1940s Textile & Wallpaper

The richness of contradiction

The 1940s style was born from the Exhibition of Arts and Techniques of 1937 which highlighted, among other things, mural art with the frescoes and panels of Sonia and Robert Delaunay for Palais de l'air and Palais du chemin de fer. For this last one, Delaunay reproduced his work Rythme sans fin on a large scale, repeating the same geometric module and playing with color contrasts. The monumental layout of the panels, the nuances of color and the dynamism of the volumes put the artistic avant-garde within everyone's reach.

Influenced by Art Deco of the 20s and 30s centuries (geometric motifs, stylized floral motifs, Japanese influence or palm trees) the reinterpretation of Baroque and its complex ornamentations (scrolls, acanthus leaves, colored contrasts and attention to detail) the 1940s style makes its contradictions a reaction both to the troubled period of the war but also to modernism and the beginnings of the International Style, its contemporary.

Surrealism, a polymorphous movement, in touch with all artistic fields, theorized by André Breton and carried by the creations of Giorgio de Chirico, Salvatore Dali and Man Ray, also inspired the 1940s with its dreamlike nature and unexpected forms.