Museum has been actively collecting in this area since the 1920s, when pieces were acquired directly from their designers in Paris. This presentation in The Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Gallery features many of the collection's most important works, some of which have not been shown for generations.

The installation includes furniture by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Louis Süe and André Mare, Armand-Albert Rateau, and Pierre Legrain; works in glass by René Jules Lalique, Maurice Marinot, and Henri Navarre; ceramics by Émile Lenoble and Emile Decoeur; metalwork by Jean Puiforcat and Edgar Brandt; textiles by Paul Poiret; jewelry by Georges Fouquet; lacquer work by Jean Dunand; and the magnificent set of reverse-painted and gilded glass panels designed by Jean Dupas for the first-class salon of the ocean liner Normandie.