Hawaii: A modern romance

'Pomp and Circumstance' by Eugene Savage depicts Hawaii's King Kamehameha I in Art Deco Style. Photo / Janetta Mackay

Hawaii celebrates its design heritage in a show that offers a welcome break from the beach, writes Janetta Mackay.

Miami, Napier ... now add Honolulu to your Art Deco tourist map. For fans of the design style that defined the 1920s and 1930s, the Hawaiian capital offers intriguing examples with a tropical twist.

While relatively few notable Art Deco buildings remain in the city some still stand, but the bold colour and geometric shapes that defined the era are best showcased in an array of images and objects assembled at the Honolulu Museum of Art. This is no dry academic exhibition, but a lively exploration of the mix of modernism and romance that is both Deco and the imaginings of an idyllic island escape.

The two came together in early tourist imagery of Hawaii as it emerged as an exotic holiday destination between the World Wars. Majestic cruise liners, idealised locals and locales, including bright young things on surfboards were all given the abstracted Art Deco treatment.

Graphic designers churned out stylised posters, painters reworked Hawaiian history and sculptors added heroic flourishes. Many of these artists were of European descent and brought the new decorative style with them, but were soon influenced by their Pacific location, helping creating a uniquely Hawaiian take on the design aesthetic.

"It's really uncharted territory," says museum curator Theresa Papanikolas of the Art Deco exploration which took her more than three years to assemble.

Standout works include Arman Manookian's vivid series of large-scale paintings showing Captain Cook's arrival and canvases by Eugene Savage for the Matson shipping company. Georgia is among name artists featured.

The sizeable show has a six-month run, with many of the works being drawn from the museum's permanent collection. Photographs show examples of Art Deco buildings both lost and still standing, providing true aficionados clues for further exploration.

For tourists with a more casual interest in Art Deco, the exhibition is definitely worth checking out. The art museum, which opened in 1927, is a tranquil escape from Waikiki, with an excellent outdoors cafe.

The galleries, built around a series of courtyards, contain an impressively varied collection of art, ranging from modern masters to Middle Eastern treasures, including a taste of billionaire collector Doris Duke's Islamic haul from her house Shangri La and some erotic Japanese "floating world" woodblock prints collected by American author James A. Michener.

Back in Waikiki itself, the early tourism boom that coincided with Art Deco has left behind some notable buildings.

The main street home of Louis Vuitton is a classic example of Deco architecture. Less so, the Spanish-Moorish Royal Hawaiian pink palace, built in 1927, and the neighbouring Moana Surfrider, restored to much of its 1918 grandeur, but both luxury hotels speak of the romance of the era, right down to offering classic cocktails overlooking the beach.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Air New Zealand flies non-stop to Honolulu from Auckland four times weekly with different in-flight product choices.

Further information: Art Deco Hawaii runs until January 11, 2015, at the Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S Beretania St. Get there local-style on the bus for $2 from Waikiki, by cab, or as a trolley bus stop-off on a day outing.