The Citadel of Modernism Shows How the Golden State Can Look Backward to Move Forward Gonzalo Lebrija, History of Suspended Time (A monument for the impossible) has been lent to Palm Springs Art Museum by Amy Harmon. Photo by Guillaume Goureau. by Joe Mathews | May 4, 2021 Palm Springs isn’t just a great place to spend a weekend. It’s one of our last and most fervent defenders of what California really is—not what it pretends to be. That’s because Palm Springs, like the Golden State, is a modernist project, built by people who broke from old tradition and established cultures, and experimented relentlessly to construct new systems that buried the past. Throughout California, modernism has produced freeways that span the state, waterworks through swamps and deserts, culture-dominating industries from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, and brand-new approaches to art, architecture, literature, philosophy, politics, and religion.