At the beginning of the 1930s Alfred H. Barr Jr, founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Philip Johnson, esteemed architect, brought the principles of the Bauhaus to America – even before the concept of architecture and design as a functional artistic synthesis was established in the United States by exiles from Nazi Germany.

Partners in Design presents the pioneering role of these two modernists in unprecedented depth. With an ideology of the museum’s management based on the departmental structure of the Bauhaus, Barr substantially informed MoMA and its seminal exhibitions, while Johnson drove forth the establishment of the functionally designed interior in private living quarters. Portrayals of their inspiring travels in Europe and of exchanges within the New York Salons are also featured.