Tea Kettle
Among the leading protagonists of the industrial design era, Peter Behrens was an artist, architect, and designer whose career encapsulated shifting tastes and styles at the turn of the twentieth-century. From his early Art Nouveau work, he became one of twelve founders of the influential Deutscher Werkbund association. This tea kettle represents the group's preoccupation with mass production, particularly the introduction of factory-like aesthetics into domestic environments. Its lack of ornament, emphasis on form, and smooth, continuous surfaces mark recurring characteristics in later modernist design.
Artwork Details
- Title: Tea Kettle
- Designer: Peter Behrens (German, Hamburg 1868–1940 Berlin)
- Date: ca. 1908
- Medium: Nickle-plated brass, wood, wicker
- Dimensions: 9 1/2 × 8 in., 1.1 lb. (24.1 × 20.3 cm, 0.5 kg)
- Classification: Metalwork-Brass
- Credit Line: Gift of Barry Friedman and Patricia Pastor, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.412.18a, b
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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