Maharashtra
100 Years of Mumbai’s Art Deco
- 07 Nov 2025
- 2 min read
Why in News?
The ‘Art Deco Alive!’ festival was inaugurated at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla, marking the centenary of the global Art Deco movement (1925–2025).
Key Points
- About the Festival: Art Deco Alive! is a three-week celebration jointly curated by cultural foundations in Mumbai and Miami.
- It includes exhibitions, heritage walks, film screenings, symposiums, and design installations across the city.
- Art Deco Movement:
- The Art Deco movement originated from the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.
- Mumbai’s Art Deco boom began in the 1930s–40s, as part of the city’s post-plague urban planning reforms aimed at improving air circulation, hygiene, and public health.
- Architectural and Cultural Significance:
- Mumbai’s Art Deco ensemble comprising over 600 structures is the second-largest collection globally after Miami, and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 under the title “Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai.”
- Designed largely by Indian architects trained at the J.J. School of Art, this movement reflected the fusion of international modernism with Indian motifs such as jali work, chatris, petal motifs, and religious symbols like Om.
