Modern history's domestic domain

The modern kitchen began to take shape sometime around 1900. It has been a leading indicator of the state of design ever since. It has also been a battlefield of conflicting belief systems. As the use of servants declined, housewives became at once early adopters of new products meant to free them from drudgery and targets of corporate advertising that relentlessly defined them as household fixtures themselves.

Kitchens have long been heavily symbolic sites. This is elaborately demonstrated by "Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen" at the Museum of Modern Art through March 14.