Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens’ (1868–1940) artistic work encompasses all areas of applied art: book design and typography, painting and graphic reproduction, ceramic works such as tiles, pitchers and vases, furniture of all kinds and for every purpose, porcelain services, jewellery, silver and pewter articles such as cutlery and sets, wallpaper, textiles such as clothing, fabrics, carpets, table cloths, napkins and wall hangings, drinking glasses, carafes and glass vases, advertising art, posters and much more. Although he was a self-educated industrial designer, Peter Behrens was first and foremost an architect. During the first three decades of the 20th century, numerous villas, residential buildings, industrial facilities and worker housing estates were built according to his designs. Peter Behrens has influenced or played a decisive role in designing practically every area of life, the working world, its products and amenities. Like Henry van de Velde, Peter Behrens was an »all-around« artist, too. After 1901, he established himself as one of the most important architects of modernism, leaving behind a rich legacy of industrial and administrative buildings, villas and entire housing estates. Behrens is also renowned for his role as mentor to Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even Le Corbusier for a time. (Source)
Literature
- A. Windsor, Peter Behrens: Architect and Designer, Humanities Press Intl, 1981. (English)
- Stanford Anderson, "Peter Behrens's Highest Kultursymbol, The Theater"], Perspecta 26 (1990), pp 103-134. (English)
- Peter Behrens: Umbautes, Licht Prestel, 1990. (German)
- Klaus J. Sembach, 1910 – Halbzeit der Moderne, Stuttgart: Hatje, 1992. (German)
- Georg Krawietz, Peter Behrens im dritten Reich, Weimar: VDG, 1995. (German)
- Ina Bahnschulte-Friebe, Künstlerkolonie Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt 1899–1914, Darmstadt: Institut Mathildenhöhe, 1999. (German)
- Kathleen James-Chakraborty, German Architecture for a Mass Audience, Routledge, 2000. (English)
- Stanford Anderson, Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century, MIT Press, 2002. TOC. (English)
Links
- Peter Behrens. From Jugendstil to Industrial Design, exhibition, Kunsthalle Erfurt, 2013.
