But in the 1920s, art made a comeback, albeit for commercial reasons. It had become clear that factories could make more than consumers could buy. Americans were still neophobic—afraid of the new—and resistant to change. Capitalists needed buyers to be neophilic—attracted to the new—and so hungry for the next big thing that they’d spend their month’s income on it. It was a period when American industrialists were learning that, to sell more products, you couldn’t just make them practical. You had to make them beautiful—even “cool.” Executives like Alfred Sloan, the CEO of General Motors,
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