On view in the second-floor Modern & Contemporary galleries, this focused installation from the Appleton’s Art Deco collection highlights themes of domesticity and home.
The early 20th century was marked by both extraordinary progress and profound hardship. Rapid industrial and technological advances transformed daily life, even as two world wars and widespread economic depression brought global challenges. This was the dawn of the consumer age, when opulent luxury often stood in contrast to practical necessity.
Amid these tensions, art and design flourished. Art Deco, shaped by international exchange across both the Atlantic and Pacific, became a defining style of the era. At its height, it was everywhere — seen in homes, fashion, architecture and objects of everyday life. A century later, Art Deco remains one of the most admired and recognizable design movements.