“The artists who were pioneering the modern movement in the visual arts looked widely for inspiration, breaking away from the old hierarchy of ‘high’ and ‘low’ that had long divided visual culture into fine art and decorative art,” said business historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk. 

The word Gesamtkunstwerk is often used to describe the Aalto House and other buildings they designed. It’s a work that uses multiple disciplines—like architecture, furniture design, textile design—to produce a coherent, total work of art.