Palais de Tokyo, Paris

The Palais de Tokyo was designed by Dondel, Aubert, Viard and Dastugue for the 1937 Paris International Exhibition.

The buildings around the reflecting pool include an array of structural reliefs including the one above by Alfred Janniot and other smaller sculptures by such artists as Baudry and Marcel Gaumont.

Peace, Calais

This sculpture in the Richelieu Garden beside the Town Hall in Calais is probably too late to be considered true Art Deco but I can see some elements in the stylisation that remind me of the deco period.

It was created by Yves de Coetlogon (1913-1973) to honour the fallen in both World Wars through the allegory of Peace. It replaced an earlier WWI monument by Moreau-Vauthier that had been extensivly damaged during WWII. Before that, Rodin's Burghers of Calais stood here until it was moved in 1924 to it's present location in front of the Town Hall.

The sculpture was unveiled in 1962, 100 years after the original garden had been established.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, there are a lot of memorials around this part of France as can be seen at Monuments aux morts pacifistes.

Apartments, Calais

I've been looking through some of my older digital pics over the last few days and found some of this apartment block in Calais.

From a distance it doesn't look particularily art deco, certainly not streamline but it has some great deco details.

The decorative brick panels on the upper storey bay windows are great as is the metal work on the balcony.

At street level, however, there are a couple of gems.

This vent in some ways mirrors the brickwork elsewhere on the facade but takes it to a new level. The combination of straight lines and wavy lines, arranged in threes or pairs, works really well.

The decoration on the door is also fantastic. The handle and baseplate have lots of style while the metalwork is presented as a zig-zag combined with conbinations of vertical lines, short waves and and series of curves in the angles.

Art Deco Plaques in Calais

When I vist a town I really enjoy exploring the streets just to see what I can find. In Calais, I found this apartment. It is not much from a deco point of view but if you look carefully you'll notice there a couple of relief panels in the red brick facade.

On closer examination they turned out to be a a male head and a female head in an art deco style. I don't know if they were incorporated when the apartment was built or whether they were added later.

I'm sorry I can't tell you any more about them. I think it was in a street facing a river or canal but I wouldn't swear on it. I'm just happy I found them.