TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2025

ART DECO - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ART NOUVEAU

PRESENTED BY IAN GLEDHILL

What happened to Art Nouveau? Again partly through British influence it metamorphosed into Art Deco - the style that defined the jazz era and the golden age of pre-war Hollywood musicals. Art Deco pervaded all forms of design in a way that Art Nouveau never did, and in this talk we look at all aspects of design, not just architecture, and examine the influences that made Art Deco the colourful style that is still influential today. We end with a round-up of some of the many surviving Art Deco buildings around the world.

Ian Gledhill has had a very varied career, from designing underground railways as an engineer for London Transport, to appearing in pantomime with Julian Clary. In between he has worked in travel and tourism, music publishing, television, and especially the theatre, where he has been an actor, director, set designer, stage manager and opera translator. His main interests include architecture, history, transport and classical music, especially opera and operetta, and these are reflected in the wide ranging list of subjects for his lectures.