Amid a backdrop of industrialization, urbanization, world war, and reconstruction, many progressive German and Austrian artists and designers dreamed of a better world. Several common themes and aspirations emerged from this Utopian vision, but forms and subjects varied remarkably. While some artists and designers appealed to traditional forms of representation and modes of production, others emphasized innovative expressions and technologies.
This exhibition looked at the “Modernisms” that together contributed to the richness of life in Germany and Austria during a remarkable period of cultural redefinition, social transformation, and political reorganization. More than one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and household designs from the Smart Museum of Art’s collection represented several major artistic and design movements of the period: the Symbolism and Jugendstil aesthetics of the 1890s; the Expressionist tendencies before World War I; and the Constructivist and Bauhaus designs of the turbulent 1920s.