What Is Modern? features imaginative furniture, industrial, and graphic designs that span more than 200 years, from the early 1800s to the present day. The objects—representing a trajectory of innovative thinking and a variety of methods, materials, and concepts—explore the ways in which design has expressed the modern experience.
“In its simplest form, the term modern implies the up-to-date, a current development, or, better still, a spirit in step with its own time,” explains curator Darrin Alfred. “This concept could be applied to a 200-year-old innovation still in use today, such as the steaming of wood, bending it, and letting it harden into curved shapes or patterns. It could also apply to works by today’s emerging designers.”
What Is Modern? is on view through March 24, 2013.