The Museum of Modern Art examines the 20th Century transformation of the kitchen

On September 15th, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art in New York will open an exhibition called Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen. The exhibition celebrates MOMA's recent acquisition of an intact "Frankfurt Kitchen." The Frankfort Kitchen was designed from 1926-27 by architect Greta Schütte-Lihotzky. The Frankfort Kitchen is the earliest example of a design executed by a female architect in the museum's collection.

It's tough to explain properly the social upheaval that observed and observed World War I. Never before in human records had so many world powers been engaged in complete-on war and no war earlier than it delivered the extent of destruction as did the Great War.

Germany surrendered effectively when it signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The German Empire ceased to exist at that point and in its place arose the Wiemar Republic. The Wiemar Republic was a parliamentary republic as opposed to the imperial system that had guided Germany up until that point. Imperial Germany was a totalitarian state and as such it censored the arts and controlled most aspects of German life. The Wiemar Republic promised a new way of doing things and the German Constitution that ran Wiemar Germany granted a free press and the right to free association, among other things.

All was not well for Wiemar Germany though. Germany was essentially blamed for the Great War and was compelled to pay enormous retributions as a condition of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany's economy was shackled and the Wiemar Republic ruled uneasily from the center as extremists to the left and to the right (along with their paramilitaries) jockeyed for power and influence. Against terrific odds, Wiemar Germany enjoyed a few years of economic and political stability in the mid-20s.

It was in those few years of stability that German culture blossomed. The German educated classes were determined to bring Germany into the 20th Century and out from under the shadow of the Great War. In 1926 and 1927, blocks of modern housing units were built to house impoverished workers in Frankfort. It was into these housing units that Greta Schütte-Lihotzky's modernist kitchens were placed.

As I become mentioning inside the post about Christopher Dresser remaining week, Modernism's roots run lower back to the Eighties and it promised a brand new manner of searching at matters. The modernist impulse changed into a rejection of European tribalism and the wars that nationalist actions spawn. The sentiment seems to were that business as normal added approximately death and destruction so permit's attempt something new.

Alas, Greta Schütte-Lihotzky's kitchen designs could only do so much and within seven years Adolf Hitler would be chancellor.

Still, her legacy and the legacies of her contemporaries live on. The Alessi kettle I love a lot and my Bialetti espresso maker owe their very existence to their lives and their work. Everything I contact and notice as I go approximately making dinner is the simply the state-of-the-art iteration of an art and design motion that wanted to remake how humans live. As fascinating as it is to see where it's headed, it is similarly fascinating to look back and see where it started out.

MOMA's exhibit,Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen starts with Greta Schütte-Lihotzky and follows the evolution of the kitchen through the present day. The design collections at MOMA are as broad as they are deep and Counter Space will make extensive use of those collections. Everyday life is worth preserving and to see the evolution of the objects that are my stock and trade will be a unique thrill.

Here are some of the items within the showcase.