For the first time since starting this website over eleven years ago, Driving for Deco is Flying for Deco! And we are excited to be attending our first World Congress on Art Deco© and it’s in Paris.

The conference is in Paris because 2025 is the centennial of the Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes. This exposition introduced the emerging decorative style, now known as Art Deco, to the world at large. The International Coalition of Art Deco Societies organizes the Congress every two years. And the host this year is the Paris Art Deco Society.

Getting There is Half the Fun (NOT)

“Getting there is half the fun” as the slogan for the Cunard Line used to say. And if traveling to Europe aboard the Queen Mary or the Queen Elizabeth is probably true.

However, not so much when going by air in 2025.

Flying out of Newark, NJ, our 11:00 PM flight was delayed until 1:30 AM. But, our actual departure was around 2:30 AM.

However the delay did allow us to have a lovely $45.00 dinner of two sandwiches and two Sprites.

When boarding the French Bee plane finally began it went fairly quickly. And once on board, our seats were pretty comfortable. The crew provided excellent service and the meals were tasty.

Landing at Orly around 3:30 PM the following afternoon, we had no trouble or delays getting through customs or retrieving our luggage. The taxi ride to our Airbnb took around another hour.

Entering the secure vestibule, we briefly waited for our host. The street side has a thick and heavy wooden door. Beautiful beveled glass doors at the far side lead into an impressive courtyard.

After a tour of the apartment and unpacking, we were hungry. However, we wanted to check where the Congress was being held and how long it would take us to walk there.

Barely a block away we passed Passy Cemetery, unfortunately closed that evening. The cemetery dates back to 1820, but the Art Deco main entrance and reception pavilion, designed by René Berger, were a 1937 addition.

Almost across the street from the cemetery is the Palais de Chaillot. Originally known as the Palais du Trocadéro and built for the 1878 World’s Fair. The Trocadero was partially demolished In preparation for the 1937 World’s Fair and the two remaining wings completely rebuilt.

The view between the two wings of the Palais de Chaillot offers one of the most iconic of the Eiffel Tower. And even though we had to walk by this view every day of the Congress, it never failed to impress.

A shortcut to the auditorium of the Cité de l’Architecture is through the Trocadéro Esplanade. And this is where both the Congress check-in on Monday and then all the morning lectures starting Tuesday occur.

Now knowing where we needed to go the next day, it was time to figure out where we were going to have dinner. Passing through the Place du Trocadéro on our way to the Palais de Chaillot, we noticed many cafes at one end of the roundabout, so we decided to head back in that direction.

Once back at the Place du Trocadéro, we had our choice of several restaurants. After looking at the different menus, we chose to dine at Le Wilson. What caught our eye was the Wilson Menu, offering a three course dinner for just 23,00€.

To be honest all the restaurants around the Place du Trocadéro are for the tourist trade. But we have to say that our food was very good and reasonably priced.

After our dinner, it was just a short walk back to our Airbnb. We called it an early night since we knew the next day would be the start of the Congress.

Day One – Monday, October 20th

Before we left the states we kept checking the Paris weather for the upcoming week, and it forecast rain every day. So it was a pleasant surprise when we got up on Monday to see the sun shining.

Checking into the 17th Congress on Art Deco©

This was also our only leisurely morning of the Congress. All we needed to do was to check-in at the auditorium of the Cité de l’Architecture between noon and two and get our tote bags and swag.

Photo op, Chris and Anthony in front of the Congress poster at check-in.

We needed to be back by 2:30 to board the bus that would take us to the Palais de la Porte Dorée, for a tour and the opening night reception. This gave us plenty of time for a nice lunch. This time we chose another restaurant on the Place du Trocadéro, Café Kléber.

 

Palais de la Porte Dorée

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Opening Night Reception

After waiting for about a half an hour for the bus to arrive, boarding began around 3:00 and just before the rain started to fall. With Paris traffic the trip to the Palais de la Porte Dorée took about 45 minutes. But we passed some very nice sights on our way.

As the bus stopped for a red light, a very tall Art Deco lamp post caught my eye. Because of the rain speckled window I could not get a great photo of it. The light was designed by a master French metal worker, Raymond Subes (1891 – 1970). These lights have a fascinating history that you can read about by clicking here. This would not be the last time that day we would run into Raymond Subes’ work.

Finally, after what seemed like a long ride, we arrived at the Palais de la Porte Dorée. And I (Anthony) couldn’t have been more excited. This building was a “bucket list” item for me. Constructed for the 1931 Colonial Exposition, today it is the only building remaining from that fair.

The six-month long fair attempted to display the diverse cultures and resources of France’s colonial possessions. Today the French government freely acknowledges the problematic history of its colonial past.

Guarding the Museum are a set of lioness statues designed by Henri-Édouard Navarre. The original 1927 design included six lounging lioness – three on either side – with heads raised and turned watching guest enter the building. The plans had them residing on graduated platform flanking the entrance staircase.

By 1929, the revised plans called for a pair granite pylons at the main gate. Atop, and keeping watch, each featured a pair of lioness.  Albert Laprade (1883 – 1978) designed the gates using an African motif as inspiration and an homage to the people of the African nations and their contributions to France.

Also designed by Albert Laprade in collaboration with Léon Jaussely (1875 – 1932), the Palais de la Porte Dorée has an exotic style that does not represent any particular country. Adorning the front facade of the building is an enormous bas-relief, 42 feet high by 295 feet long. This is the largest bas-relief in Europe and was the work of Alfred Janniot (1889 – 1969). The relief, depicting the economic and human wealth brought to France from its colonies, is far removed from reality.

Once inside, the interior was just as impressive as the exterior. Immediately inside the main entrance one is in the Hall of Honour. This long lobby is notable for its amazing mosaic floor (more on them later), Edgar Brandt (1880 – 1960) iron work over the windows and a long row of eight forged iron, two bowl uplighter style floor lamps by Raymond Subes. Dominating one of the walls in the Hall is a very large painting of the Colonial Exposition’s fairgrounds.

 

Broken into groups of 20 – 30, Congress attendees, were taken on a terrific tour of the Palais de la Porte Dorée before the welcome speeches and reception. Our tour began upstairs in the Salon des Laques – Library.

This space was dismantled. But through generous donations, recently restored. Its’ name derives from the many lacquer panels by Jean Dunand (1877 – 1942). Dunand is arguably best known for his decorative panels for the ocean liner S.S. Normandie. And Dunand pieces can be found in museums worldwide.

The library’s ten panels are divided onto two levels: Seven panels on the upper level are made using the laque arrachée technique. Dunand applied layers of lacquer mixed with clay and iron oxide on a background of aluminum sheets. The lacquer is worked with a wooden spatula while still wet. And this creates a raised pattern effect against a monochrome background,

Six of Dunand’s laque arrachée panels in the upper section of the library

The three panels in the lower section of the Salon are made from black “Coromandel” lacquer, and created by the laque défoncée (“beaten”) technique. La Fôret, the largest of the three panels, measures 9′ 8″ x 11′ 5″. Silver and red paint in the incisions brighten the black lacquer layers.

The high quality library furniture was removed to other offices or put into storage over the years. Made under the direction of Léon-Émile Bouchet (1880 – 1940) of African walnut and Madagascar rosewood, these pieces underwent restoration in 2022 and placed back into their original location.

Some of the Dennery Company’s restored Madagascar rosewood and African walnut furniture.

As we left the Salon des Laques to head back downstairs, more Raymond Subes ironwork greeted our tour group. This latticed ironwork of intertwined patterns, looking over the Hall of Honour, is reminiscent of moucharabiehs in Middle Eastern architecture.

On the main floor three more specular rooms awaited for us to tour. The African Salon, originally the office of Paul Reynaud in 1931, would be our first stop.

Artist Louis Bouquet (1885 – 1952) painted the African themed frescoes. The one-of-a-kind furniture such as the elephant armchairs of ebony and brown morocco are a creation of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann (1879 – 1933).

Raymond Subes, made the monumental, Egyptian style vases.  Macassar ebony divided by yellow lines of lemon wood create the parquet floor.

Enormous doors, nearly 16 1/2 feet in height open, have handles of warthog tusks.

On the opposite side of the Hall of Honour is the Asian Salon. This ceremonial space originally was the office Maréchal Lyautey, the general commissioner of the 1931 Colonial Exposition.

The interior décor of the room fell to Eugène Printz (1889 – 1948). Conceiving  the design as a total system, Printz coordinated the overall look of the room from the furniture, the design of the floor and the exotic woods chosen. The highly contrasted patterns of the wood of the parquet floor of geometric and concentric echo the spherical shape of the room. Large lotus shaped lamps evoke Egypt. The mural is the joint creation of husband and wife artists André and Ivanna Lemaître.  The mural depicts Krishna, Buddha and Confucius. And a caravan of elephants carry goods from Asia to France. The other walls cover themes of dance, music and sculpture.

After the Asian Salon, our tour ended in the Festival Hall / Function Room.

The most notable feature of the Festival Hall is the 1,968 foot fresco encircling the entire ground floor. Painted by Pierre-Henri Ducos de la Haille (1889 – 1972) and students from the École des Beaux-Arts. The fresco’s theme mirrors the bas-relief on the facade of the building, showing the benefits that France brings to its colonies. This is depicted in the form of allegories representing art, commerce, science, justice, industry, etc. Because this is a work of propaganda it completely ignores the reality of the exploitation of the colonies.

For more info on the following frescos, please click here.

The scroll reads: “For the fresco murals painted in 1931, the following individuals collaborated on the execution: M.M. H. Vielly, P. Pellcux, E. Hauville, M. Nicaud, H. Pertus, C. Lesacq, and E. Boulainghier”.

The red, black, yellow and gold mosaic floors created by  Établissements Gentil & Bourdet, both in the Hall of Honour and the Festival Hall are works of art as well. Ceramist-architects Alphonse Gentil (1872-1933) and François Bourdet (1874-1952) used porcelain stone tiles and tessellas (small tiles) made of stone or glass paste against a gilded background.

“Indochinese Art” inspired the floors in the Festival Hall. The designs in the Hall of Honour are inspired by “primitive arts of Central Africa”.

For the roof of the Festival Hall, Jaussely and Laprade designed an original capstone. A dome over a large square space was customary at the time, but here was a square, tiered pyramid forming the ceiling. To illuminate the hall so lights would be unseen proved challenging. Laprade rose to the occasion and achieved this by employing indirect lighting hidden in the pyramid’s tiers.

And for those feeling adventurous, the balcony offers great views of the hall.

The Festival Hall from the balcony

As previously mentioned (and unlike some other nations), France does not hide the shame of its forced colonization and exploitation of the indigenous people of other countries. They work diligently with various organizations to use the errors of the past to educate the people of the present.

Following our tour, welcome speeches and thanks preceded the cocktail dinner / reception. Live music, guests dancing, meeting and mingling with like minded people followed.

Drinks flowed freely as Chris can attest to finishing 7 – yes seven – glasses of champagne!  Luckily, the low alcohol content kept him upright and clear headed. Advertised as a dinner / cocktail event, a variety of delicious hors d’oeuvres arrived in steady supply. Small pulled pork sandwiches and a bowl of lentils topped with cilantro qualified as dinner.

Soon it was time to depart and get a goods night’s sleep. Tomorrow the Congress starts in earnest with morning lectures.

Anthony & Chris (the Freakin’ Tiquen Guys)

 

Sources

Online

artnet.com/

medium.com/

monument.palais-portedoree.fr

ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog/

wikipedia.org/

Written

17th World Congress on Art Deco© Program