week 3

Modernism

A little history catchup- The Scientific Revolution in the 14th century gave people the tools to manufacture products and created a mass production a process which had little regard for the peasents by the middle class. The middle class exploited mass production and the lower class, this enlightenment interlocked an economical, social and philosophical revolution and spread around the world, where middle class rose, the democracy versus the empire. Evident in history when Napoleon killed the Spanish King and Queen crowned himself, the middle class people were taking over. In 1815 when Napoleon was removed from power the new art was formed in France. This proceeded Feudalism a hierarchy of Kings over peasants, which was replaced by Marxism and in the 18th century science became he answer to life rather than religion. The Industrial Revolution followed in the 20th century where middle class kept rising with both social and political power because they could work in this new revolution and earn money the gained power. Arts and Crafts replaced Art Nouveau, as

did Bauhaus in Russia and Germany w

hile Constructivism emerged geometric shapes with simple colour

were used as propagando (a political purpose) not only in art but also textile, paint and sculptures. The rules

for design became 'less is more' and 'reductionism' to the simplest form became popular, similar to Minimalism.

Ziet Giest - Something that's in the air, such as trends or fads, a whisper of the future trends/ fashions/ art/ etc...

Early Modernism

This period from 1910-1935 housed B

auhaus amongst others, which essentially sorted out a short cut to look modern in experimentation, one of the new rules came simply 'less is more'. This came about because of the dissatisfaction in the past and the radical change in society, everything started to

resemble something different from their traditional structures and architecture buildings. Chairs and cars came to resemble geometric shapes,for example the Ford Model T, and artists began to experiment to a further extent. Artis

ts like Picasso with his Cubist artworks of abstracted figures put together by geometric shapes with frames from various viewpoints. An example is Picassos' Les Demoiselles that is on the right, of geometric simplification of the human figure and many different viewpoints of the women. Artists that were around in this period sort out new approaches to their art and discovered a primitive look.

The poster style emerged simple, Plakastil originated in Germany, it was a style that advertised big font, a picture of the product being promoted, flat yet distinctive and eye-catching colour. It saw lack of ornamentation that had previously been popular.

Futurism closely followed from Italy and was seen as a rejection of harmony in favour of noise, particularly in artwork and advertising. This idea was adopted by Dadaists and Constructivists and through performance allowed the theatre to share their philosophies. Dadaists revealed a rebellion of World War I and used shock and protest to submit their outlooks. Moving along Russian Constructivism absorbed Cubism and Futurism to create a new movement that combined communist views and ideology with the visual form.

A new unity was created between art and technology by El Lissitzky, an example of this is above, 'Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge'. All is reduced to shape, tone, line and simple colour.

The Constructivists experimented with minimalism, flat bold colours and an image with grey tonal values coinciding with an a-symmetrical line down the middle although the sides were usually never even. Bold colours held the eye of the viewer and vector lines led the eye to the purpose of the poster, photomontage was played with to contrast size as well as diagonals that destabilised the poster.

The many movements that can come under Early Modernism, allow for a new vision and form. They all struggled between 'function determining form' VS 'the concealment of function by ornamentation', bouncing back and forth between the two rules of art. Surrealism on the other hand explored the world of intuition, dreams and he irrational. The Early Modernism period provided many different styles and techniques that have been continued throughout art history.