American Dream

EXHIBITION

Among the endangered species in the New York art world is the museum show assembled around an idea. "The Machine Age in America 1918-1941," opening this month at the Brooklyn Museum, is such a show, and a crucial one. Its more than three hundred paintings, sculptures, photographs, and examples of design and fashion tell us much about who we are and how we got here. Europe after W.W. I looked with horror upon the machine— think of Picabia, of The Waste Land. America was like Narcissus at lakeside: in the shiny surfaces of chrome and plastic, a country glimpsed its best face—its optimism and ingenuity and well-oiled drive—and never got over it. We continue to be seduced by things industrial, lending them the gloss and fine order that Charles Sheeler did in his paintings, Paul Strand did in his photographs, and Raymond Loewy did in his products for office and home. The modem world is rife with rough edges; to smooth things, we dream machine dreams. Brooklyn Museum. New York. (10/17-2/16)

G.M.