Between Avant-Garde and Commercialism: Reconsidering Emigres and Design

As part of wider migration processes of the twentieth century, artists and intellectuals from Nazi-occupied lands had a deep impact on Western design. Coming from various fields-including painting, film, photography, printmaking, sculpture, theatre, architecture and fashion-they shaped and were shaped by the visual culture of their new country of domicile, be it Britain, France, the United States or elsewhere. Today, more than eighty years after the Nazis rose to power in Germany, the analysis of their transcultural encounters deserves revisiting. This special issue of the Journal of Design History includes five essays that either take a fresh look at well-known emigres or throw light on aspects that have previously received only little attention. It thereby shows how academic interest in migrants from National Socialist oppression is still a buoyant area of interest that has benefitted from recently-available archive materials as well as from new directions in the study of cross-cultural interaction and approaches that cut across different media. By presenting original articles and critical revisions the special issue seeks to stimulate further inquiries into the multi-faceted influence of emigres and design.