Modern Design Across Borders examines the cross-cultural web of connections among people, ideas, and movements that made modern design's remarkable reach and lasting impact possible. Focusing on five spotlight subjects within the global story of interwar design—transportation, the 1925 Paris Expo, tea and coffee, plywood, and cocktail culture—the exhibition homes in on the innovation and trends that spread from country to country, expressing progress and new ideals. Featuring products by designers such as Norman Bel Geddes, Josef Hoffmann, Alvar Aalto, and Charles and Ray Eames, Modern Design Across Borders draws mainly from the Wolfsonian collection and teases out the trademark design choices (geometry, clean lines, functionality) that defined novel visual languages of modern life and continue to shape design today.
