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Art Deco on the Plains

This special exhibit explores Art Deco design locally. The term Art Deco, popularized in the 1960s, applies to the predominant decorative art and design style that visually defined an era encompassing the Roaring 1920s – known for its post-war exuberance, decadence, and prohibition – through the 1930s – remembered for the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the years leading to WWII. The term derives from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, a design exposition held in Paris in 1925. The exposition – attended by visitors as far away as Wichita, Kansas – quickly set the scene for what was to come in terms of fashion, graphic design, industrial design, and architecture. New materials, technology, and manufacturing techniques combined with the sensibilities of modern fine arts movements to create a distinct new aesthetic that widely reshaped our daily visual experience with boldly delineated geometric shapes and patterns. “Art Deco on the Plains” draws from the Museum’s permanent collection and features artifacts on loan from local collectors. The exhibition will be on view in the Slawson Gallery through 2023 and is funded as part of the Lois Kay Walls Local Visual Art History Series.