Some of the artists, such as Kandinsky, Beckmann, Heartfield, Schwitters, and Kokoschka, sought refuge in Paris, London, or Amsterdam. Others, including Leger, Ernst, Chagall, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe, fled to the United States. For all the artists, their years of exile would become crucial to the development of their art.

Essays by 19 prominent American and European art historians discuss all aspects of the artist in exile, from monographic studies of individual figures to an analysis of the French artistic community in New York. More than 300 illustrations, including many historical photographs, provide a rich visual documentation of the time. An illustrated chronology details key cultural and political events.

The related exhibition travels to the Musee des Beaux Arts de Montreal in June 1997 and to the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, in October.