Museum Spotlight: Mid-Century Decorative Arts and Design

This installation of decorative arts, design, and craft explores the tensions and parallels between two categories of useful objects: the handmade and the industrially produced. Displayed in a soaring tower, the exhibit features different yet overlapping groups of functional objects primarily created between World War II (1939–45) and 1960. These apparent contradictions are examined with some definitions, admittedly not very demarcated, of decorative arts and design. Mid-Century Decorative Arts and Design also delves into the categories of craft, or hand production, and industrial design before considering them together in a tribute to one of the most important design and decorative arts exhibitions ever held at the Brooklyn Museum, Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, in 1950. This selection of objects features works by celebrated artists, including Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Gio Ponti, Art Smith, and Eva Zeisel among others.

Museum Spotlights are intimate installations of noteworthy collection works, recent acquisitions, and loans, presented to encourage deeper conversations about art, history, and justice.