Celebrating 100 Years Of Art Deco Worldwide

Exhibitions from Sarasota, FL to Mumbai, India celebrate the 100th anniversary of Art Deco's arrival on the global stage.

In this photograph taken on October 25, 2024, pedestrians walk past the Eros Cinema, a UNESCO-designated Art Deco cinema theatre in the Cambata Building at Churchgate in Mumbai. In India's financial capital Mumbai, a towering cinema with a roofline like an ocean liner stands out, part of a remarkable Art Deco architectural heritage that campaigners say needs protection. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP) (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images

History was made in 1925 with the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes–the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts and Industrial Style–in Paris. Art Deco wasn’t invented at the show, but it was announced there. Presented to the world as a cohesive aesthetic, design principle, and art form.

Emerging from the absolute wreckage of World War I, European consumers wanted something new. Fresh. A break from their terrible past. Luxury and modern living. Designers committed to leaving the ornate, opulent traditions of the 19th century behind. Bold geometric shapes and sleek lines emerged.

Automobiles, air travel, and ocean liners gained prominence. After unimaginably hard times, consumers prioritized good times. Cocktails. Cigarettes. Speakeasies. Jazz. Gatsby.

Art Deco took over fashion, architecture, decorative arts, transportation, jewelry, consumer goods of every kind, and advertising. An all-encompassing movement.

It wouldn’t last, and yet, it would.

The Great Depression and World War II ended Art Deco’s party–it was all too grim for a good time. While the aesthetic lost popularity, it never went out of style.

That remains the signature of Art Deco.

Events recognizing the 100th anniversary of Art Deco’s entry to the global stage are taking place in some of the world’s most stylish locales.

“Art Deco holds a unique place in design history as the first truly international design movement,” Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at the Sarasota (Florida) Art Museum and exhibition curator for the Museum’s “Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration” exhibition, on view now through March 29, 2026, said. “Originating in France during the 1910s, its influence quickly spread, shaping the architecture and interiors of public and private spaces across Europe and the Americas. In the United States, the style became a powerful symbol of technological innovation and progress, leaving an indelible mark on iconic skyscrapers, theaters, hotels and major transportation hubs.”

New York’s Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Plaza, and the Empire State Building. Advances in building materials–reinforced concrete, rebar, plate glass, and aluminum–allowed for the wonderous new structures. Griffith Observatory, the Eastern Columbia Building, and City Hall in Los Angeles. Miami’s historic Art Deco district.

‘Art Deco Alive!’

(Original Caption) 1/10/88-Miami Beach, Florida: Exterior view of a typical Art Deco hotel, Ocean Drive 1/10, an historic one square mile district that has a style popular in the late 20's through the Great Depression. Bettmann Archive

No place is more Art Deco than Miami Beach. Along famed Ocean Drive–with the Atlantic Ocean across the street–and throughout the Art Deco Historic District, some 800 Art Deco buildings remain.

“Unlike other places like New York that have great examples like the Empire State Building–ultimate Art Deco–Miami Beach’s Art Deco is simpler, but it is so concentrated in one specific area, (that’s) what gives the impact of being transported to another era and being surrounded by this architecture of the past,” Daniel Ciraldo, Executive Director of Miami Design Preservation League, told Forbes.com.

Art Deco Alive! represents a new global initiative marking Art Deco’s centennial and debuts this fall with an ambitious calendar of cultural programming across two of the world’s most architecturally rich cities: Miami and Mumbai, India.

Yes, Mumbai, India.

In the early 20th century, both Miami and Mumbai–then Bombay–underwent rapid urban growth paralleling the global rise of Art Deco. In Miami, a 1926 hurricane sparked a wave of reconstruction, ushering in the pastel-hued, nautically influenced Tropical Deco style that would come to define South Beach. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Deco took root in the 1930s as Indian architects blended international modernist influences with local motifs and materials, resulting in a unique, streamlined aesthetic visible in the city’s iconic neighborhoods of Marine Drive, Churchgate, and Shivaji Park.

Today, Miami Beach and Mumbai house the largest and best-preserved Deco districts in the world, each shaped by colonial histories, tropical climate, and cosmopolitan aspirations.

“Art Deco is the language of modernity in the 1920s and ’30s, bold geometry, elegant symmetry, and ornament made modern,” Art Deco Alive! co-founder Smiti Kanodia, who was born and lives in Mumbai and has also lived in Miami, told Forbes.com. “It embodied optimism and cosmopolitan glamour, balancing clarity with craftsmanship. Once you learn to recognize it, you realize Deco is everywhere. It was forward-looking then, and remarkably, it still feels fresh today.”

“Art Deco Alive!” connects the two iconic coastal cities with their world’s largest collections of Art Deco clusters through a celebration of design, heritage, and contemporary creative expression.

“Miami and Mumbai speak the same Deco language, but with distinct accents. In Miami, Deco is pastel and theatrical, with neon lights, nautical motifs, and sleek hotels that line Ocean Drive–breezy, almost cinematic. In Mumbai, Deco adapts to local culture and climate, with verandas, porthole windows, sunbreaks, and Indian iconography,” Kanodia explained. “Both cities share the symmetry, curves, and stylized ornament that define the style, yet each made it its own. Together they show Deco’s global reach: one design language flourishing in very different contexts.”

The festival is being organized in collaboration with key institutional partners including the Miami Design Preservation League, Art Deco Mumbai Trust, The Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, and The Wolfsonian–FIU. From a twin-city museum exhibition to guided heritage walks, retail pop-ups, and design- inspired symposia, Art Deco Alive! brings together voices from across the Indo-Latin world to celebrate a design movement with a living, evolving language.

Art Deco Alive! Programming Highlights:

Vintage color historic souvenir photo postcard published circa 1945 as part of a series titled, 'Greetings from Miami Beach,' depicting the Art Deco skyline of high-rise condominiums and hotels on Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida (Photo by Nextrecord Archives / Getty Images). Image by Nextrecord Archives / Getty Images

• Twin-City Centenary Museum Exhibition at the Art Deco Museum, in collaboration with the Art Deco Mumbai Trust and Miami Design Preservation League, spotlighting pioneering architects, conservationists, women trailblazers on both continents, Parisian roots, and Deco expressions across Miami and Mumbai.

• 1920s Rewind Cocktail Party at The Wolfsonian–FIU, bringing together architects, artists, tastemakers, CIPs and curators to kick off the festival in Deco style.

• Heritage Tours and Family Scavenger Hunts through the famed South Beach Deco District.

• Jewelry Edit Cocktail at The Webster, celebrating Deco-inspired design by Indian and Latin designers.

• Art Deco Symposium featuring talks on architectural conservation, urban revival, and cross-cultural design histories and identity.

“Art Deco is Miami’s signature,” Kanodia said. “The pastel hotels, neon-lit facades, curves, and porthole windows have become shorthand for the city’s glamour, but Deco here is more than just an image, it gave Miami its visual brand, its cinematic allure, and its sense of place in the global imagination. When people picture Miami Beach, they are really picturing Deco–a cultural identity that still defines the city today.”

Art Deco doesn’t define Mumbai the way it does Miami Beach. That would be impossible for a city with a population of 22 million, fourth largest in the world. It does, however, hold the second largest collection of Art Deco buildings, after Miami Beach.

“It tells a story that’s rarely heard–how a European style landed in an Indian port city and was reimagined through local traditions, ambitions, and community spirit,” Kanodia said. “Understanding Deco in Mumbai deepens appreciation of Miami’s Deco, revealing it as part of a truly global movement. Even if you never visit, knowing this story expands how we see design as a shared language that connects cultures, identities, and generations.”

While Mumbai and Miami constantly evolve, are torn down and built up a new, Kanodia hopes to see their Art Deco buildings preserved.

“They are living heritage; cultural memory in concrete and stucco,” she said. “These buildings tell the story of how cities once imagined their future: modern, global, ambitious. Preserving them is not just about beauty; it’s about safeguarding identity, memory, and resilience. They enrich local communities, inspire creativity, and remind us that design is ultimately about people and the stories we pass forward. Protecting Deco ensures that future generations experience its optimism and magic firsthand.”

The Golden Age Of Illustration

Installation view of “Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration” at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2025. Ryan Gamma.

Along with the skyscrapers, when most people think “Art Deco,” what comes to mind are the posters. The Illustrations. The advertising. The Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design across the state from Miami leans heavy on posters in its celebration of the movement’s centennial.

Iconic posters are joined by furniture, sculptural pieces, and vintage cocktail shakers transporting visitors to the 1920s and 1930s during “Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration.”

The rare posters on view offer insight into the pivotal role advertising and graphic design played in shaping this new culture, turning everyday products and experiences into symbols of modern taste and sophistication. As companies sought to reach new customers, they turned to top artists and designers who created bold and witty posters establishing brand identities and guiding consumer habits.

Art Deco went hand in hand with a surge in global consumerism and ramped-up capitalism.

All the posters in the exhibition are from the William W. and Elaine Crouse Collection, one of the most important private collections in the world. The Crouse’s live on Siesta Key, just off Florida’s mainland from Sarasota.

Furniture and decor, much from The Wolfsonian-Florida International University in Miami Beach, showcases the luxurious materials and finishes that dominated the era, such as rich woods, glass, chrome, stainless steel, and brass. Highlights include elegant furniture and lighting pieces by visionaries like Giovanni “Gio” Ponti, whose prolific output reshaped 20th-century design.

Louis Vuitton Paris

Opened on September 26, 2025, “Louis Vuitton Art Deco” in Paris revisits the historic moment that helped define the Art Deco movement while honoring the House’s influential participation in the original event. It also spotlights the legacy of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, grandson of the founder, whose innovative and artistic vision, always with an eye to beauty, shaped a pivotal era for the House.

As the global presentations demonstrate, Art Deco proved universal and endlessly adaptable.

“It evokes the Jazz Age and Old Hollywood, yet feels futuristic in a skyline or on Instagram today,” Kanodia said. “Its glamour and functionality resonate across geographies and generations. Growing up in Mumbai, I saw Deco woven into daily life–cinemas, apartments, signage–without it needing to be named. Later, in New York and Miami, I recognized the same vocabulary in jewelry, design, and architecture. Deco transcends place, constantly reinventing itself while remaining timeless.”

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