Reading Assignment #5

Modern Art, Modern Graphic Design

There were several modernist styles introduced between 1910 - 1939. The main movements were Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, Purism (The New Spirit), Art Deco (Streamlining), Orphism/Simultaneism

Montparnasse

  • A neighborhood outside of Paris where avantgarde artists lived (the rent was cheap enough for starving artists to afford to live there "poverty was a luxury"
  • Loacated in Passage Dantzig was a studio called La Ruche "the beehive". It was originally a wine exhibition building designed by Gustav Eiffel and it was build for the 1900 Universal Exhibition but was relocated to Montparnasse after the exhibition closed
  • Picasso was an expat from Spain who moved to Montparnasse in 1912. He lived with George Braque and Guillaume Apollinaire and he stayed there until 1914 (WWI started)
  • These 3 guys were the most influential people in the Cubist style 

Cubism

  • The artists living in Montparnasse where openly hostile to the creation of commercial art because they rejected mainstream society as part of their self-identification. There was no bridge between fine art and graphic design sand there was not much of a reason for aspiring artists to work in the design field
  • First appearence of Cubism was made in 1907 in work by Picasso and Braque
  • This style was not called Cubism until 1908 when an art dealer named Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler staged an exhibition of Braque's work and called the forms in the paintings "little cubes"
  • Analytic Cubism - (deconstructive) three-dimensional objects are represented as two-dimensional abstractions (geometric shapes called facets). An analysis of solid forms transferred to flat facets that shows the subject in multiple perspective
    • neutral subject matter - still life and portraits
    • references music which was used as a model for abstract painting
  • Synthetic Cubism - (constructive) started in 1912. The artist synthesizes an object out of a mix of abstract parts.
    • new medium of collage
    • structured abstract language for designers to experiment with
  • Graphic designers made adjustments to Cubism to make the message easier for the viewer to understand

Guilaume Apolinaire's Calligrammes

  • experimental poetry created by Guillaume Apollinaire made a huge impact on graphic design and typography. 
  • Calligrammes Means "beautiful writing" in Greek.
  • Letters, graphic shapes, rhythm all work together to add visual dimension to the poem
  • influenced by the fragmented structure of Cubist paintings
  •  In 1912 - he coined the name "Orphism" referencing Orpheus and his ability to create music so beautiful that it could charm inanimate objects. painters would use music as a model for abstract art
    • also called Simultaneism -  a trend in abstract art spearheaded by Robert Delaunay that derived from Cubism and gave priority to light and color. (pioneered by Henri Matisse)
  • His collection of Calligrammes was published in 1918 but he died a few weeks before that from the Spanish flu

The London Underground

  • Modernists were graphic designers that did not participate in the Cubist movement but they used it as inspiration for commercial art, but they were limited on what employment they could obtain because their daring style choices
  • The first place for modernist designers to find work was the London Underground (completed in 1890)
  • "Twopenny Tube" posters
  • Central London Railway consolidates into the Underground Group - trademark of solid red roundel is introduced in 1907

Frank Pick

  • Frank Pick became the unofficial publicity manager for the Underground Group in 1908
  • Pick commissioned promotional posters when he realized he had a captive audience of hundreds of thousands of commuters every weekday,

Edward McKnight Kauffer

  • Kauffer studied in San Fransico and Chicago before moving to Europe in 1913
  • He took on the name McKnight in honor of his professor, Joseph McKnight, who had financed his move to Europe
  • He was introduced to Europian art in Chicago where he viewed a traveling exhibition called "The Armory Show" and then once he got to Europe he was introduced to Sachplakat style
  • He loved London so much that he changed his mind about going back to America and stayed in London where he was introduced to Frank Pick (mutul friend/poster designer John Hassall
  • Kauffer was one of the best designers that Pick hired to design posters for the Underground
  • The first poster he creates for them was called Winter Sales. It uses both anaylitical and synthetic Cubism to depict an image pedestrians traveling in the snow. He also created an optical illusion with the shading of his typography which was popular for display type during the 19th century
  • Kauffer designed over 120 posters for the Underground and introduced the people of London to the Cubist style as well as leading many British advertisers to embrace Cubist design 
  •  Being a painter and a poster designer, he thought that graphic art and fine art were interchangeable which was not a popular view with either side and he ended up giving up painting to continue his career as a poster designer
    • other fine artists thought commercial art was crass and and they should not have anything to do with it. They viewed his poster design art work as sign that he was "instrument of industrial capitalism"
    • clients were skeptical about radical ideas
  • Was one of the founders of the X Group while promoting experimental abstract films
  • Pick wanted all promotional materials for the underground to share the Cubist style
    • It is Warmer Down Below by Austin Cooper in 1924 uses orphist style of "color cubism"
Signage and Visual Identity

  • Edward Johnston creates Johnston Sans typeface in 1916 that is meant to be legible in a blink of an eye when you passed by on the train
  • Johnston is commissioned to revamp the Underground trademark 1918 which extended to a consistent visual style across all aspects of the system (one of the first to implement the theory of total design style)
  •  One of the most famous examples for information management was a map of the routes for the Underground designed by Harry Beck
    • inspired by diagrams of electric circuts
    • simplified the map by using color and geometry
    • his innovation was lasting and is still used today worldwide

Futurism

  • A group of poets, musicians, and painters was founded in 1909 and led by Fillipo Marinetti
  • Was meant as a revolutionary change in Italian society and not another artistic movement like cubism.
  • Italy wanted its turn to compete in the modern industrial world and not be a "dealer in second-hand clothes" and it was one of the first artistic movements that tried to explain the concepts before many concrete examples had been made and had a high profile with avant-garde artists
  • 1910 - Futurist Evenings organized by Marinetti and his associates 
    • A sold out Futuristic music performance ended with volient chaos after the Futurist walked through the crowd and hitting them
    • Had an enormous influence on the Zurich Dada Movement

"Words in Freedom"


LacerbaVorticism

Book Design in Britain

Purism

The Machine Aesthetic
The New Spirit

Art Deco in France and Britan

Poster Art: Cassandre and Carlu
The  NormandieArt Deco Type Design

Art Deco in Asia

Art Deco: Race and Colonialism

The 1931 International Colonial Exposition