“They keep on inventing things … and making life lovelier and lovelier,” says Grandpa to a young member of Generation Mod. This scene from the 1936 film short “Things to Come” — one of nearly 400 selections of Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939 — captures the awe commanded by the new industrial age.
Orchestrated by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the blockbuster show makes one stop in America — fortunately for us, at the Corcoran.
The sublimely staged, two-floor extravaganza crystallizes the volcanic force of modernism in culture and art of a shrinking world. Imagine life back in the early 20th century: The march of industrialization, embraced for mass-produced efficiency, abhorred for mind-numbing depersonalization. Decrying the carnage of World War I and lambasting the establishment, the avant garde sought political, economic and social reform. Cars, airplanes, telephones and electricity were rapidly, radically transforming the way people lived.
In search of artistic and intellectual Utopia — a perfect world — modernist movements erupted: cubism, futurism, de Stijl, purism, Suprematism, Constructivism, precisionism. The Bauhaus school’s enduring design tsunami spanned teapots to theater. Convention challenged, tradition abandoned, simplicity embraced — the exhibition goes beyond displaying modernist innovations in art, design, architecture and film. It illuminates the zeitgeist of the times. And it’s a heckuva lot of fun.
Some glimpses:
» Mies van der Rohe’s skyscraper plans rendered large in charcoal and graphite. The streamlined modernist archetype marks a departure from building out to building up, up, up.
» Wassily Kandinsky’s 1934 “Relations,” is a sand and oil-painted tumble of whimsical figures. He reinjected warmth and levity strained from many cubist works as their creators stripped down to pure form and color. In art and design of the times, focus shifted to line, geometric form and new materials.
» Leaflets for “The Dwelling” that proclaim “No luxury!” and “Mass production!” and a wonderful poster that X’s out a traditional living room in favor of a “New Way to Live.”
» Is that Grandma’s first kitchen? Some modernist visions make one yearn for … postmodernism. You could call this generation of kitchens a remodeler’s dream.
» The Tatra T77 — this shimmering silver, dorsal-finned, aerodynamic Czech beauty rivaled today’s cars in speed and efficiency.
» Short screen gems from the Soviet Union and Germany include Hans Richter’s “Rhythmus 21” starring animated geometric objects. Bauhaus theater maven Oskar Schlemmer’s 1922 “The Triadic Ballet” plays adjacent to displays of giant trippy rotating figurines used in the film. And of course, Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 classic, “Modern Times,” its wit and zest enduring the decades. The movies show continuously on large screens mounted throughout the exhibition.
» Factory-age photos from crankshafts to power generators to Margaret Bourke-White’s captivating “Machine Dance, Moscow Ballet School.”
» “Healthy Body” artifacts include amusing posters to Champion hightop sneakersfrom 1916.
» Giacomo Balla’s 1914 aluminum/steel “Sculpted Construction of Noise and Speed” makes a fitting symbol for futurism, a romanticized revolution based on technology and fast-paced urban living.
» Furniture liberated of heft and decorative flourishes. Instead of sinking into cushions, modernist fans were “sitting on air” thanks to such designers as Alvar Aalto and Marcel Breuer. Yes, the latter’s now ho-hum woven-seat namesake chair was once deemed radical.
» A stunning model of Vladimir Tatlin’s 1920 constructivist design for a 1,300-foot “Monument to the Third International.” Intended to house the Russian Bolshevik Comintern, this functional shrine, its spiral structure open to reveal rotating geometric forms, was never built due to lack of funds.
Modernism offers a fantastic trip back to the future, one envisioned by radicals who redefined visual culture — without TV or the Internet. Here, everything mod is cool again.
Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939
On view through July 29
» Venue: Corcoran Gallery of Art, New York Ave. and 17th St. NW
» Info: 202-639-1700; www.corcoran.org
» Related events: “Living with Modern Furniture” at 7 p.m. March 22; Corcoran Director Paul Greenhalgh on “Utopia”
at 7 p.m. March 29
