The Abstract Gallery, designed by Frederick Kiesler, one of the spaces in Peggy Guggenheim Art of This Century gallery in New York City, detail

As the German army swept across Europe in 1939 to 1941, and as Japanese forces conquered the Pacific, the United States remained wary of being drawn into another tragic and costly overseas war. Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941 ended the uncertainty; the country became unified behind President Roosevelt’s ensuing declaration of war. The first several...