From retail furnishings to international auction houses, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in midcentury modernism, an influential design form that flourished between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s.

This fall the Kemper Art Museum will present Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury from September 19, 2008, to January 5, 2009. Organized by the Orange County Museum of Art, the exhibition explores the broad cultural zeitgeist of "cool" that emerged in Southern California in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The multimedia installation includes a jazz lounge; a media bar with film, animation, and television programming; a period art gallery of hard-edged abstract paintings; selections of art, architectural and documentary photography; and an interactive timeline. The exhibition features more than 200 objects representing Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Helen Lundeberg, Miles Davis, and other significant figures.

The Museum will also feature related programming including a jazz series on select Saturday afternoons throughout the fall; a lecture from exhibition curator Elizabeth Armstrong; an architecture bus tour led by Sam Fox School faculty member Eric Mumford; and a film festival, Some Like It Cool.