American Art Deco opens with a selection of objects made in Paris during the 1920s, when a new style centered on sleek lines, geometric forms, and luxurious materials was emerging. The style came to be known as art deco after the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), in which participating designers promoted the new aesthetic. “Many American artists and patrons saw this work either directly or through reproductions and sought to recreate it stateside,” says Delmez. “Although American art deco objects retain the emphasis on angularity and simplicity seen in those produced in France, they were generally made with less expensive materials and therefore available to a wider class of consumers.”4

The step-like sides and starburst motif found in Paul T. Frankl’s Modernique Clock (1928), for example, evoke contemporary European design, but the timepiece is made from chrome and Bakelite—a new form of synthetic plastic—rather than silver and ivory. Sculptors, painters, and printmakers also embraced these formal elements, as seen through other works in this section by Paul Manship, Raymond Jonson, and Rockwell Kent.

The exhibition features several important works by Aaron Douglas, photographer James Van Der Zee, and other notable figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas came to Nashville from New York to create a series of murals in his signature style of silhouetted figures and radiating bands of color for Fisk University in 1930. Ten years later, he established the art department at Fisk, where he taught for the next 26 years.

The optimism of the Jazz Age and the so-called “Roaring Twenties” came to an abrupt end with the stock market crash of 1929. The cascading effects of its collapse were compounded by devasting erosion throughout parts of the Midwest in the early 1930s caused by drought and unsustainable farming practices. Paintings like Grant Wood’s Stone City, Iowa (1930) reflect an idyllic rural life that appealed to isolationist Depression-era audiences. Photographs by Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein, both hired by the Farm Security Administration, document the continuing despair experienced by many people during this time. The impulse to create beautiful domestic spaces remained, however, and firms like the Indiana Glass Company were able to use molds to mechanically produce a range of beautifully colored and patterned glassworks that were inexpensive and therefore accessible to the middle class.

The exhibition concludes with a section devoted to modern everyday living, featuring mass-produced household items such as vacuum cleaners, irons, radios, and more affordable ceramic dishes that enhanced the quality of life for many middle-class women. The designs reflect the streamlined style of the machine age.