“Make 2025 1925 again” is my motto at the moment. With all that is going on in the world, flights of fancy – like wishing it was the Art Deco Jazz Age again – are not only necessary but yours for the taking.
Art Deco was formally presented by the French in 1925 – exactly 100 years ago. Its style origins developed principally from exotic African and Eastern art forms. The style’s most decorative elements draw on natural, exotic, and tropical themes (such as the animal kingdom or Egyptology), influencing not only architecture but also cars, furniture, ceramics, books, fashion, and even accessories. Deco-inspired hats, fans, knitwear, walking sticks, and even hairpins reflect its decorative charm.
“Art Deco is almost entirely devoid of a social or moral agenda; it is only style, it embraces the eclectic and the ornamental, there are colours, different materials and lustrous surfaces. Art Deco is consumerism, luxury, excitement and glamour,” says Barbara Adir, author of In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw – a book set in Art Deco Springs. “Art Deco is the birth of a flower; it was a movement of ideas, an architecture of buds; curls, swirls and newborn petals,” she adds.
Joburg-based Barbara and I met through our mutual affection for Art Deco when I was living in Miami Beach, north of the South Beach Deco District. Back in Johannesburg, we toured The City of Springs, the gold mining era city on the East Rand said to boast the largest number of small-scale Art Deco buildings outside of Miami. Most noteworthy is the magnificent Central Fire Station (declared a national monument, marked with a blue plaque). Once inhabited by gold mining industry Jews who admired and emulated the Art Deco styles visible in New York and Miami, the area left me wanting to buy it all up, give it a scrub and a lick of fresh paint, and crown myself King of Springs.
For the Art Deco curious, pressing ‘Play’ and binge-watching Art Deco detective Hercule Poirot offers exquisite Deco details – or pretty much any Agatha Christie adaptation for fine examples of European-style Art Deco. Everything is there – from the architecture and furnishings to the hairdos. The recent remake of The ABC Murders, the original Death on the Nile, and Evil Under the Sun are personal favourites.
So how do we claim Art Deco as our own down South? And does it still matter?
Art Deco realises its full potential in architecture, and Art Deco 2.0 is visibly making a comeback in Cape Town. The city has some remarkable Art Deco buildings (Old Mutual for one) and Vredehoek with its unique original Deco apartment buildings. But Cape Town’s fresh take is presented by the young Robert Silke & Partners, who are currently showcasing Tropicana, Tuynhuis, Flamingo, and the reimagined Holyrood building in the Company Gardens.
Robert and I met in Miami when he was there to enjoy and explore South Beach and its famed Art Deco District, also venturing north to see the MiMo buildings (Miami Modern) by architect Morris Lapidus.
“We’re still Modern architects, in that our practice wants to imagine a world where Modernism was not a revolution against decorative beauty, but rather an iterative evolution that retained all of the best traditions of decorative form-making. In doing so we seek to pick up where Art Deco left off,” Robert says of his Art Deco-inspired contemporary buildings featuring apartments in Cape Town.
Durban earns a gold star for being by far the most organised and active city in protecting, preserving, celebrating, and educating everyone about its Art Deco beauties.
Durban Art Deco Society’s Michael Mulholland explains: “Durban has over 100 significant Art Deco-styled buildings. This was a response to the new machine age of sleek cars, ships and trains, together with the excitement of the jazz age, flappers and stylish living that included clothing, jewellery, furniture and household appliances. Buildings in Durban include symmetrical facades reaching to the sky with stucco-decorated pilasters, as well as streamlined shapes with curved balconies, portholes and flagpoles. An added feature in Durban was the addition of local motifs such as eagles, lions or fish in the decorations. Apart from the big city-centre buildings, the style was also adopted by Indian merchants for their humbler shops in the commercial area.”
Who better than Kathy Munro to comment on Joburg Deco? An Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Munro enjoyed a long career as an academic and in management at Wits University. She trained as an economic historian and is an enthusiastic book person who has built her own eclectic collection over 40 years. She researches, writes, and lectures on historical architecture and heritage matters. She is the Chairperson of the Heritage Association of South Africa (2021–2025) and Vice Chair of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, where she has served on the Board of Management for over a decade.
“Johannesburg’s inner-city Art Deco is extraordinary – it clusters around a very short period of time, roughly from the take-off of the South African economy and greater confidence in Johannesburg as the hub of the mining industry and premier industrial city of South Africa. This post-Great Depression period (1933–1939 and the outbreak of World War II) saw Johannesburg blossom with the creative talent of architects and architectural practices, leading to the erection of many fine buildings using the latest concrete and structural engineering technology to enable buildings to rise skywards – the skyscrapers of the city,” says Kathy.
“Johannesburg emulated New York in its aspirations during this period. New office blocks, apartment blocks, mining houses, cinemas, theatres, hotels, and department stores were all inspired by Art Deco design – functional, linear, and streamlined but also featuring geometric designs and decorative elements. What is unique and remarkable for Joburg is that in a short period of time – a mere six to ten years – the city was rebuilt and reborn, abandoning Edwardian styles. It is equally remarkable that so many of these buildings still remain – Ansteys, Manners Mansions, the Barbican, Canada House, Ottawa House, Chrysler building, Normandie Court, Anglo American HQ (44 Main Street), Clegg House, and the Union Castle building. These buildings excite through the quality of their design and their survival, though with adaptations. While there have been demolitions – we still mourn the loss of the Coliseum Theatre and Escom House – enough Art Deco buildings remain to excite and celebrate,” Kathy concludes.
Finding myself back in Joburg after 20 years in Miami and New York, I lived in Gleneagles, an Art Deco building in Killarney. Killarney was once known as the home of the entertainment industry, where starlets and studios could be found. I enjoyed a year of living in a blue plaque building, the scale of which one could never afford in New York—its bones so beautiful that it barely needed furniture, with shops within walking distance. It was the perfect transition, and even my ancient father remembered riding his bicycle past it as a kid in nearby Saxonwold.
Art Deco – the beloved style – seems to be the one precious thing we can all agree on. It is simply beautiful.
