Drawing, Designs for Cookware and Kitchen Utensils

This drawing by Ward Bennett shows the American designer’s mind at work for objects in a variety of media during the initial stages of creation. In this drawing, Bennett has conceived an ambitious range of objects including cookware, kitchen utensils, and glassware. Although many of the projects illustrated on this sheet were probably unrealized, the objects share Bennett’s aesthetic of simple geometries noted in other examples of his work in the museum’s collection. This sheet, in conjunction with other preparatory sheets by Bennett in the museum’s collection, allows us to more fully understand how he approached the act of designing. Bennett’s drawings complement other major Cooper-Hewitt holdings like those of Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, and Gerald Gulotta, all of which document the history of American 20th-century industrial design.