In February, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston opened Radical: Italian Design 1965–1985, The Dennis Freedman Collection, an exhibition that examines Italy's explosion of disruptive design following the postwar era. This is the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to assess this now-iconic movement since the landmark exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape at MoMA in 1972. It presents nearly 70 works—furniture, lighting, architectural models, paintings, and objects—almost all of which are or were in the private collection of Dennis Freedman, the high-profile, highly influential creative director from the fashion world.

The boldly fantastical prototypes, one-of-a-kinds, and limited editions in this exhibition are half a century old, and still they manage to provoke discomfort and bewilderment in contemporary audiences. It seems that Italian anti-design is destined to remain in the category of love-it-or-hate-it. And paradoxically those who love it (and collect it) the most tend to be in the category of visionaries whose own work likewise aims to push culture forward. Beyond Freedman, think David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld, and Max Palevsky.

Intrigued by this rare and unique collection, we reached out to the exhibition’s curator, Cindi Strauss, Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at MFAH, to learn how it all came together.