A Century in Motion – Part 6: The Many Contradictions of the Crazy Years

They are called the Crazy Years, the third decade of the ‘900s: a mixture of facts and circumstances that brought together the luxury of automobiles — such as the Delahaye 165 M — the irresistible Côte d’Azur, and the Great Depression; the opulent magnificence of the ocean liner Normandie, a true promotional standard-bearer for France across the world, and the formal rigour of the German Bauhaus; the birth of the most celebrated superheroes — from Mandrake to Batman, from Superman to Sheena, to name only the most famous and muscular among the many created — and the warnings of approaching war sent even through sport, by the German single-seaters Auto Union and Mercedes, ambassadors of an extraordinary technical supremacy.
The Bauhaus Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius, stands in Germany and was built between 1925 and 1926. It is celebrated for its continuous glass facade, which embodies the rational principles of the Bauhaus movement.

In the 1930s, women were transformed. Clothing became functional: the tailored suit — a feminine version of the male ensemble — or else the grand evening gown, opulent and inspired, for those who could afford to look to the Hollywood divas for their style.

For the 1930 film Morocco, Marlene Dietrich wore a man’s dinner jacket — a revolutionary gesture of style that turned the tailored suit into a symbol of emancipation and elegance.

The women of those years had left behind so many rigid rules, as is told by the ambiguous allure of the beautiful Bugatti driver portrayed by Tamara de Lempicka, and by the tragic death of the dancer Isadora Duncan — on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, strangled by the long silk scarf that caught in the rear wheel of the Amilcar CGSS spider she was riding in, and choked her.

In the 1929 Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti), Tamara de Lempicka portrays herself at the wheel. The work became an icon of 1930s modernity — a symbol of female independence, luxury, and speed.

Also art and literature found themselves caught in a sharp contradiction, as countries like Russia and Germany turned against modernism, branding it degenerate art. We all know how that decade ended. We all also know how profoundly the world was changed by the long and cruel Second World War: the automobile remained its symbol, passing from an object of luxury almost beyond reach, to an aspiration within everyone’s grasp.

The ocean liner Normandie, launched in 1935, was the symbol of French luxury and modernity between the two wars. A floating masterpiece of Art Déco, it embodied the splendour of the great transatlantic voyages of the 1930s.