The Kramer Principle: Design for Variable Use
6 February–7 September 2014
Museum Angewandte Kunst
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt / Main
Germany
Hours: Tuesday, Thursday–Sunday 10am–6pm,
Wednesday 10am–8pm
T +49 69 212 34037
F +49 69 212 30703
info.angewandte-kunst [at] stadt-frankfurt.de
Ferdinand Kramer (1898–1985) is considered one of the most important architects and designers of the modern age in Germany. With new conceptions about the use of objects, Kramer gave expression and form to the changing conditions of life in the twentieth century.
Beginning in February, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main will be presenting The Kramer Principle: Design for Variable Use—a comprehensive retrospective on Ferdinand Kramer. Known to many above all as an architect involved in major projects such as the “New Frankfurt” of the 1920s or Frankfurt’s Goethe University in the post-war era, Kramer will here be presented as a designer.
Reflecting societal developments and taking the surroundings—social as well as spatial—into account within the design process, his work is informed by a changing perspective on the world. This and such attributes as simplicity, clarity and utility are what make Kramer’s works unique. In department-store manner, and long before companies like IKEA adopted this approach, Kramer was already creating flexible build-it-yourself furniture, modular furniture systems, and tables and chairs that could be easily assembled and disassembled.
Encompassing more than a hundred displays—lamps, stoves and pitchers of the early 1920s, standardized window and door fittings as well as small and standardized furniture from the “Neues Frankfurt” period, drawings and works dating from the years of Kramer’s emigration to the U.S., numerous examples from the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt inventory, and rare items from the holdings of the family—this show will present above all the collection of Ferdinand Kramer design objects amassed by Gerda Breuer during her time on the staff of the Bergische Universtität Wuppertal.
The Museum Angewandte Kunst is presenting a long-term exhibition series aimed at exploring this special Frankfurt design approach stage by stage and—by drawing on an abundance of examples—shedding light on ever new aspects.
Concurrently with the focus on Ferdinand Kramer, the survey Less but Better – Design in Frankfurt from 1925 to 1985: Das Frankfurter Zimmer on view since 27 April 2013 assembles the works of various design pioneers of Frankfurt, enabling visitors to gain an understanding of Kramer’s oeuvre within the overall context of design in the metropolis on the Main.
Director: Matthias Wagner K
Guest curators: Prof Dr Gerda Breuer and Julia Meer, certified designer, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Co-curator: Prof Dr Klaus Klemp
Lenders: Kramer Archiv, e15, Galerie Ulrich Fiedler, Frank Landau
Press contact: Dorothee Maas
T +49 69 212 32828 / 33232 / F +49 69 212 30703 / presse.angewandte-kunst [at] stadt-frankfurt.de
