Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design Volume 34

The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design Volume 34

Betts, Paul

Paperback

Series: Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism, Book 34

Art Criticism & TheoryGeneral DesignGerman History

ISBN10: 0520253841
ISBN13: 9780520253841
Publisher: Univ Of California Pr
Published: Dec 7 2007
Pages: 361
Weight: 1.08
Height: 0.97 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.03
Language: English
From the Werkbund to the Bauhaus to Braun, from furniture to automobiles to consumer appliances, twentieth-century industrial design is closely associated with Germany. In this pathbreaking study, Paul Betts brings to light the crucial role that design played in building a progressive West German industrial culture atop the charred remains of the past. The Authority of Everyday Objects details how the postwar period gave rise to a new design culture comprising a sprawling network of diverse interest groups--including the state and industry, architects and designers, consumer groups and museums, as well as publicists and women's organizations--who all identified industrial design as a vital means of economic recovery, social reform, and even moral regeneration. These cultural battles took on heightened importance precisely because the stakes were nothing less than the very shape and significance of West German domestic modernity. Betts tells the rich and far-reaching story of how and why commodity aesthetics became a focal point for fashioning a certain West German cultural identity. This book is situated at the very crossroads of German industry and aesthetics, Cold War politics and international modernism, institutional life and visual culture.

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