Installation view of Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2025. Photo: Ryan Gamma.

Art is a powerful entity. It has the ability to move mountains, to alter destinies and in some cases, to transport the viewer back in time. Such is the case in the Sarasota Art Museum’s (SAM) new exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration, which opened on August 31. Art Deco, the iconic style of architecture, visual arts and product design, first emerged in Paris prior to World War I. The movement took flight, however, in the 1920s and ‘30s, with the moniker “Art Deco” instilled upon it in 1925.

Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration celebrates the centennial anniversary of the movement by showcasing 100 posters from the Crouse Collection that feature the work of some of the foremost graphic designers of the 1920s and ‘30s. “We will have more than 100 works of art in the show, with 100 of them being Art Deco posters for the anniversary,” says Virgninia Shearer, Executive Director of SAM. “What’s exciting about this is that Art Deco is this incredible art movement that has had all of these ripple effects over time. The idea that this modern movement in design could have this long-lasting impact is very special for us.”

For Shearer and the rest of the team at SAM, The Golden Age of Illustration is a chance to take a step back and reflect on a movement that ushered in a new wave of modernism. “We were a museum that was founded on the idea of showing modern and contemporary art and we’ve focused heavily on the contemporary, but in the next several years, we want to find opportunities to dip into and showcase modernism and the lead up to where we are today,” says Shearer. “Art Deco itself was really built upon its predecessor, Art Nouveau, which was pulling in a lot of influences from cubism, futurism, constructivism—the world of fine art was coming into graphic design.”

The posters and works on view in the exhibition are large scale. Many were originally designed as advertisements to be plastered on the sides of buildings or train stations, all hand drawn, by some of the top graphic designers of the era. “I think that people will be very surprised when they see the exhibition,” says Shearer. “Unlike the advertising that you see today where it’s an actual photograph of the object you want to buy, what you’re seeing here is the artist’s interpretation of the car, cigar, airplane, drink or whatever the product is that they’re trying to sell.”

August 31 to March 29, 2026, Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 South Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 34236

Installation view of Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2025. Photo: Ryan Gamma.

To learn more click here