For this week’s journal I wanted to see how the Art Deco and art nouveau movement impacted the Middle East and how it was inspired by its ancient objects and designs. The Art Deco movement draws inspiration from the art, architecture and forms of ancient Egypt. After archeologists discovered ancient Egyptian treasures such as a the tomb of King Tutankhamen and the world was waiting for it to be unveiled until the finally unveiled it to years after while the the western world is has been fascinated by the ancient Egyptian world and it is evident in their in both the fashion and design industry. The highly stylized walls in the tombs and the decorative objects told proverbs or important stories through symbolism and the stylized figures. Art Deco artists in the west would enhance designs such as the tomb of Tutankhamen into jewelry, sculpture or as the inspiration of architecture or interior details.
What I find interesting is how those shapes that were taken from tombs and ancient Egyptian designs start to appear in the streets of modern Cairo at the time late 1930s-1940s such as the groppi building in talaat harb square, buildings in Falki Square. Furthermore, Cairo’s downtown was built by European architects who were commissioned by khedive Ismail which was he local ruler at the time. This transformation gave Cairo the eurpean style downtown which features influences from all over the west with baroque, renaissance, Roman classical but what I found the most interesting was how those buildings feature many of the geometric shapes and symbols that were originated from ancient Egyptian designs, how the history of design and it’s influences is evident as the influence of that design was found in Egypt, transformed in the west and then became apart of Cairo’s architecture.
