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Modernism started off in the 19th
century through WWI but it was not until after that it really became a big influence to the western artist then to the world and has become the most influential movement of the 20th century. Modernism covers all areas of art such as music, literature, architecture, applied art and was about celebrating the talents and abilities of man-kind intelligence, creativity and radical thinking. Modernism particularly inspired fine art, it saw a break in the world of the ‘ism’ these art styles include Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, Brutalism and Surrealism. With the influence making such an impact across multiple creative disciplines.
Modernism has especially changed graphic designs and thinking process. The style of the design moved dramatically from the 19th century approach, before the idea of modernism graphic design and typography was overly decorated and exaggerated, every possible inch of a typical poster would be filled with imagery and type. Where modernism now teaches graphics about simplicity, more of thinking than a style, they believed that the design of an object should be based purely on its purpose, that “form follows function”. They wanted more strong structure in designs and soon introduced the grid system and negative space with the clean sans serif type; typical typefaces used in the Modernism era include Franklin Gothic, Monotype Grotesque, Futura, and Helvetica Neue, which was heavily emphasis. Posters became well photographed, clean and tightly structured; this new age was to avoid the cheap look which was all about commercialism and greed.
Bauhaus Bauhaus
Bauhaus is the name given to the art
school founded by Walter Gropius in Germany under the original title of the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimer. The Bauhaus which lasted from 1919-1933 has come to represent the distillation of the modern movement and the fundamentalist design ethnic. The school believed in a variety of art and design and taught about the relationship through each art, colour and materials, and even though the founder was an architect he wanted to bring together architects, designers, craftsman and fine artist to create a new better future because it was clear that technology is the new future, Gropius wanted to create a new environment people could live in with the opportunities provided, Gropius argued that architecture and design should reflect the new period in history and adapt to the era of the machine, he realised the beauty of the machines, appreciated its aesthetics and wanted to create designs for household to be mass produced using the modern technology.
Bauhaus was all about innovation and inspiration and later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, sadly after 15 years the school was forced to shut down by the Nazi regime because it was claimed to be “un-german� the flavour of the school did not suit the nationalistic, but the teachings and message will remain a revolution which had passed on to become what designs are now. The Bauhaus movement captured the attention of many respected artist, designers and architect such as Le Corbusier, Ellen Gray, Miles Van de Rohe, Marchel Breuer and Florence Bassett Knoll.
The Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919) described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression.
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“There is no recipe for good layout, what must be maintained is a feeling of change and contrast. A layout man should be simple with good photographs, He should perform acrobatics when the pictures are bad” Alexey Brodovitch
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Paul Rand (1914 – 1996) was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, In an interesting way the chronology of Paul Rand’s design experience has paralleled the development of the modern design movement. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a pioneer typographer, photographer, and designer of the modern movement and a master at the Bauhaus in Weimar, may have come closest to defining the Rand style when he said Paul was “an idealist and a realist using the language of the poet and the businessman. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems, but his fantasy is boundless.” Bradbury Thompson (1911-1995) When it came to the blending of photography, typography and colour, nobody did it better than Brad Thompson, in his own quiet way, he expanded the boundaries of the printed page and influenced the design of a generation of art directors. Thompson work was all about form, whether by examining his precise cropping and careful placing of images on the printed page or studying his attention to typographic detail, his sense of order and structure cannot be missed. “It was a critical part of my training as a designer. It taught me discipline and, working with huge sheets of tracing cloth, I learned to cope with space in an orderly way.”
Saul Bass (1920 - 1996) was a graphic designer, but is best known for his design on motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen
Post Post Modernism Modernism
Post modernism is a late 20th century
style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism, they spent most of the 20th century trying to forge a better world inspired by science and universal truths, to them less was a bore and more was a must. They believed in more than one method of style and design, they wanted to challenge audiences and force them to ask questions. Postmodern work still maintains elements of the modern utility but has an obsessive tendency to recycle the past to make something new. Some see it as not as a separate movement, but simply as a continuation of the modernist struggle.
In the creative disciplines, such as painting, literature, music and sculpture, post modernism tend to lean heavily on using forms not traditionally perceived as artistic. It is based on preconceived notions of what is proper but done with a spirit of liveliness and joyousness. Wanting more than function to something, they were there for emotional interest or aesthetic engagement, and that produced a movement that gave a balance to modernism. Artist like Madonna, Lady GaGa, Michael Jackson and David Bowie are all seen as example of post modernism in the ways in which they have created or re-created different identities for themselves. Postmodernism is a high-energy revolt, an attack, a strategy for destruction. Artist such as Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, were concerned with collage, chance, anarchy, repetition.
Postmodernism can be seen in many ways, it can all depend on opinion like art is supposed to be, but some people don’t like to be confused and forced to think about something to appreciate it, some just want to get straight to the point. Although postmodernism can be attractive in some form of art such as music and dance, specifically, the truly amazing 1981 work, Drastic Classicism, choreographed by the great dancer Karole Armitage, where dance is not structured but can surprise you and explode in different directions to the variety of music. There is so much raw energy on stage: classical ballet combines with street dance, punk with folk, hip-hop with moments of ballroom, and then back again to ballet.
DAD
Dada began during the WWI in neu-
tral Zurich Switzerland, the interpretation of Dada was entirely on the viewer, it was mostly known as anti-art a movement that was fighting art against art, according to proponents, Dada was not art, for everything art stood for Dada was to represent the opposite it was known to have no meaning but to perhaps only offend. Functionality was not a concern to Dada’s layout, as artist composed on the same page and sometimes in the same word, using different typeface of different size.
The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, theatre and graphic deisgn, which concentrated its anti-war politic through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. When it came to design, Dada’s innovative approach to typography, photomontage, negative white space, layout, letter spacing and line spacing has played a role in the development of communication design, many aspect of their style, technique and aesthetics were borrowed from Futurist, they adopted futurist art of typography. Dada did not want the reader to look “through” words to decipher the meaning of text. It wanted to compel the reader to look “at”
the shape of typeface in its explosive layout. Dadaist altered the traditional form of the letters or the overall integrity of the layout; they pushed typography to its limits of legibility. If Dada did not somehow shocked or provoked audiences with their artwork, it was seriously unacceptable and on the edge of destruction, they would always find some other form of way to offend even though their work is seen as fun, silly, witty, colourful and sarcastic, Dadaist took their work very seriously.
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Dada was, officially, not a movement, its artists not artists and its art not art. About the only thing these non-artists all had in common were their ideals. They even had a hard time agreeing on a name for their project. “Dada” which some say means “hobby horse” in French and others feel is just baby talk -- was the catch-phrase that made the least amount of sense, so “Dada” it was. Abstraction and Expressionism were the main influences on Dada, followed by Cubism and, to a lesser extent, Futurism.
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De Stijl is Dutch for “The Style”, it
rejected pre-war decorative tendencies and pushed cubism to new extremes, total abstraction consisting of only the most basic design components, vertical and horizontal line and primary colours and represents the most significant work of graphic design from the movement with the reduction of form and colour that has developed through years. Artists fled to avoid involvement in World War I. De Stijl flourished during the 1920s in Europe and strongly influenced the Bauhaus work. Their aspirations were total, in order to reform society; they aimed to eliminate false distinctions between so called “high art”, “applied art”. It was known some of the idea was influenced by Dada.
The artists most recognised with the movement were painter Theo Van Doesburg who was also a writer and a critic, along with Piet Mondrian and architect Gerrit Reitveld. Their style is the epitome of de Stijl, with straight black lines set at right angles to one another and a careful asymmetrical balancing of primary colours. The reduced components of line, plane, and colour strongly influenced graphic design. Look to De Stijl and you’ll find all the tenets that modern designers deal in and celebrate, minimal simplicity, establishing tension and balance between solid and empty space and the grid.
Form Follows Function
The way something looks should be
determined by its purpose. It is mostly about how you would like to perceive certain things, a matter of one’s opinion especially if you’re a modernist you would like to have things simple and straight to the point but if you are a post-modernist maybe you would prefer to have something that stands out and confusing and the point of it can be very little. A picture frame aim is to hold pictures, so should it matter if it’s attractive? Does the phrase hold up upon deeper inspection? I believe the phrase is outdated, although function should matter more, society has now more interest in how everything looks, especially in products and architecture. But it can also depend on age, growing up we are paranoid by how we look and what we do and this influences us on the way we act and see things, towards the end it is a matter of opinion and personal taste and aim.
Fauvism Intense colours with thick brush strokes, little mixing or shading 1889-1908
ISMS
Primitivism Inspired by non-western cultures, idealising them as a content people, less sophisticated, and currupt. 1893-1933
Expressionism
Emotional extremes, art of unrest in search for the truth, exploration of the obliteration of genuine feelings in society. 1905-1920 Cubism
No distinction between three dimentional forms, artist explored movement through time and space. 1901-1914
Futurism
Italian movement, characterised by its aggression celebrating of modern techology, speed, city life. Wanted to destroy venerated art and everything new and virtual. 1909-1940s Dadaism
Wanted to shape society out of nationalism and materialism, refused to develop conventions, rejected traditional craftsmanship and categories. Surrealism
Created art that was automatic, came directly form the subconcious without being shaped by reason, morality, or aethetic judgement. Abstract Expressionism
Attempts to depict universal emotions which could restore art and society after WWI