Art Deco was a style of art and furniture during the first two world wars which spanned from around 1920 to 1939, according to Retropolis.com. Furniture styles changed because of the social changes that made different types of furniture necessary after World War I. People who could afford expensive luxuries wanted nicely designed, decorative furniture that was useful too. Art Deco continued to affect art through 1950. There were two main schools of Art Deco. The first focused on making art for the rich, upper class of society with specially designed pieces of furniture. Each piece of furniture was a work of art. While the first school used ivory and amboyna wood, the second school used chrome and glass. Individualized furniture gave way to mass production, and furniture makers used a geometric look to make obvious that their work was functional in the mid-1920s.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German Art Deco furniture maker and architect who lived from 1886 to 1969. He learned some technical skills from his family's stone carving business. He trained in modern art under architect Peter Behrens, an artist from the German Modernism period. Mies van der Rohe's furniture is recognizable by its steel medium and its elegant look. It looks functional and has hand-finished details. His famous piece, the Barcelona Chair, is currently in production in 2010. It was not mass produced until after World War II, which makes earlier models valuable.
Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann is considered one of the great Art Deco furniture designers. He was a painter who began making furniture by drawing his father's furniture. His technique was to use opulent mediums-violetwood, amboyna and macassar ebony-which he would transform into a sleek piece of furniture that appeared to come from a single piece of wood. He took over his father's company and renamed it Rulhmann et Laurent. The company marketed its product to upper class, wealthy people.
Architect and artist Louis Süe combined forces with artist André Mare to create the Compagnie des Arts Français in 1919. It focused on making art that was purely born from French influences. The furniture had dramatic designs, pictures and patterns made with veneers and inlays.
Art Deco was also an artistic genre seen by furniture makers in the East. For instance, Shanghai architecture and furniture were influenced by Art Deco in the early 20th century. Fashion concepts and artistic designs spread quickly to Shanghai; it was an up and coming city full of new ideas. "Shanghai Deco" furniture combined Art Deco principles of craftsmanship and traditional Chinese furniture.