Cubism New attitudes towards pictorial space and geometric abstraction with geometric planes (but still based on real objects) -Influenced by African tribal masks/ breaking natural objects into planes/shapes. -Figures simultaneously seen from more than one view through relationships of geometric planes. -Analytical cubism based on process of human vision, eyes scan a subject then compile it into a whole. -Introduced collage, allowed for composition free of subject matter, declared a painting as a three dimensional object. Materials/media as signifiers. Structural Cubism portrayed only the essence of an object, not its outward appearance. Futurism Utopian, Pro war and technology, about time and motion/dynamism, introduction of typography as art. -Began with published Italian manifesto in Italy 1909 -Glorification /romantic view of war as a means of cleansing society, machine age, speed, modern life. -Aesthetic harmony/tradition rejected in favour of velocity, sound and the diagonal line. -Russian futurism, introduction of typography to art/ as an expressive form in dynamic, non linear composition, dispersal of sound and silence on a page. Union of poetry and painting. Influenced by cubism and motion photography, vorticism, simultaneity – the total work of art, art not separate from life. Cubo-futurism and rayonism (dynamic cubism) WWI (1914 – 1918) -Catalysed by assassination of Heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand in time of great political tension. -Spread worldwide, millions killed both in battle/from disease/poverty. -Historic grievance (Prussia defeats France), colonial expansion (empire envy), rise of nationalism, threat of new thinking, arms race (politics of the binary, they have one we need one). Lasted five years, created 9 new countries. Communication artist ‘designed’ the ideas of the enemy, propaganda posters. -Trench warfare, new industrial technology of communications, air, armoured tanks, navy, small arms which were thought to make war faster, ‘more efficient’. -By end of war nations economically/socially crippled, depression prevailed throughout inter-war years. Political division between left and right, totalitarian rule (communism in Soviet Union, fascism in Germany, Italy, Spain. ) -American economic growth and the fordist method, great depression of 1929. PIONEER MOVEMENTS THAT AROSE FROM/ DURING THE WAR Dada
Dystopian, began as reaction against World War I, anti art, rejected tradition, changed way idea of art/ what it is to be an artist. -Against decadence of European society, the blind faith in technology, consumer culture and inadequacy of religion. -Duchamp and the idea of the ‘ready-made’, attack on a society that had ‘lost the humanistic spirit of the renaissance’, criticism of paint and canvas as a readymade. Not creating art but mocking a society gone insane. – Satirical and irrational, replaced logic with relativism (human nature as governed by egotistical impulse, intuition need to understand reality).
Against Freud’s idea that therapy will help man cope with his social position. -Introduction of the photomontage. Reflective of post war injuries, need to put people back together again. -Fragmented composition, flat plane, collage, print and photography, self reflexive. -Rejected machine aesthetic which undermined individuality and advocated collectivism. – Enriched the visual vocabulary that rejected tradition as initiated by the futurists, continued concept of letterforms as shapes not just phonetic signals. Surrealism Emerged parallel to Dada, explored new Freudian theories of the subconscious/ dreams. Intended to express true nature of thought when free from reason/aesthetic preoccupation. -Poetic faith in spirit of man, ‘naturalists of the imaginary’ as well as naturalistic approach to simultaneity. Art and everyday life indistinct. – Dreamscapes between reality and illusion. Fantasy and intuition expressed visually, as opposed to machine aesthetic of high modernist. -Metaphysical (beyond physical), frottage, juxtaposition, fetishist, organic, erotic, sublime, transgressive of traditional notions of beauty. Expressionism Early 20thC art form that emerged in Germany pre WWI, expressed personal emotions instead of objective reality. Symbolic content important, exaggeration/distortion of colour/form/scale. Thick paint, loose brushwork, bold line. -Revolt against conventional aesthetic form, sense of social crisis/despair/alienation, intense idealism fuelled belief of arts capacity to improve human condition. -Some less inclined to convey agony of human condition, sought spiritual reality beyond outward appearance of nature, non-objective art based on colour/form. Suprematism -Post war and Russian revolution. -Utopian, supremacy of ‘pure feeling’ in creative art and of itself over prior art forms, -Spiritual reality/ perceptual effect of geometric form, colour. No narrative or politics/social comment, non-objective/representational, ‘pure art’, universal. Constructivism -Utopian -Renounced art for art’s sake, saw it as useless. Embraced construction of line/plane/precision/order/simplicity to serve new communist society. -Visual vocabulary to replace language. -New soviet state meant new state capitalism, greater need for advertising. Celebrated the anonymous hero worker of the new communist state, social realism. De Stijl Utopian, equilibrium and harmony possible through purity in art, limiting expression brought one closer to representing the ideal. -Originated in Netherlands in 1916 Rejected the natural, favoured geometry and pure primary colours. -Black horizontal and vertical lines, asymmetry, no centre to the composition. Art Deco -Decorative arts and modern products brought together 1910 – 1939. Ideas at time mixed, some celebrated industry, others despised it. Celebration of war vs horrors of war. Countries in disrepair, debt, depression. -Style rather than an idea, cubist/futurist influence without the moral framework. -Celebrated the modern, decorative, non-political, quirky, colourful (people tired of war and hardship) and new media technology which offered escape eg. Film. Took influence from abroad (Egypt, South America) exotic, new freedoms of luxury travel. Became style of new ‘pleasure palaces’, cinemas, cruise ships. Associated with Hollywood, glamour, consumption, ritzy and modern. -Simple flattened linear forms, 2D grid based designs, logical rationalism of De Stijl/ Bauhaus with diagonal of futurists. Design motifs suited to mass production. -Machine aesthetic of abstraction, fascination with speed/movement. -America isolated from war, advertising flourished as practitioners embraced Freudian theories about manipulation of social insecurities, economic growth stimulated by Fordism.
The Bauhaus Opened at end of the war during period of post war strife. Took ideas from art movements and applied them to problems of visual design caused by industrialism. Emergence of design education. Weimar (expressionistic) Bauhaus – roots in Arts and Crafts movement. Machine and artistic endeavour aligned in the workshop. No distinction between fine and applied art, more spiritual view of the world. Dessau (constructivist) Bauhaus – 1925 to 1932. Political, drew from constructivism and De Stijl. Integration of word and image. Rationalism, designing for the machine.
Shift to abstraction, form follows function, removal of ornamentation, economical, efficient. Social morality, way you live expressed by what you live in. International Bauhaus – Believed everyone will live in a functional, affordable house thanks to new technology. Shifted from utopian dream to the corporate dream in big cities as Bauhaus becomes the international style and reaches america. Tschichold and the new typography – type has objective purpose to communicate. To fulfil this social function its components must be organised/succinct/simple/accurate. Organisation through limiting elements uch as font (eg sans serif)/use of line/grid, visual heirachy and through use of objective photographic images. Kinetic and ayssemetrical, form derived from function. One standard design for print/advertising. Became Swiss and International Style. WWII (1939 – 1945) -Catalysed by Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Extension of WWI, treaty of Versailles, failure of new systems, international relations, economic instability and depression. -Axis powers of Japan, Italy, Germany under totalitarian rule, dictatorship in Soviet Union, belief in reform through unity.
Rise of fascism, the state over the individual for a utopian-fascist future, right wing, anti modern and anti religion. -Totalitarian imagery, aesthetic of politics based on posters/advertisements that encourage brand devotion. Indoctrinate viewer and establish allegiance to a specific institution. Create message that everyone is following this, propaganda, a leader likened to a product eg Hitler created an image of himself as a guardian, man of the people. -Further leaps in the technology of fighting/communication/fordist production methods.
Record high production in the US resulting in excess goods once the war ended. Rise of advertising to create demand for it, things important for being new rather than lasting. THE MAINSTREAMING OF MODERNISM Swiss Modernism –became mainstream, shifted georgraphically (many immigrations to America, ability to travel) –Cleanliness, readability, objectivity, ayssemtrical, grid based, sans serif type, limited colours, clear visual heirachy, form follows function, clarity of form, truth to materials, no unnecessary detail, use of mass produced materials, machine aesthetic. shift from political communication to a style/corporate style, from politics to power. Change in meaning. –became dominant form of communication (international style) then corporate internationalism. Social context – Expansion of world economy, multinational companies, needed to create their own corporate identity to gain business. Rooted in America which is booming, taking products around world. Affluent suburban middle class, social aspirations of visual wealth, luxury. Designs now used to sell things not ideas in a strong consumer culture, growth of graphic design to present these products to people.
Modernism also spread via new media eg the television and transport technology. America shaped by graphic design that had its roots in europe, european sophistication with dynamic quality of america. Modernist styles combined into popular media eg magazines, eclecticism. Synthesis of form and content. American social realism movment at this time influenced by great depression. Largely rejected in a climate of censorship, the abstract favoured as it can be percieved as apolitical. Isotype movement/ Pictographs Developed in 20s but comes into greater use for international events eg the Olympics as a system of wayfinding/a language without words, system of typographic picture information that all could understand, another way that modernism spread. -Logical positivism which is rationalism (reality through logic/maths) + empiricism (knowledge through observation), all language reduced to core of observation. Abstract Expressionism -Modern art movement towards abstraction led to abstract expressionism eg Rothko/Pollock/Kandinsky, influenced by surrealists. About paint, pigment, canvas, references nothing outside itself, rise of artist hero. -American, post WWII US (lots of immigration here at this time), centred in NY but became international. -As modernism rejected moved towards pop art which was referential, drawn from popular culture, satircal of consumer lifestyle. LATE MODERNISM Modernism in a transition period post WWII, at this point it has been absorbed into mainstream culture and is the general tone style of the time. During post war years, relentless optimistic nature of modernity brought into question.
Began to decline. The Atomic Bomb -Change in political tension, catalyst of arms race, ‘mutually assured destruction’ between Soviets and US. -Advances of science beyond social conciousness/emotional/intellectual capabilities. -Anti-communist hysteria in cold war period, people suspected as communist/soviet spies, organisations to pursue and investigated them. A demagogic (political power through playing on people’s fears/predjudice) rhetoric of unsubstantiated accusations, public attack of character/patriotism of opponents known as McCarthyism. The military-industrial complex, obsession with developing arms. -Modernism in this context can be understood as imperialism/colonising force. Spreads itself through war. Existentialism -emergent philosophy that believed in existence before essence, being is primary. -there is no objective reality, eroded sense of absolute knowledge of the enlightenment, doubt in science. -Responsibilty creates angst/despair from denying freedom, rise of counter culture in 1960s for those who saw consumer culture as empty/meaningless, rejection of stiff authoritarial tone of International style.
