Originally created to accompany the 2007 exhibition Modernism: Designing a New World 19141939 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.