1920s Art: Top Artists, Styles And Trends

Art deco everywhere, surrealism beginning, and Bauhaus teaching design to think.

Below: the artists of the 1920s, the styles and movements, what was changing in art and design, and the pictures that were actually up in British homes.

Useful for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone grew up looking at.

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Shop prints and posters Look back to 1920 Look back to 1921 Look back to 1922

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Artists of the 1920s

  • Pablo Picasso, in his neoclassical phase after cubism.
  • Tamara de Lempicka, whose deco portraits still define the look of the decade.
  • Rene Magritte, painting his first surrealist works from 1926.
  • Paul Nash, carrying his war paintings into an English modernism.
  • Georgia O'Keeffe, with the first of the large flower paintings.
  • Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, both teaching at the Bauhaus.

Styles and movements

  • Art deco - geometry, symmetry, chrome, sunbursts and expensive materials.
  • Surrealism, formally launched by Andre Breton's manifesto in 1924.
  • Constructivism and the Soviet poster.
  • Bauhaus modernism: form follows function, and the designer trained like a craftsman.
  • Art nouveau finally out of fashion, looking Victorian to anyone under thirty.

Art and design trends

  • Design becomes a profession, and the Bauhaus (founded 1919) sets the curriculum.
  • The 1925 Paris exhibition gives art deco its name and its export market.
  • Advertising and the poster become the art most people actually looked at.
  • Photography starts being taken seriously as art rather than as a record.
  • Cinema design and architecture push deco into ordinary British high streets.

On the walls at home

  • Deco motifs on everything affordable: clocks, biscuit tins, fire surrounds.
  • Framed photographs and a reproduction landscape over the fireplace.
  • Railway posters - the LNER and Southern Railway commissioned real artists.
  • Wallpaper still dark and patterned in most houses.

Years covered in the 1920s

  • 1920 - The first Remembrance at the Cenotaph and a country still counting its losses. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1920
  • 1921 - A miners' lockout, mass unemployment and the first British Legion poppy appeal. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1921
  • 1922 - The BBC's first broadcast, the Austin Seven and Tutankhamun's tomb. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1922
  • 1923 - The White Horse Final at Wembley and the first Radio Times. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1923
  • 1924 - The first Labour government, the Empire Exhibition and the Chariots of Fire Olympics. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1924
  • 1925 - The Charleston, the return to the gold standard and a summer of dance halls. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1925
  • 1926 - The General Strike, the birth of Elizabeth II and Baird's public television demonstration. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1926
  • 1927 - The BBC became a corporation, talking pictures arrived and the FA Cup went to Wales. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1927
  • 1928 - Votes for all women, penicillin discovered and the Thames flood. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1928
  • 1929 - Britain's first talkie, a second Labour government and the Wall Street Crash. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1929
  • That is every 1920s year we have written up so far: 1920 to 1929.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one style from the list and let it decide the colours, the lettering and the invitations.
  • Quiz round: read an artist and ask for the decade, or read a style and ask for one artist who worked in it.
  • Reminiscence: ask what picture hung over the fireplace when they were young. Nearly everybody remembers.
  • Anyone born in 1920 turns 50 in 1970, 60 in 1980 and 70 in 1990.

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Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 1920 Look back to 1921 Look back to 1922

How to write it so it lands

  • What hung in galleries and what hung at home were two different decades. Both are on this page.
  • For a themed party, take the colour palette from the decade's design rather than its paintings.
  • Charity shops are still the best place to find genuine prints and frames from any era.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

Who were the most important artists of the 1920s?

Pablo Picasso, in his neoclassical phase after cubism. The full list above names the artists worth knowing from the decade.

What art styles were popular in the 1920s?

Art deco - geometry, symmetry, chrome, sunbursts and expensive materials. The styles section above covers the rest of the movements.

What art did people have in their homes in the 1920s?

Deco motifs on everything affordable: clocks, biscuit tins, fire surrounds. The section above lists what was actually on British walls, which is rarely the same as what was in the galleries.

Do you sell fine art?

No. We make our own art prints, greeting cards and pin badges in the UK - original work, printed here. This page is free to read and free to copy.

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