Following the chaos of World War I, a move toward figuration, clean lines, and modeled form emerged, as many artists chose to represent the body whole and intact. For the next decade-and-a-half, classicism, a “return to order,” and enduring values would dominate the discourse of contemporary art. Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918–1936 traces this interwar aesthetic. The exhibition “takes the visitor from the period of the armistice of World War I in 1918 to the time of the Berlin Olympics in 1936,” says guest curator Kenneth E. Silver. It is the first major presentation in the United States to focus upon this international phenomenon and to examine its manifestations in all mediums. Among the artists represented are: Balthus, Jean Cocteau, Giorgio de Chirico, Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Pablo Picasso, and August Sander.

For further information about the exhibition, visit Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918–1936.