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Journal of Design History 2004 17(4):397-412; doi:10.1093/jdh/17.4.397
© 2004 by Design History Society
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Selling the American Dream: MoMA, Industrial Design and Post-War France

Gay McDonald

This archival investigation uses as a case study the Museum of Modern Art's ‘50 Years of American Art’ (1955) to assess the role of MoMA and the US Government in promoting American industrial design within France during the Cold War. The author asserts that these powerful institutions came to view such wares as a vital means of quelling growing fears of American cultural homogenization within France. The paper investigates how, through ‘50 Years of American Art’, the exhibition organizers sought to build support for an American way of life enhanced by a merger between some of the nation's leading creative talents and its vast technological might. Fostering the development of markets and a new desire for such goods within France represented a parallel mission of these institutions.

Key Words: 1950s—exhibition history—France—industrial design—MoMA—United States

* A version of this paper was presented at the College Art Association Conference, Philadelphia, in 2002 in the session ‘Containment, Conflict and Control: Revisiting the Visual Culture of the Cold War’. I would like to thank the session chair David McCarthy, and Katherine Manthorne and Penny McKeon for their comments on earlier drafts.


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