Holiday pics: Napier, Art Deco City
Yes, I've finally resized, cropped, uploaded, and captioned my Art Deco photos. There are 45 in the gallery, in two pages, but in the meantime, here's a little about Napier and Art Deco, and a selection of my favourites.
An earthquake devastated Napier in 1931 after which it was rebuilt in mostly Art Deco (with some Spanish Mission and Stripped Classical).
Art Deco symbolised the new spirit of the early 20th century, a period characterised by three important new ideas: the development of science, technology, and machines; the increasing freedom of women (and indeed everyone); and the overthrow of old conventions. It was also influenced by ancient cultures just being rediscovered, especially Egypt. The common motifs embody these ideas: geometric, angular shapes like ziggurats (stepping); symbols of power and speed like lightning flashes and zigzags, speedlines and streamlining; expressions of freedom like dancing women; the rising sun with its rays of hope; and motifs from ancient Egypt or Central America.
Here are the best ones, but Art Deco fans should go the the gallery, click on the first pic, and look at each one because of the Deco-ness and the informative captions I went to all the trouble of writing. :-P
Hotel Central
Loo Kee's Building. All the buildings are named for the original 1930s shop-owners. I love the colours in this one.
Zig-zags and rising suns combined
Criterion Hotel - Spanish Mission style, and the classiest Backpackers' ever
The Daily Telegraph Building - zigzags, fountain shapes, ziggurats, and a sunburst
A mixture of Art Deco and Mission with lotuses (Egyptian influence) and tiles
Hotel Central: zigzags and sunbursts and all in coconut-ice colours
A shoe shop showing the lovely leadlight (AKA art glass) windows and the 'ingo' entrance
Bloom's Jewellers - that ingo gadget works! They were a way of having more shop frontage and drawing people in
The ASB Building - my bank! Stripped classical with added Maori motifs
Just for the B7 fans: S Carnell was a past mayor! In my fanon his name's Sebastian--vindicated! ;-)
The Soundshell - repainted in original colours
One of a pair of leaping nude wall panels in the Municipal Theatre
The suburb of Marewa contains a large proportion of Art Deco houses. Most of the houses feature speedlines like this.
There are a lot of Art Deco houses here in Auckland, including two very nice ones just down the road, but they're widely scattered.
My favourite; even though the colours aren't traditional, they work well.