Bard Graduate Center’s first student-curated exhibition, Crosscurrents of Modernism: Selections from the Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts brought together more than 80 works by some of the most important figures of the modernist era.

Selections of furniture, ceramics, silver, glass, book bindings, and jewelry showcased the work of architects and designers including Emilie Galle, Eileen Gray, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Josef Hoffmann, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The exhibition explored the variety of aesthetic expressions these individuals produced, some based on indigenous concepts and historical precedents, others based on models borrowed from other cultures.

Organized in conjunction with Bard Graduate Center’s academic program, with students developing the exhibition’s primary concept, themes, and installation design, Crosscurrents of Modernism was on view from November 18, 1994–February 26, 1995.