The year 2025 marks a centennial milestone for the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the Paris show of 1925 that helped redefine modern design and the image of the ideal woman it often embodied. A contemporary celebration unfolds in Osaka, inviting visitors to rediscover the audacious lines, luxurious materials, and fearless optimism that defined Art Deco a hundred years ago. The exhibition, aptly titled The Venus of a New Age, invites a dialogue between past and present, inviting us to see how the glamour, craftsmanship, and social momentum of the 1920s echo in today’s design sensibilities.
From the moment you step into the 5th-floor galleries of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, the curatorial voice is clear: this is not merely a retrospective but a living conversation with an era that fused artistry with industry, fashion with function, and spectacle with accessibility. The show places particular emphasis on designs closely related to women—whether jewelry, fashion accessories, decorative objects, or architectural details—offering a lens through which to examine how gender, modernity, and glamour intersected in the interwar period. Expect sculptural silhouettes, geometric motifs, and sumptuous textures that capture both the exuberance and the constraints of a decade that believed in progress as a form of beauty.
Information about the Exhibition
Dates extend from October 4, 2025, to January 4, 2026, with the gallery welcoming curious minds through a daily rhythm of opening hours from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon, last entries at half-past four. The venue, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, hosts the exhibition in its 5F Galleries, providing an intimate yet spacious setting for close looking and slow contemplation. Access is planned with consideration for visitors, with careful scheduling to ensure a comfortable experience amid the bustle of a city renowned for its design and culture.
The organizers—Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, together with Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation and The Asahi Shimbun Company—bring together curatorial expertise and media reach to contextualize 1920s glamour within a modern frame. The educational and public-facing components are designed to illuminate both the technical prowess of Art Deco artisans and the social currents that propelled fashion, jewelry, and decorative arts into new realms of possibility.
Admission is structured to reflect a broad audience, with pricing tiers that acknowledge students, families, and general visitors. Adults pay 2000 yen at the door, with a discount to 1800 yen for advance purchases and groups. University and high school students are admitted for 1600 yen (1400 yen for advance sales and groups), while younger visitors from junior high to elementary school receive 600 yen (500 yen for advance sales and groups). Member privileges offer free admission or additional discounts, underscoring the exhibition’s community orientation and partnership with cultural institutions.
The ticketing details emphasize accessibility: prices include tax, and group rates apply for groups of twenty or more. Visitors with an official Disability Certificate are admitted at half price on the day of their visit, with one accompanying attendant permitted at the same rate. Advance reservations are not required for disability eligibility certification, which must be presented at admission unless special rates apply to regular adult visitors who are Osaka residents aged sixty-five or older.
Foremost within the display is a tactile reminder of the era’s emblematic luxury: a Boucheron Art Deco brooch from 1927, a private collection emblematic of the era’s jeweler’s virtuosity and the broader aesthetic vocabulary that connected fashion, ornament, and personal identity. The brooch stands as a touchstone for the show’s core themes—precision craftsmanship, bold geometry, and the way wearable art carried cultural meaning across borders.
As with any major survey of Art Deco, the show invites dialogue about how a movement that celebrated machine-age optimism, streamlined forms, and global luxury could simultaneously reinscribe certain gendered ideals. The exhibition asks visitors to consider the ways in which the “Venus of a New Age” persona was constructed—as muse, client, and collaborator—while also acknowledging the real work of designers, craftsmen, and patrons who made these objects possible. The result is not nostalgia, but a refreshed awareness of how stylistic daring can translate into enduring design sensibilities.
In exploring this hundred-year arc, visitors will encounter stories of collaboration between fashion houses, jewelry ateliers, and industrial producers, all converging in objects that were as much about daily living as they were about display. The show positions itself as both homage and inquiry, inviting contemporary creators and audiences to reimagine what Art Deco can mean in today’s cultural and technological landscape.
This centenary celebration is more than a retrospective; it is a celebration of the ongoing dialogue between past innovation and present imagination. It is an invitation to wander through galleries where the lines of a fluted brooch, the facets of a gemstone, and the architectural cadence of a decorative panel compose a chorus of design that still speaks with clarity, audacity, and elegance. As Osaka becomes a focal point for the global conversation on Art Deco’s enduring resonance, The Venus of a New Age reaffirms that the century-old conversation about beauty, function, and modern life remains as vibrant as ever. The show promises a multifaceted experience—educational, aesthetic, and inspiring—for anyone drawn to the transformative power of design.
Photo credits: The photographs belong to the museum’s archive.
On the cover: George BARBIER Clotilde & Alexandre Sakharoff 1921 Suntory Poster Collection (deposited in Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
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