All text reproduced from World's Fair magazine, Volume VIII, Number 3, Copyright 1988, World's Fair, Inc.
Expanded and revised version January 2000, by Arthur Chandler.


PLANS FOR THE EXPOSITION

Scheme for the exhibits on
the Esplanade des Invalides
   

The decorative arts exhibition, the government decided, would take place in 1914. But as discussions progressed, the date for the opening of the fair was pushed back to 1916, then 1917. The exigencies of the World War pushed the date back even farther, and it was not until 1921 that the funds were actually voted for the exposition. In addition, supporters of the Art Deco fair had to persuade the supporters of the colonial exposition to delay their opening, which was originally planned for 1924.

After much negotiation, Commissioner Dior persuaded the city of Paris to donate three million francs and seventy two acres of land for the exposition. But best of all was the location of these acres. The Art Deco exposition would spread throughout the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Cours la Reine, the entire Pont Alexandre, and the Esplanade des Invalides. For the first time since 1855, the exhibition would hold forth in the very heart of the City of Light.

For the Art Deco fair, France erected nothing on the scale of the Eiffel Tower, and created no permanent legacy like the Grand Palais and Petit Palais from the 1900 exposition. Charles Plumet, chief architect for the exposition, was charged with conjuring up a splendid but temporary fairyland that would last for six months. Given the location of the fairgrounds, it was inconceivable that any imposing permanent structure could have been erected that would not have defaced the site. But knowing that their creations would vanish after the fair, architects could give free reign to their fancy.


The Porte d'Honneur, one of twelve
monumental entraceways to the Fair
   

In a fair whose stated theme is the decorative arts, first impressions are supremely important. The imposing entranceway at the Porte d'Honneur, designed by the firm of Favier and Ventre provided visitors with a stunningly framed view of the Grand Palais. Simulated stone combined with bronze and wrought iron, illuminated by indirect neon light, to give the entranceway a sense of majesty by day, mystery by night. Cast-iron reliefs over the gateways celebrated the dignity of labor. American visitors passing through the Porte d'Honneur would be pleased to note La France, a monumental statue by Antoine Bourdelle, celebrating the arrival of American fighting forces in France in 1917.

The Porte d'Honneur was only one of twelve monumental entraceways to the exposition. For some visitors, the most striking was the Porte d'Orsay, designed by Louis-Hippolyte Boileau. 3 The Art Deco steel structure served as a monumental frame for a semi-abstract mural. Figures and structures labeled Sculpture, Ceramics, The Book, Architecture, Wrought Iron, Furniture, and, highest-placed of all, Fashion. The ensemble clearly articulated the unity of the fine arts with the applied arts at the 1925 exposition.


The famous Deco style restaurant Maison Prunier was opened in 1925 to coincide with the Exposition.
(Facade by Labouret and interior by Boileau.)

It is highly significant that the representation of the Eiffel Tower on the panel of the Porte d'Orsay is not placed with Architecture, but between Sculpture and Fashion. This explicitly symbolic placement gives us a hint as to the aesthetic sensibility of the Art Deco exposition. At the time when the Eiffel Tower was actually constructed, both advocates and opponents of the structure saw it as the bold (or brazen) representative of the aesthetics of engineering. The graceful sweep of the girders gave voice to the proud sense that engineers, too, had their own ideas of beauty. Thirty-six years later, though, Parisians saw the Tower as a venerable symbol of its age, a time when their parents and grandparents celebrated the centennial of the Revolution with a grandiloquent gesture in iron – a material long since replaced by steel as the technological building material of choice for all architects. Now, in 1925, the Eiffel Tower stood as a monument, like the Arc de Triomphe, whose form and function symbolized the fashions of a bygone age. By 1925, the Eiffel Tower had become a statement of fashion, a precursor of Art Deco.

 

NOTES

3 Later, Boileau was chosen to be one of the architects of the Chaillot Palace for the 1937 exposition.


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