March 24, 2011

My Trip to MOMA's Design & the Modern Kitchen Exhibit

 

Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen has been up at New York City's Museum of Modern Art since September, but it took me until this past weekend to finally see it. For a cook and a lover of thoughtful design, this exhibit goes deep, so I ended up going back a second time in order to take it all in.

 

There are gadgets from a c.1940 six-sided cookie cutter to a set of 1920s ultra-modern sauce pots. One of my favorite parts of the collection is a fascinating display of WWII propaganda posters encouraging British citizens to plant gardens and eat more rabbit. (Those who follow me on twitter may have noticed me tweeting each and every one of them last Saturday morning, and I also include them in the gallery of this post.) And in case you forgot you were in an art museum, the exhibit features an area called "Kitchen Sink Dramas" which honors the fact that since the 1960s, kitchens have grown into a rich subject for artistic expression.