I first met Alain-René Hardy more than thirty years ago when Laurie Gordon and I were on one of our early trips to Paris in search of Art Deco. We wandered into his shop, Metropolis, a place filled with beauty and ideas, and it became the start of a friendship that has now lasted decades. Alain René sold us wonderful pieces, but more importantly, he opened a door. He encouraged us, guided us, and quietly shaped the way we would come to understand Art Deco not only as objects, but as a world of ideas, history, and culture.

I will never forget stepping into the small back room of his shop one day to wash my hands and realizing it was packed from floor to ceiling with research books and old magazines. At that moment, I understood how deep this subject truly went. It was no longer only about hunting beautiful things, but about learning how they came into being, why they mattered, and how they fit into the larger story of the early twentieth century. That room, filled with paper and memory, changed the way I looked at everything, and it set me on a path that has never really ended.

– Richard Fishman

Left: Alain-René Hardy Middle/Right: Georges Papault, Art Deco Limoges vase. One of the first works acquired from Metropolis Gallery, which has remained in our collection for over thirty years.

Alain-René Hardy is widely respected within the Art Deco world for his long career as a historian, dealer, and educator of twentieth-century decorative arts. After a formative period working at the Saint-Ouen flea market in Paris, he established his career in the Marais, focusing on the interwar period, with a particular interest in ceramics, textiles, and the great workshops of the French department stores. Over the years, he organized numerous sales at the Hôtel Drouot, taught at Icart and Drouot-Formation, and prepared students for the competitive auctioneer examinations, while also producing an important body of scholarly work, including publications on Art Deco textiles, Jacques Adnet, Primavera, and the ceramicist Jean Besnard.

In October 2025, Hardy delivered a lecture at the 17th World Congress dedicated to the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. His presentation turned away from familiar stylistic narratives and instead focused on a lesser-known but essential dimension of the exhibition: leisure and entertainment. Drawing on extensive visual documentation, he examined how the exhibition functioned not only as a showcase for modern design but also as a carefully constructed public experience, created to immerse visitors through spectacle, comfort, and pleasure.

Hardy placed the 1925 exhibition within the broader tradition of world fairs, recalling earlier events such as Paris in 1900, St. Louis in 1904, Brussels in 1910, and Turin in 1911, all of which combined architecture, industry, and amusement on a grand scale. Like its predecessors, the Paris exhibition offered rides, panoramic attractions, and theatrical environments. But in 1925, these elements were refined into a distinctly modern vision. The grounds extended across more than twenty hectares and housed over one hundred and fifty pavilions, with transportation services available by electric vehicle and wheelchair, reflecting a commitment to accessibility and visitor comfort rarely discussed in design histories.

The social life of the exhibition unfolded alongside its design innovations. Concerts, fireworks, folk parades, toy villages for children, and landscaped gardens were embedded throughout the site. At night, Paris fully embraced its role as the City of Light. Boulevards and bridges were illuminated, pavilions glowed from within, and monumental fountains designed by lighting specialists such as Vedovelli and André Granet transformed the Seine into a stage of moving color. Visitors dined in regional and gourmet restaurants, took tea in department store salons, and gathered on the river barges before making their way to the Parc des Attractions along the Quai d’Orsay, which remained open until one in the morning.

Hardy’s lecture also brought attention to the exhibition’s amusement park, an environment filled with motion and sound that represented modernity just as powerfully as any piece of furniture or glasswork. Visitors rode the Carrousel de la Vie Parisienne designed by Paul Poiret, reached dizzying speeds on La Course de Paris scenic railway, braced themselves in the Dodg’em cars, and danced beneath illuminated floors. His research makes clear that Art Deco existed not merely in objects, but in the way people moved through space, gathered socially, and experienced technological spectacle in everyday life.

Alain-René Hardy has also published several books based on his research into twentieth-century decorative arts. Hardy’s publications reflect the same depth of research seen in his lectures and curatorial work. His writing spans furniture, textiles, and the workshop culture of the French department stores, offering both historical context and detailed visual study. Together, these books form an important record of the people, materials, and institutions that shaped the Art Deco era.

Selected Publications by Alain-René Hardy:

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