national Modernisms
and identity

Modernism’s Utopian agenda, as well as the ambiguous, sometimes subversive qualities associated with Modernist art, design, and architecture cut against the grain of authoritarian political regimes. During the 1930s, artists in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were severely persecuted for producing experimental, forward-looking work. Europe’s loss proved to be America’s gain as many of the innovators of Modernism fled their home countries to seek refuge and artistic freedom in America and Great Britain. Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Legér, and the photographer André Kertész all came to New York before and during World War II, prominently influencing American art. Gropius, Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, Joseph Albers, Moholy-Nagy, and György Kepes also arrived in the U.S. during this time.

The legacy of Modernism remains here, seen in our widespread acceptance of the positive benefit of integrating art and life, as well as in our belief in the power of art and design to create new models for living. In this way, much of the new world envisioned—and designed— by the Modernists continues to exist to this day.