The Isms of Art:
- Filippo Tommaso Marinetti developed the birth of Futurism.
- 20th century avant-garde styles:
Cubism
Expressionism
Futurism
Vorticism
Dadaism
Neo-Plasticism/De Stijl
Rayonism
Constructivism
Suprematism
Surrealism
All above fit under Modernism
- Futurism was the first Modernist movement to make a significant impact on graphic design.
- Mallarme was a leading figure in the literary symbolist movement
- illustrative poetry-figurative poetry or shaped poetry. Concrete Poems.
- Escape the dominance of the rectangular text block.
- Loose construction of writing.
- British futurists called themselves "Vorticists."
- Dada
- Marinetti's text was made to force the viewer to move about the page
- Dadaism never developed an overarching style of it's own in order to keep with it's anti-art credo
- Dadaist graphics had a powerful brand of photomontage.
- Marcel Duchamp shocked viewers with his submission of a urinal used as "ready made art"
- Dadaism was founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916.
- Photomontage was a natural medium for Dadaist artists.
- Modern representation
- Overthrow of conventional form
- John Heartfield was a master at using the graphic power of montages.
- We have a tendency to assume that an image represents that it is a reality merely because it is a photograph.
- Heartfield went from photo montages to creating realistic or surrealistic form of imagery. He merged photographs together and into one piece.
- A positive modernist movement called De Stijl: no room for realism, decoration or personally expressive. It was pure, non-figurative form of abstraction; simple abstract shapes. It became more of an abstracted way of life. They restricted themselves to using only the straight line and the right angle and stuck to primary colors. Curves were "too personal." Composition was kept vague.
- Another positive approach to a new style was the style of Constructivism
- Suprematism had hard edged lines and flat shapes of primary colours.
- Unlike the proponents of De Stijl, the Constructivists preferred the dynamism of the diagonal line compared to the passive, horizontal line.
- Constructivists had signature colors of red and black. Guiding movement was construction.
- Once Stalin came to power the "experimentation" of art was ceased and it went back to the classic traditional form. Socialist realism began. Stalin even named it.
Form and Function: Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was a very influential school and still is to this day. it paved the way for how art schools were ran and taught.
- Walter Gropius started the school. He was an avant-garde architect in Berlin. He wrote a manifesto outlining the program.
- The school consisted of painters, sculptors, architects, carpenters, welders, weavers, and many special craftsman.
- The schools name was derived from Bauhutten which means building hut. It was literally a "house of building."
- The artist and craftsman were unified.
- A general "preliminary course" was tuaght to teach the fundamental aspects of art. This later became a standard in contemporary art schools.
- It allowed students "natural" talents could come out through self-awareness of using different and new materials and mediums. Personal experience was key. Students were encourage to focus on self expression.
- Since the local government financially supported majority of the schools expenses a movement towards designing things that could be sold was emphasized. A whole notion of Art and Industry had begun.
- Moholy-Nagy was an influential professor at the Bauhaus. He created amazing photographic illusions and emphasized the importance of text.
- With much criticism from the city and government, the teachers got together and decided to close the school in search of a new home for the Bauhaus.
- The mayor of Dessau personally expressed his support of the school and this is where the new building, designed by Walter Gropius was built.
- This was the height of the Bauhaus. Students had room to do anything and everything. I had a lot of light and windows and almost felt like a science building.
- A new emphasis on Commercial art and advertising was encouraged at the new school.
- Moholy-Nagy started to use images and text in the same context. He started to incorporate the idea of visual communications.
- Herbert Bayer became a teacher for design and he absorbed the principles of De Stijl and Constructivism. He used the a new kind of format size: A4.
- The Bauhaus rejected the norm of Gothic letters and capital letters.
- The use of lowercase sanserif letters was one small step in the direction of a kind of international solidarity.
- Herbert Bayer was a teacher at the Bauhaus and he hoped to relay the contents of his design more directly and cogently.
- During the end of 1927, Walter Gropius announced his step down from dictatorship of the school, this lead other teachers to step down as well.
- The new director became Hannes Meyer, which only lasted for a couple of years before the Socialist party took over the building and banned modern art.
- A young Bauhaus designer: jan Tschichold wrote a book called new Typography. He emphasized a new Bauhaus style of teaching. He gave students individual instruction.
- Paul Renner was a director and he developed the "typeface of our time:" Futura, by the end of the 1930's it had become one of the most extensively used types of it's time.
- Bauhaus and New typography was an entirely opposite view of printing and letterform design.
