Originally created to accompany the 2007 exhibition "Modernism:
Designing a New World 1914-1939" at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in
Washington, DC, Essential Modernism brings into focus the foundation
and meaning of Modernism as the defining movement of the twentieth
century. Surveying objects and images from many media and industries,
the book traces the historic development of the modern form, starting
with the post-World War I search for utopia and continuing through to
the start of the Second World War.