Cold War Modern: Art and Design in a Divided World, 1945-1970

For further information go to Cold War Modern - Discussions

A major exhibition on the theme of 'Cold War Modern: Art and Design in a Divided World, 1945-1970' will be mounted at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2008. Curated by Jane Pavitt, the University of Brighton Research Fellow at the V&A and David Crowley, of the Royal College of Art (a former graduate and academic member of staff at the University of Brighton), the exhibition will explore extraordinary international developments in modern art, design, architecture and film during the Cold War. Concentrating on the highly volatile years from 1945 to 1970, it will examine the key themes of the period: the physical, social and cultural reconstruction of Europe and other parts of the world after war; the ‘victory’ of modernism in the arts at a time when an ideological conflict was being fought to demonstrate the superior modernity of socialism over capitalism and vice versa; and the rise of consumerism and its corresponding critique.

The Cold War era was one of high tensions and exceptional creativity, which touched every aspect of life from everyday goods to the highest arenas of human achievement in science and culture. The exhibition is based on the view that one compelling way of understanding the Cold War is as a conflict between different conceptions of modern life. Art and design were not therefore peripheral symptoms of politics; they played a central role in representing and, sometimes challenging, the dominant political and social ideas of the age. Whilst the exhibition will represent the high political drama of the age, it will not form a chronicle of political events: it is the curators’ view that works of art and design can chart the ideological ambitions and paradoxes of this fascinating era.

At this early stage of conception the curators anticipate mounting the exhibition in three key sections: Anxiety and Hope in the Aftermath of War; Cold War Modern and Vision; and Critique, a number of potential themes having been proposed for each section. In Section One these currently comprise: Memorialising Conflict: Conflicts over Memorials; Existential Anxieties; The Legacy of the Modern Movement; The Socialist Agenda for the Arts; and Rebuilding and Reconstruction. In Section Two the themes under consideration are Domesticity and the Modern Home; Thaw Modern: art and the applied arts in Eastern Europe after 1956; and The Third Way: Scandinavia, Harnessing the Future and Corporate Modernism, whilst in Section Three they comprise New Fronts on the Cold War; Technocracy and its Discontents; Living the Revolution; The Last Visionaries; and Osaka Expo ’70.

The first of a series of round table discussions was mounted in mid-October at the V&A with eighteen invited participants whose research interests relate in some ways to the envisaged exhibition themes. Comprising researchers from a range of leading institutions in the fields of art and design history and related fields (the Universities of Brighton, Kingston, Middlesex, Sheffield, Sussex and Warwick, as well as Birkbeck College, the Courtauld Institute, the London College of Fashion, Manchester Metropolitan University, Oxford Brookes University, the Royal College of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum) participants made brief presentations as a means of stimulating discussion about the possible scope and content of the exhibition. This was intended to be the first of a number of planning/discussion meetings that will lead on to a series of closed symposia and international seminars as a lead up to the exhibition. It is envisaged that the University of Brighton will play a significant role in this through the key role played by co-curator Jane Pavitt and the subsidiary role of core participant Professor Jonathan Woodham, as well as the future involvement of other design history specialists at the University. It is also envisaged that the University will host one of the key conferences in the three-year period leading up to the exhibition opening in 2008.