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Art and Technology (1910) PETER BEHRENS

Peter Behrens (born April 14, 1868, Hamburg—died Feb. 27, 1940, Berlin) German Architect He has an influencel role to develop modern architecture in Germany. He made a name with his works of painting, graphic design and architecture and industrial de-sign, especially he was accepted as a pioneer of modern industrial design and mod-ern industrial architecture.

“Design is not about decorating functional forms - it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show new technologies to advantage.” - Peter Behrens

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From 1886 to 1889 - Behrens studied at Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule (School for the Ap-plied Arts). After attending the fine arts school at Hamburg, Behrens went to Munich in 1897 during the time of the renaissance of arts and crafts in Germany before attending the Kunst-schule in Karlsruhe and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

In1890 - In Munich, He began to career of painter, in this period he joined a Munich’s popular art movement Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau)

In 1893 - He was a founding member of the Munich Secession.

In 1899 - Behrens was invited by the Grand-duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, where he designed and built his own house (Haus Behrens)

In 1903 - He became director of the arts and crafts school in Düsseldorf.

In 1907 - Behrens came together with ten other artists and designers to create the Deutscher Werkbund, an organization that was deliberated to compete with the English Arts and Crafts movement and improves the status of German design and industry.

In 1907 - Behrens was appointed by AEG as an artistic adviser and called upon to design everything from the company’s logos and typefaces to its product design. He reached his material style an became a first industrial designer.

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Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau)

Jugendstil was a artistic style in German which intransitived during mid-1890s continued untill World War. Its name was taken from the Munich artistic journay Die Jugend (in German, means that Youth) which was focused the decorative art like other Art Nouveau style.

There were two aspects of the Jugendstil, first one decorative design dominated by floral motifs was be established in English Art Nouveau and Japanese arts and prints, second phrase is more abstract in the manner of the Belgian architect and designer Henry van de Velde. The floral style was basicly based on drawing on natural forms and folk art themes, art works appeared like naturulistic and senti-mental. Henry van de Velde - Furniture Design

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Munich was a main center of Jugendstil, like other movements of the arts in Germany, it clashed with growing interests in industrial design and desire to improve German products for competing for inter-national markets. In the example of British Crafts movements, the approaches of William Morris were ‘fitness for purpose’ and ‘honest construction’ was crucial for the high standard of design. German art-ists did not deny mass-production trend in this peri-od but they had tried to create appropriate designs for the development of new technologies.They led to more simplified, functional design approach with less ornamentation than that of their British coun-terparts, making many products affordable. Obrist, Endell, Riemerschmid, Bangkok, Paul, and Peter Behrens, they worked closely with the producers of their designs. At this time, the more abstract, geo-metric transformation of the floral style began to be seen in the workplace by Endell, Obrist and Beh-rens.

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Behrens’ 1898 The Kiss had a similar deal with flowing in curved elements that were created in organic, orna-mental and modernist style.

Also, in Behrens’s woodcuts, the il-lustration has surrounded the border. The theme of the border is always connected with the illustration in the middle. For example in his woodcut The Kiss the hair of two women are twisted together and transformed into

The Kiss - Peter Behrens

Butterflies on Water Lilies - Peter Behrens

As stated by Schmutzler (1962, p. 205) “his earliest works in Jugendstil are ornament drawings like the delicate sketch of butterflies alighting on lily pads framed by rushes and in this design his affinity with Japanese art is obvious.”

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Munich Secession

Like William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, the Munich Secession championed all types of art, including decorative art and design, and generally adopted a multidisciplinary ap-proach to the subject. Their modernist style of painting included prototype forms of abstract art as well as more expressive styles, thus anticipating early 20th century movements like Symbolism and Cubism.

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Darmstadt Artists’ Colony

In Darmstadt, the Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse founded the colony with a group of Jugendstil artists. His aim was made Darmstadt leading center of architectural, design, and decorative arts practice for improving German public taste and enriching the contemporary applied and decorative arts with a sense of German identity. This conjunction of national identity, design reform and economic success was consistent with the idea of contemporary progressive design. Several artists of the Art Nouveau in Darmstadt: Peter Behrens, Paul Bürck, Rudolf Bosselt, Hans Christiansen, Ludwig Habich, Patriz Huber and Joseph Maria Olbrich were brought together. Ernst Ludwig provided financial opportunities to artists for designed their own houses that were exhibited. However, the exhibition made a financial loss and drew some negative criticism.

Wedding tower in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt

Peter Behrens’ House Interior Plate designed by Peter Behrens 7

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Peter Behrens’ House

In the colony, Behrens who was original-ly trained as a painter turned to architec-ture and built his first house. He conceived all the interiors including furniture, towels, paintings, pottery, etc. The house receiving widespread critical attention at the 1901 Darmstadt Exhibition for his furniture, fit-tings, and interiors which, although mov-ing away from the more flowing Art Nou-veau forms that had characterized much of his earlier design output, utilized expen-sive materials, and finishes. The resulting building - Behrens’ first work of architec-ture - is indebted to Art Nouveau in some of its features, but it is more remarkable for the way in which it deviates from Art Nou-veau norms. Many consider its more aus-tere, stripped down style to be Behrens’ first step away from decorative styles and towards the modernism that he eventually helped to inspire.

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“EVERYTHING THAT BELONGS TO LIFE MUST ATTAIN BEAUTY.” Peter Behrens

While this format was quite typical for a small bourgeois’ house, its internal and external ex-pression was unusual, particularly for its combination of features drawn from the English Arts and Crafts movement...with elements such as the high-pitched roof drawn from the German vernacular. Clearly seems to Behrens was initially an art student, influenced and attracted by the work and teachings of William Morris.

Red House - William Morris

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The Deutscher Werkbund

Deutscher Werkbund, greater efficiency in the craft industry, to better design and ar-chitecture industry was born with the desire for a more modern approach. The myriad Jugendstil workshops established are built on the belief that the art of high quality (and also folk art) will improve the quality of life and international economic standing of the nation. The goal of the Deutscher Werkbund was “the improvement of professional work through the cooperation of art, industry and the crafts, through education, propaganda, and united attitudes to pertinent questions.” The group’s intellectual leaders, architects Hermann Muthesius and Henry van de Velde, were influenced by William Morris. In his book “The English House” (1904-5), Muthesius believed the way forward for German design lay in high-quality, machine-made products that were at once recognizably Ger-man and modern.

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AEG

In the same year as the formation of the Deutscher Werkbund, Peter Behrens was em-ployed an artistic director of the firm AEG. AEG produced a broad range of devices such as generators, appliances, and light bulbs. Behrens designed daily used electrical products and buildings, advertising and logos. Behrens masterminded AEG’s complete corporate identity. AEG was the first firm to invest in the art of industrial design. His commission for AEG allowed him to make the transition from applied arts to industrial design, and from decoration to functionalism. His work in AEG could be assumed first connection art and industry.

For Behrens, form and function were of equal importance:Don’t think that even an engineer, when he buys a motor, takes it to bits in order to scrutinize it. Even he buys because of the external appearance. A motor ought to look like a birthday present. 11

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AEG Turbine Factory

In 1909, Behrens designed his first factory building. The design does not completely ab-stain traditional architecture, with solid gable ends and corner walls recalling an abstracted classical temple. Behrens succeed to combine functionality and elegance, matching the use of modern materials and building techniques to classical proportions. Also, the facade of the iron-and-glass structure is given extra solidity by the addition of masonry pylons, steel columns and a polygonal tympanum, all of which give the building a classical feel. As a result, Behrens points that a functional modern industrial building can still have a con-nection with the architecture of the antiquity.A structure completely made of iron, glass and concrete. The design of the factory is based on rectangular and circular forms and the essential outline of the factory—a steel-frame rectangular structure, approximately 122 meters long, 40 meters wide and 26 meters tall. The window design has enabled the interior to be illuminated with all natural light.This monumental was designed in collaboration with the structural engineer Karl Bernhard. He wanted to make interior and exterior spaces as simple as possible and cooperated with engineers to use less, but larger beam frames than those widely used in such a large building. As a successful architect, he was also an untrained engineer so he relied on engi-neers about materials and structural aspects. The AEG Turbine Hall point the beginning of the new industrial aesthetics of minimalistic designs. It had a completely new concept in where the neo-gothic and neo-classical design was considered appropriate style.

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Other Works

The Small Motors Factory (1910-1911)The Large Machine Assembly Hall (1911-1912)The Schröder House (1908-1909)The Cuno House (1909-1910)The German Embassy in Leningrad (1911-1912) (redesigned)I. G. Farben Company Building at Höchst (1920-1924)Office building of the Hoechst AG, Frankfurt,Germany, (1920-1925)Winarsky-Hof (with J. Frank, J. Hoffmann, O. Strnad, Wlach), Vienna, Austria, 1924Franz-Domes-Hof, Vienna, Austria, 1928Tobacco Factory. Linz, Austria, (1929-1935) The Mannesmann-Werke in Düsseldorf (1911–12)Farbwerke at Höchst (1920–24).From 1922 to 1927 he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His later build-ings demonstrated his belief that a building complex must have a heavy massiveness.

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Art and Technology

“Technology cannot permanently be understood as an end in itself, but gains in value and significance just at that point at which it is recog-nized as the most refined means of achieving a culture. A mature culture, however, speaks only through the language of art.”

He defended the idea that technology should be integrated culture. Maybe in this time technology, became an understandable and contro-versial issue.

“Our most serious task, therefore, is to help technology to achieve artistic quality, at the same time helping art to great achievements though contact with technology.”

“By their nature, art and technology are quite different, this in no way lessens the legitimacy of the view that they still belong together.”

“Nor, however, do we want a technology that goes its own way, but one that is receptive to the artistic will of the age. In this way, German art and technology will work toward a goal: toward the power of the German nation, which reveals itself in a rich material life ennobled by intellectually refined design”

Although the difference between art and technology (not a problem for their togetherness), technology should not be unaffected, especially for art it should be transformed easily. As a nationalist, he expected Germany developed with these ideas -technology and art-.

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Behrens - rather like his pupils Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe - was a pioneer of modernist architecture: that is, archi-tecture designed for the modern age, free of historical elements and associations. In fact, as mentioned above, he retained a number of historical motifs in his designs, but otherwise his monumental industrial designs incorporated numerous modernist features and made full use of new materials like steel and glass. But his modernist vision was only properly implemented by the International Style of his disciples, Gropius and Le Corbusier and by the skyscraper architecture of his pupil Mies.

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