ART DECO 1910-1939
National Gallery of Victoria
28 June – 5 October 2008
If the enormous crowd attending the NGV International on the Wednesday evening leading up to the final week of the Art Deco 1910-1939 exhibition was anything to go by, then this was another success in our National Gallery’s block-buster events calendar. Of course it was a reminder that it is ill-advised to leave it until the last minute to head to the Gallery for a big show; this one had been the most popular programme ever held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and it appears Melbourne had similarly embraced it!
Immediately the Art Deco style greeted us as we walked through the special lit-up entrance columns to the gallery doors. A “buzz” was generated from the crowd in the foyer area which increased as tables full of people talking and drinking wine extended into the Great Hall. The line waiting for tickets wound up and down like a huge python; it probably turned off a number of people who decided not to persevere with something possibly resembling a queue for Grand Finals tickets.
Into the exhibition space and it was again a dense line on all sides as we shuffled past display cases. Seen as mere glimpses, there was a tantalising representation of the style in furniture, jewellery, ceramics, art and photography, industrial design, architecture, fashion and textile design, household items and, for this visitor, the surprise of beautifully bound books decorated in rich Art Deco covers.
At the City of Boroondara Library Service we might not have examples of these exquisitely tooled leather volumes, but we do have many books on Art Deco that can be borrowed and longingly pored over at home. If you didn’t get to the exhibition, the catalogue is available for loan. Whether it is our museums or wonderful galleries that you have enjoyed visiting, it is worth following up special interests at the libraries.
In the week of the Grand Final and school holidays, the NGV was also infused with the excitement of the city. It is impossible to give a fair account of the exhibition because the experience was so coloured by the crush of people and noise (just like a Grand Final?) but the style, sophistication, opulence and beauty of Art Deco left its elegant impression.
