Deco Devotee

“I assume you all know the history of Art Deco,” Angelina Lippert, the magnetic chief curator at Poster House, told members from the Art Deco Society of New York as they gathered in the museum’s new exhibit. And while the large crowd of deco stans nodded sagely—of course they did—it soon became obvious that our tour guide believed that probably we knew the history of everything, and only ever needed to be reminded.

“When we think of Art Deco posters, we think of Cassandre,” she said next to the French graphic designer’s famous bicycle advertisement. Several posters later, she noticed that maybe we didn’t actually think of anyone and perked up.

“For anyone who actually doesn’t know who Cassandre is—does anyone have a Yves Saint Laurent bag on them?” Someone did. “Can you raise it up? See, the YSL stamp? Cassandre did that.”

Lippert’s thesis is that Art Deco is the first global cultural movement, and that posters largely helped move it around the world, since they’re lighter than, say, a building. That someone in the crowd was unknowingly wearing the show’s star seemed to confirm this hunch. But what I have noticed about people who love Art Deco is that they are, in some way or another, always dressed like the Chrysler Building. I spotted bold metal jewelry and Nikes with a silver bar down the sole. The group’s enthusiasm was only exceeded by Lippert and her overwhelming knowledge, and indeed love, of her subject.

“This is all I do,” she told me after the tour. “I have no husband, I have no cat, I have posters.”