Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection

November 11, 1995–March 12, 2020
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

Art and Design in the Modern Age provided an overview of the museum's holdings of American and European artifacts from 1850 to 1950. Culled from the Wolfsonian collection were approximately 300 works in a variety of formats, ranging from books, posters, and postcards to decorative arts, architectural models, paintings, and sculptures. Focal points included design reform movements, urbanism, industrial design, transportation, world's fairs, advertising, and political propaganda.

This long-term exhibition, inaugurated in November 1995 and periodically updated, examined the ways in which art and design have both influenced and adapted to the modern world. During the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, the fine arts were characterized by unprecedented experimentation and innovation, while design became a critical issue for producers and consumers as machine-made objects replaced those crafted by hand. The works on display demonstrated designers' responses to the profound social and technological changes stimulated by the Industrial Revolution and revealed how people living in this tumultuous period viewed the world and their place in it.