Modernism

Modernism

Max Bill

Modernism is a movement which emerged in the early 20th century, of which was influenced by the development of the modern industrial focused society and the fluctuating social trends. It was very much focused on taking influence from the present as opoed to the past. Modernists focused on exploring with new medias and rejected the traditional forms of art and design; it was renown for using geometric patterns and minimal decoration. Sullivan stated that design should revolve around the principle of 'Form follows Function'. He believed that the shape of a structure should visibly reflect the functionality. Modernists eventually began to explore the idea of mass production; due to the ever fluctuating technology surrounding them.

Lot 8, Max Bill

Max Bill 

Max Bill was a modernist artist who created typically minimal and structured pieces of work. He uses very bold colours, grid systems, and geometric shapes very often in his work and personally I find his work very appealing; very simple and minimal, however, very original. Colour is a big focus in his work as i fell it makes the most impact to a viewer, as opposed to line structures, etc. His work is exciting and can even sometimes create illusions, disorientating the viewer. I respect the man for producing a lot with little, creating such long lasting and effective pieces of work in history with such a simple ideology and method.

Bauhaus

Bauhaus

Bauhaus was essentially an art school located in Germany, founded in 1919 by a man known as Walter Groupius. His idea was to create an environment were all arts would be combined and collectively creating work together. Primarily teaching the principles of Modernism, Groupius aimed to teach the students a style which could be reflected in all forms of the arts; pushing forward Sullivan's 'Form follows Function'. This revolves around the idea of the design of a structure, whether that be a building or art subjects, should reflect its functionality; it was deemed unnecessary to decorate a functional object. 

Bauhaus was attempting, with success, to avoid art losing its place in society; via uniting art and manufacturing. Modernism was a very good source for influence when trying to keep the art world up to date with the fluctuating culture and society views. After WWI had concluded, the consumerist society was born, and so the demand for material goods increased dramatically providing an opportunity for Bauhaus to promote the arts and raise up back into society's main front. They understood the relationship between society and its technology and attempted to unite them, allowing the products Bauhaus had created to be mass produced and available for the consumerist society. 

Postmodernism

Postmodernism arose in the late 20th century, more specifically in the 1960s. It was kicked into action via artists growing tiresome of the very strict and minimal ethos of modernism, wanting to have more freedom to express themselves. A very popular style that came from it was 'Pop Art'; taking its influence from the culture of the time. It was known for using bold colours, strong lineage, and not having many boundaries at all in the way of subject proving to be very different from the limited, grid-orientated manor of modernism.






The motivation of the movement was to bring back the freedom to art and design. It was renown for believing in the idea of deconstruction, specifically taking something apart in order to create something new and original. Influences would come from subject matter that most modernist's were cynical about, ranging from the past all the way to the present. Postmodernism was especially favored by the fine art would, as it took away the limitations modernism had put in place and allowed the artist to roam back to their traditional roots of art and design. One of the major differences between modernism and post-modernism is the fact that modernism's influences stemmed from the technology of the industrial focused society of the time period, where as post-modernism took influence from the ideology of taking apart and combining multiple subjects together to create something innovative and original.
 

Robert Rauschenberg

One of the earliest post-modrnist artists to rise was Robert Rauschenberg. His work is bursting with expression and is follows the rule of post-modernism to be totally free. Taking influence from the cultural surroundings, he rejected the idea of structure and the mechanical themes of modernism. Like a lot of pop artists, he made use of bold colours and expression in the context of overlapping and combining various images. Similarly to Kurt Schwitters, he used the collage technique, but in a very different way. As Schwitters was a modernist, you can distinctly see how his collages are structured with grid layouts and have very little decoration, whereas Rauschenburg's approach is to deem grid structure not even a consideration, displaying expressive chaos and a bold colour scheme. It is aimed to create an emotional response through images and themes that people can relate to and recognise. Personally, I love Rauschenburg's style, his influence on later artists and culture as a whole 
is brilliant and I would love to attempt to create pieces of work like his in my life.

Semiotics

'This is not a pipe.'

Semiotics

Semiotics surrounds the exploration of the interpretation of signs. It heavily depends on how the individual's culture which surrounds him stands on shared values and understandings. Our cognitive thought processes and actions are governed by an array of cultural conventions and messages, and is subsequently dependent upon one's ability to interpret colour and symbols. A recognized example would be the category of road signs, warnings, etc. would look relatively the same no matter what country you find yourself in  ; giving a global understanding of signs and meanings. Semiotics are divided into separate types or categories, one being heavily base don colour, and the other giving an precise and clear instruction.

Colour semiotics represents the method of a certain colour expressing a specific meaning. Obviously different cultures may in fact interpret colour in a varied amount of different ways, but the ideology is the same, colour semiotics is used to create a certain message, and trigger a certain emotion. Without really having to say, every culture has different morals, values, and shared meanings which causes the idea of each colour to be interpreted with different actions, emotions, thought processes, etc. The semiotic colour spectrum to the right measures how people from different cultures interpret colours, in actions or emotions. As displayed, each emotion is represented by more than one colour across the globe thus reflecting the cultural differences we have when it comes to colour meaning and stimuli.

Surrealism

 Surrealism

Two Horns, Jeffrey Harp.

Dadaism propelled many movements from its ideology, however, the most renown movement was Surrealism, founded in the 1920s. The Surrealist artists were notorious for attempting to explore the unconscious mind through expressive techniques. In order to reflect the language of the subconscious, artists often used juxtapositions in the work to portray more than one single reality, often presenting a creation which the viewer is not able to passively understand at first.

The more surreal the piece becomes the larger the difference in realities is; appearing dream-like. Surrealism has had a major influence on nearly every form of media and art, running form cinema to literature. However, surrealist influences are not very common in graphic design, aside from the likes of Saul Bass, especially in the world of typographic design.

Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali.

Salvador Dali is by far the most famous Surreal artist, and one could say one of the most famous artists surrounding all movements of all time. His creations are renown for their detached reality aspects and incomprehensible themes. A well known example of his success is 'The Persistence of Memory', which depicts a very barren landscape with peculiar subjects in the forefront including a series of melting clocks. The meaning behind this painting is said to be inspired by Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity'. It is said to be reflecting how the concept of time in the dreamworld is eradicated, and how soon in a post-Einstein world, due to relativity, we will not be bale to keep track of tie merely using machines such as stop-watches or clocks. 

Peronsally I love Salvador Dali's work, it laughs at everything that is wrong with the middle class world and their worries, whilst addressing problems that the typical human, no matter what era they find themselves in, often ponder and question. As we grow older we lose the heightened ability to use our imagination in everyday life, which saddens me deeply. Dali, however, jolted a shot of adrenaline into society's imagination as a whole, and still reminds us to this day that the art of imagination is one of the most important elemnts we can use in our lives.

Universal Visual Language

 

Universal Visual Language

Universal Visual Language is the process of communication  which uses visual material in order for it to be accessible to as many people as possible. It avoids language barriers, illiterate problems, etc. in the use of imagery and universal semiotics. It is often used in the design industry as the company's work may need to appeal to a global audience, for example, as apposed to a local audience were the language and cultural barriers would not be impeded.

One of the founders of it is the one and only Bauhaus. In this time period it was not uncommon to be illiterate, and so Bauhaus had to find a way to overcome this communication barrier so they could teach all of their students. They used visual techniques such bold colours, shapes and textures to aid them in this venture, using it alongside verbal language as so to make the visual language not a stand-alone function but to go hand in hand with the verbal language. This method especially aided the students who were lacking in discipline, allowing them to focus in a totally different perspective on such things as the contextual element of art and design. Bauhaus was filled with intimidating names such as Klee and even Kandinski. These two artists were two of a handful of artists and engineers who developed visual language, and they later went on to create a successful textbook, 'Language of Vision', explaining the fundamental values of visual language.

Grid Systems

Grid Systems

Graphic Designers often use the grid system when setting up the layout of any work they produce, whether that be posters, typography design, etc. It is constructed of intersecting lines on a page that enable a structure to be formed to a piece. The structure is there to allow the designer to organize the work, whether that be text, image, etc, in order to for the presentation and message to be observed more clearly. It is used at its best ability in newspapers, posters, magazines, etc. The system is favoured specially by the Modernist movement, the artists feeling very satisfied with the added structure to the layout of their work.

The designer Muller-brockmann believed that using the grid would allow a designer to discover their own unique style in the method of laying out their work-

“ The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice. ” 

-Josef Müller-Brockmann

The grid can also be percieved as acting as an aid for artists; allowing them to seperate an image into different portions making the piece of work more organised and easier/less-formidable to approach (this especially applies to painters). In the context of creating lettering and images, the typographer Wim Crouwel used the grid system with enthusiasm throughout his typographic work.

Wim Crouwel

Wim crouwel is a renowned modernist artist who notoriously used the grid structure as a foundation for his creations. Quite often seen in his work is that the solid block shapes often flowed across the exact same lines as the grid, and so the grid would technically be the exact compositional component of the piece. He often created his designs for posters, exhibitions, etc. due to his work possessing such a structured ethos; reveling in minimalism and clarity. One of his most famous works is the creation of the typeface 'new alphabet'. It consists of a very jaunty grid-like appearance, taking inspiration from the very limited and early display technology, 'Cathode Ray tubes'. Personally I am not a huge fan of this type of typography as I feel the modern-aesthetic of letters appears too cliche.