Cold War Modern: superpowers slugging it out (Exhibit)
Alastair Sooke finds great art and design being created in the shadow of nuclear annihilation at the V&A's new show Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70
When the V&A decided to mount its big new autumn exhibition, Cold War Modern, four years ago, the museum could scarcely have anticipated how relevant it would seem by the time that it opened.
After Russia's tanks rolled into Georgia last month, relations between Moscow and the West feel sub-zero once again.
All the political tension will no doubt boost the number of people who visit this ambitious exhibition of around 300 objects. Admirably curated by David Crowley and Jane Pavitt, the show examines how artists, architects and designers working between the end of the Second World War and the early Seventies were influenced by the Cold War.
Everybody knows that America and Russia competed in stockpiling nuclear warheads, threatening Armageddon. What is less well known is the extent to which the two superpowers simultaneously slogged it out to demonstrate their cultural superiority over one other. As both sides vied to show off their command of modernity, things like architectural styles and the design of consumer goods became unlikely battlegrounds in the ideological war between capitalism and Communism.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
When the V&A decided to mount its big new autumn exhibition, Cold War Modern, four years ago, the museum could scarcely have anticipated how relevant it would seem by the time that it opened.
After Russia's tanks rolled into Georgia last month, relations between Moscow and the West feel sub-zero once again.
All the political tension will no doubt boost the number of people who visit this ambitious exhibition of around 300 objects. Admirably curated by David Crowley and Jane Pavitt, the show examines how artists, architects and designers working between the end of the Second World War and the early Seventies were influenced by the Cold War.
Everybody knows that America and Russia competed in stockpiling nuclear warheads, threatening Armageddon. What is less well known is the extent to which the two superpowers simultaneously slogged it out to demonstrate their cultural superiority over one other. As both sides vied to show off their command of modernity, things like architectural styles and the design of consumer goods became unlikely battlegrounds in the ideological war between capitalism and Communism.