The House In The Museum Garden: Targeting Domestic Consumers In MoMA’s Architecture And Design Exhibitions

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) promoted modern art and design through exhibitions. Exhibitions of the 1930s were marked by politically and socially minded intentions that aimed to solve modern problems through modern solutions. This continued into the early 1940s, though a shift occurred in the purpose of exhibitions in the late 1940s and 1950s. Working with prominent architects, designers, retail establishments, and women’s magazines, MoMA promoted modern architecture and design to American consumers as a way of living, fully embodied in the House in the Garden exhibitions, discussed at length here. The notion of viewer experience in exhibition design, the role of the homemaker in modern architecture, histories of modern architecture, design, magazines, politics of World War II, and the Cold War are important in the formation of this argument. This thesis asks and answers questions about shifting motivations in MoMA’s architecture and design exhibitions at mid-century.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Massey, Kayla

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Zalman, Sandra

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Harren, Natilee
• Orto, Luisa

• House in the Museum Garden
• Marcel Breuer
• Gregory Ain
• MoMA
• Museum of Modern Art
• Exhibition History
• MoMA Exhibition History
• Modern Architecture
• Architecture Exhibition
• Design
• Good Design
• suburban architecture
• magazine
• women's magazines

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/9117

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/9117