Sarasota Art Museum shines a spotlight on Art Deco as the artform celebrates its centennial anniversary. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration showcases 100 rare posters from the Crouse Collection created by some of the world’s earliest master graphic designers during the 1920s and 1930s.

During the 1920s, a bold new artistic style roared to life: Art Deco. This exciting, dramatic, and glamorous new genre bid farewell to the soft, organic forms of Art Nouveau and soon took the world by storm. One of Art Deco’s most significant contributions was the art of printed graphics, giving birth to the disciplines of illustration and typography that permeate our world today.

Featuring subjects ranging from automobiles, airlines, and ocean liners to drinks and tobacco, the works represented in Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration celebrate modernity, dynamism, and luxury—the dreams and desires of the turbulent early twentieth century.

In addition to the iconic posters, Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration conjures the era’s design aesthetic with selected sculptural works and cocktail shakers from the Crouse Collection, and Art Deco furniture pieces on loan from the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami.

Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum.

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