The twentieth century was a period of global warfare. We often refer to events of the last century, especially those in art and design, by specifying whether they took place between the world wars, during World War II, or in the postwar period. Many of the great figures of modernity, especially those based in Germany during the Weimar Republic, were forced to leave where they lived and worked to find new homes where they could continue their activities. In Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design Across Borders, 1930–1960, Robin Schuldenfrei argues that the reactions and adaptations of these protagonists to the conditions of their new places changed the course of modernism, which “gained coherence only after it passed through conditions of exile” (1).
In the introduction, as well as in the book’s title, the author explains one of the most original peculiarities of her approach, which focuses not...
University of California Press