Art: Modern Britain 1929-1939 Design Museum, London SE1
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference."Modern Britain 1929-1939" is a fitting exhibition for the last year of the 20th century. It takes us back to the decade immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War, to a time when Britain emerged from the frivolous and artistically inauspicious 1920s to play a leading role in the development of "the Modern Movement".
There have been plenty of surveys in the past of the Hampstead years of Nicholson, Hepworth and Henry Moore, but as the century draws to a close, it is especially appropriate to see these familiar things alongside the other, everyday arts of graphics, textiles, furniture, ceramics and above all, architecture. It was architecture in particular which most clearly expressed the new ideal - as seen here in the work of Englishmen like Wells Coates and others such as Chermayeff, Mendelsohn, Goldfinger and Lubetkin, who made England their home.
It feels like the sort of show that the Design Museum was invented for, but has rarely managed to pull off: a broad and fascinating view of the nation's cultural and aesthetic history. The mood is bright and optimistic, at times even Utopian, though with a poignancy provided by the knowledge that war lay just around the corner.
Design Museum, 28 Shad Thames, London SE1 (0171-378 6055) 20 Jan to 6 Jun
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments