ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 examines how politically driven interpretations of modernism during the 1930s facilitated its utilization in the context of the Cold War. While the Stalinist cultural revolution in the USSR rejected modernity as bourgeois, two exhibitions by New York’s Museum of Modern Art celebrated the American and international potential of the “International Style” modernism. The influx of Bauhaus masters to the US further reinforced these claims. Following the defeat of the Third Reich, West German designers employed International Style modernism as a means of visual denazification. In the Soviet Union, architectural modernity was selectively embraced as a symbol of socialist progress under Khrushchev’s leadership. Mass-produced housing using Western construction methods addressed the housing crisis, while bespoke monuments showcased the achievements of state socialism. International expositions served as platforms for showcasing the architectural prowess of the First and Second World powers.
