Modern Utopias in Suburban Meadows

Abstract

Urban civilizations have often historically attributed particular symbolism to some kind of peripheral greens not properly part of the countryside or the city, but in a limes where common patterns of both categories merge. In the early-twentieth century these suburban prairies became favourite scenarios for the idyllic dreams of visionaries aspiring to amalgamate artists/scholars with museum/exhibition centres and monuments/public art. They were never fully achieved and therefore can be regarded as utopias. Yet, museums and sculptures placed in outer parks, or even amidst rural surroundings to be reached by citizens in motor vehicles, would become a modernist paradigm after World War II; particularly during the Cold War, as a cultural stereotype of the American Way of Life exported worldwide.