THE BAUHAUS

The Bauhaus building in Dessau,
 1925-1933

The Bauhaus was was an art and design institution which founded in Weimar,  Germany in 1919. The founder of this new school of design was Walter Groupius. The Bauhaus ideology was aimed to embrace the modernist ideology and sought to embrace the 20th Century mechanised culture. The major influence came from previous movement which included the Dutch "De Stijl", Russian "constructivism" and the swiss movement "Dada". The name Bauhaus translates in 'building house' and the general rule for the new movement was that to achieve good  design for buildings, furniture and graphic design was to be complied in an utilitarian and affective manner, that is their main rule was that they should produce works were form follows function.

The Bauhaus institution saw fit to teach its students artistry and crafts across all fields of art and design in a syllabus which focused and connected these different elements with theory and practice.  

The school emphasized a strong understanding of basic design, especially the principles of composition colour theory, and craftsmanship, in a wide array of disciplines and workshops. Because of the Bauhaus belief in the oneness of the artist and the craftsman, this  taught students to eliminate the ideas of the individual and instead focus on the productivity of design. A major aspect of the Bauhaus was the tutors which included famous and renowned artists which included the Russian artist "Wassily Kandinky" and "Paul Klee", along with very talented designers' Lazlo Moholy Nagy', 'Josef Albers' and'Herbert Bayer' 

Walter Gropious Syllabus of the Weimar Bauhaus, 1923

"Black Relationship". Wassily Kandinsky 1924
Watercolor and ink on paper
New York, Museum of Modern Art

László Moholy-Nagy was the main tutor in regards of graphic design at the Bauhaus. He embraced the modernist ideologies which allowed him to focus on some of the more modern means of expression and creation, especially poster design and typography. He was also influenced by other designers from other artistic movements including 'El Lissitsky' (constructivism), Teo van Doesburg' (De Stijl), 'Hans Arp' and 'Kurt Switters' (Dada). Moholy-Nagy’s similar interest in the concepts of space and time led him to focus on photography. This brought about the theory of' typophoto', the incorporation of typography and photography, which has become a common use of all advertising today

‘Foto Qualität’ 1931
László Moholy-Nagy
Typophoto

Laszlo Moholy Nagy

Laszlo Moholy Nagy was born in Hungary in 1895. In the war of 1914 he joined the Austro-Hungarian Army as an artillery officer. In the War he was wounded and whilst he was recovering at the military hospital he began drawing his first sketches. After the war he continued s he studied in Law in Budapest  but with the political and cultural   he felt that his true passion was in Painting and abandoned his Law career and devoted himself to painting.

After the war ended Moholy Nagy moved to Vienna in 1919. In Vienna he started to shy away from figurative painting and adopted a more rationalised and non-objective techniques. He started combining Lines and geometric shapes with iconographic elements. His first non-objective work was produced in 1919 entitled 'perpe' , this work consisted of industrial images combined with letter shapes, lines and a minimal colour scheme.

'perpe'
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1919

Moholy Nagy stay in Vienna was brief, he then moved to Berlin. After the war , Germany became a hot spot for art and artist and Berlin was the centre for the growing international avant-garde movements. Influences like Expressionism, Dada, De Stijl and Constructivism brought by important figure of the avant garde including El lissitsky, Alexander Rodchenko and Teo van Doesburg. This allowed Moholy Nagy to be influenced by this diversified styles and art forms.

Due to Moholy Nagy's Easter European roots he was greatly fond of the eastern artist especially the Russian culture.  Moholy-Nagy was particularly attracted to art by Malevich and El Lissitsky. He examined the works by Rodchenko, Tatlin and Kandinsky in detail and learned about the cultural aspects of the Russian Revolution. His own style would be influenced by Suprematism, Russian Constructivism and Dada, but only in its form.


From  1921 onward his work  started incorporating all of these influences . He started creating paintings incorporating forms and movement, exploring colour , space , light and transparency. Such elements can bes observed below.

Konstruktionen. Kestenermappe 6
(Constructions. Kestner Portfolio 6)
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1923

Q 1 Suprematistic
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1923

  

A 19
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1927

After his work  in painting the next technique he adopted was photography as a new artistic medium. He got acquainted with photography when he met a talented lady photographer, Lucia Schultz.  Moholy Nagy and Schultz got married in 1922. He started experimenting with the camera, which lead to the production of photo collages ( which were first introduced by the Dada movement). he also started to experiment with different views when taking his photos which included bird-eye views, diagonal perspectives and unusual cropping. Through out these experimentations with the camera Moholy Nagy also experimented with the photographic process when developing photos, he experimented with the different levels of exposures and exposing light sensitive paper. this lead to Moholy Nagy creating the Photogram. 

Such example can be viewed below;

Photogram IV
László Moholy-Nagy 1
922

Funkturm (radio tower) Berlin
 László Moholy-Nagy
1926

Head
LaszloMoholy Nagy
1926

   

untitled
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1923-25

untitled
Laszlo Moholy Nagy
1923-25

In 1922 Moholy Nagy secured numerous exhibitions in Germany and in the same year he took part in the Constructivist-Dadaist congress in Weimar. In Weimar he met Walter Gropius the founder of the Bauhaus academy of design. A year after ,1923, Gropius approached Moholy Nagy and asked him to teach at the Bauhaus and was given control of the preliminary course.
When he arrived at the Bauhaus he began the concept of meeting and combine art with industry. Moholy Nagy brought to the Bauhaus his knowledge of Constructivism, typographical material and his exceptional talent in Photography and photo-montage. At the Bauhaus Moholy Nagy came up with a new concept of combining typeography and photography which he coined as 'Typo-Photo' which began what has become the central medium of graphic design. 

    



Moholy Nagy's in his years at the Bauhaus collaborated with Walter Gropius and developed and published the series of 14 ‘Bauhausbücher’ (Bauhaus Books) that acted as the manifest of the school. He designed the visual identity for the school’s publishing house in which he combined a circle, a square and a triangle, fundamental geometric shapes in Bauhaus design. 

Moholy Nagy also played a big role in creating a new typeface at the Bauhaus which worked along with other talented tutors, including Jan Tschichold and Schwitters. The new typography combined photography with asymmetric composition, Sans serif lowercase type in a grid, geometric form absence of any decoration

logo for Bauhaus Publishing
László Moholy-Nagy

Neue Gestaltung
Piet Mondriaan
attributed to
László Moholy-Nagy
1924

With the out break of world war two the Nazi brought a halt to the Bauhaus and Moholy Nagy and his colleges fled Germany to neutral grounds. In 1937 he moved to Chicago and founded a design school     'The New Bauhaus: American School of Design'.

Biblography

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4048&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1

© 2013 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (accessed on 19th Nov 2013 @ 16:24)

http://moholy-nagy.org/

© 2013 The Moholy-Nagy Foundation, Inc.(accessed on 19th Nov 2013 @ 16:24)

http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/index.php/the-modernist-era/the-bauhaus-and-the-new-typography/276-laszlo-moholy-nagy

(accessed on 19th Nov 2013 @ 16:24)

http://www.iconofgraphics.com

(accessed on 19th Nov 2013 @ 16:24)

                                                      DE  STIJL

 

Front cover of De Stijl, periodical,
edited by Theo van Doesburg, 1919.

De Stijl or 'the style' was a modern art movement which roots originated in the Netherlands in 1917.  De stijl was a new avant garde movement which was founded by a famous Dutch artist Teo Van Doesburg. Van Doesburg created a periodic article that appealed to artist about the new art. the subtitles for his mounthly publication 'Maandblad voor de beeldende vakken' (Monthly Journal of the Expressive Professions), indicates the range of artists to which it appealing to, and van Doesburg’s intentions were that it would  be a platform for all those who were concerned with a new art: painters, sculptors, architects, urban planners, 
typographers, interior designers and decorative artists, musicians, poets and dramatists.

This new movement was all about simplicity in form.  The Dutch artist wanted to create a utopia of spiritual  harmony to create a an abstracted view of reality  by  making use of essential basic forms and colours. In their works they represented an abstracted image which consisted of basic shapes  along with horizontal and vertical line  which created a grid like layout incorporating the basic primary colours of blue, red and yellow along with black and white. This use of only very basic forms and minimal colour scheme reinforced their view of the new age of images. The De Stijl artist main aim was to represent an abstracted universe through reduction and simplicity by making use of only the essentials ( basic forms and primary colours).

'Cow'
Teo Van Doesburg 1918 (pencil sketch)

'Cow'
Teo Van Doesburg 1918
 reduction in form

Compostion IX
Teo Van Doesburg 1917-1918 (oil on canvas)

Teo Van doesberg was an important artist in the De Stijl Movement, but the most famous artist of the style was 'Piet Mondrian'. Mondrian was the main figure of De Stijl. Mondrian was a non-representational painter, which later evolved into his own unique style, which he coined “neo-plasticism.” . 

 His art was not based on outside artistic influences or on traditional techniques. Mondrian had a strong spiritual and philosophical belief  which played a key role in developing his work.y . 

His works was intended at helping humanity through aesthetic beauty and breaking from a representational form of painting.  Although his early work was representational, he slowly developed his artistic philosophy, his works first were influenced by the cubist manner which then progressed to a  pure abstraction and non-representative style. 

Composition A
Piet Mondrian
 1923
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy

Composition No.10
Piet Mondrian
1939-42
oil on canvas
Private Collection

Broadway Boogie Woogie
Piet Mondrian
1942
oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Biblography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOSvUfbPHpY

(Uploaded on 8 May 2011) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 12:06pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRjQqEukGFQ

(Uploaded on 26 June 2012) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 12:11pm)

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/1481

Website © 2013 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (SRGF)(accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 12:27pm)

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/d/destijl.html

published © 1996- (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 12:27pm)

http://www.wikipaintings.org

published 2013 (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 11.43am)

        FUTURISM

                                INTERNATIONAL

                                               MODERN 

                                                     ART

                                      MOVEMENT.

The futurist movement emerged as a new Artistic style from Italy in the early 20th century

just before the break of World War I (1909).

the brain child of this new movement was an Italian poet 'Filippo Tomasso Marinetti'. On the 20th February 1909 he published the 'Manifesto of futurism" on the front page of a Parisian newspaper 'Le Figaro'.

The concept of Futurism, coined by Marinetti, reflected the emphasis on a revolution against traditional art of the past and celebrating change, originality, and innovation in culture and society. Marinetti's manifesto glorified and praised the new technology of the auto mobile and the beauty of speed, power, and movement. He embraced War, violence and conflict and disapproved of traditional cultural, social, and political values and the destruction of such cultural institutions as museums and libraries. Marinetti's manifesto's intent was a bold statment having an aggressive tone and provocative in nature was purposely intended to inspire public anger and amazement, to arouse controversy, and to attract widespread attention.

Futurist paintings

Luigi Russolo; 'Revolt' (1913)

This new manifesto lead to a change in Art and the artist, being painters, sculpture and architecture fields at the time focused on portraying this new technological ethos. The main aspect of their art was to capture the dynamic energy of  movement and speed.  

In the painting above we can see an example of a famous futurist artist work, Luigi Rossolo. In his work he portrays a crowd of people revolting. This can be interpreted as a literal description of the futurist ideology i.e. the social uprising against old social and cultural norm. 
The painting is set in an urban environment which will be a common scenario and theme in other futurist works which in the above painting is identified by the buildings seen in the image.

Another crucial aspect of the painting above is how the artist divided the picture using sharp and angled diagonal lines which swoop through the image from right to left which conveys a very strong expression of abrupt dynamic movement, speed and energy. These lines convey our attention towards the gang of people portrayed in an stylised fashion which the artist placed in a spear head formation which evokes the notion of a charging unstoppable force.

The colours used in the painting serve as a sybols. the raging people are portrayed in a bold red which conveys power and danger contrasted with bold yellows and greens stripes of colour which compliments the dynamic energy of the crowd. on the other hand the urban scenario of buildings is given a dull and cold colour palette making use of dark blues , greens and dark tonalities which represent the already known social culture. The use of these contrasting colours of bold vibrant colours against dull and dark colours strengthens the overall subject of the futurist ideology against the past. 

These characteristics are a common practice which were present in other futurist works and were regarded rules to follow. these are some other examples

Giacomo Balla; 'abstracted speed and sound' (1913-14)

'The street enters the house' Umberto Boccioni 1911

'Nose Dive into the city' ; Tullio Crali 1939

 Designers also started to revolutionise their work to adapt to the futurist ideals. An important artist which was a key role in editorial design was "Fortunato Depero".  He was a talented painter, stage designer, illustrator, artist, and writer who played a key role in advancing the uses of typography. 

In terms of typography, Futurist broke the symmetry and tradition of the printed page by making use of multiple colours, typefaces, and text orientations. Depero made us of such elements in his work especially the use of different coloured inks  and numerous typefaces. This can be seen in 2 of his most important work which are, the book 'Depero Futurista' (1927) considered the first object-book and in advertising  the 'Vouge' magazine covers ( 1929-30).

As an artist Depero was highly inspired by the founder 

of the Movement F.T Marianetti and was a full supporter to the cause and also from a the artist Giacomo Balla which worked together and wrote 'The Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe" a manifesto for the revolution of everyday life. 

" We Futurists, Balla and Depero, seek to realize this total fusion in order to reconstruct the universe making it more joyful, in other words by a complete re-creation.”

The book Derepo Futurista  which can be seen in the image  on the left is considered as his famous work. the hard bound book consisted of 80 pages of advertising designs.

A very important detail of the book's exterior is that it is bound together with the use of 2 metal nuts and bolts which represent the industrial and machined aspects that the Futurists admired. This manner of binding was first of its kind. 

In the aspect of layout, Depero used no respect for the traditional rules and position his text in different directions ,  incorporated multi-coloured text and made use of new typefaces. The text was printed on different kinds of paper in various type sizes and widths making use of different materials which made the text suddenly become an image.

      Pages from the 'Depero Futurista' book

Depero incorporated the same principles and the positioning and orientation  of text seen in the book Depero Futurista found above in the designs for a Subway poster seen below

Subway poster Fortunato Depero 1929

In his magazine covers for Vogue, Depero make use of cut outs with black and white or color changes that embrace the more child like element of Futurism. These characteristics, along with the use of flat colours, made his work easily reproducible in the print media through newspapers, posters, etc. This was Depero’s aim to advertise Futurism and its ideas to the general public

1929 Vogue magazine cover

1930 Vogue magazine cover

Biblograhy

http://www.colophon.com/gallery/futurism/1.html

 (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 10:35pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZHpmJvU7sM

( published 5th June 2012 ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 16:46pm)

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/futurism/

( published 14th Oct 2002 ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 17:36pm)

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/movements/195215
( published  2013 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 16:55pm)

https://www.pinterest.com/snmajor/futurism/
(accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 17:24pm)

ART NOUVEAU

The Art Nouveau movements first made its appearance in Europe in the late years of the 19th century. This new artistic movement was considered as the 'New Art' form for the 20th century which was considered to be a major transition for the time.  The transition and the eagernesses for the future was initially sparked by the new industrial age which emerged in the beginning of the 19th century. This was the result of the industrial revolution which changed the way of life in Europe and Western civilisation. This new age paved the way to consumerism and empowered the middle class status of the citizens in Europe. This new mentality was created thanks to the British designer William Morris which came up with emerging mass produced object with 'Design' which started the artistic elements with manufactured and machined goods. William Morris created the 'Arts and Crafts Moment' which was crucial element in the development of 'Art Nouveau'.

This new style of art was becoming more and more popular embraced by many major countries in Europe and the 'Art Nouveau' took many names in other countries. 'Jugenstil' in Germany, 'Sezessionstil' in Vienna, 'Stile Liberty' in Italy and 'Modernista' in Spain which adhered to similar characteristics of the style

This New Art roots started in Paris , France which was considered an Artistic hub at the time. The city streets were teaming with artists, writer and creative minds which made up the  'Avant Garde' and 'Bohemian' culture. With the new century approaching these artist felt that change was needed, to transition from the past and look towards the future. To be able to achieve such a thing Art Nouveau stated to threaten the Traditional Art and move away from its rules and boundaries.

Prior Art Movements that influenced the Art Nouveau Style;

• Rococo
• Art &Craft Movement
• Celtic Art
• Japanese Art (especially 'Japanese Print')
• Egyptian Art
• Gothic Art

Characteristics found in 'Art Nouveau';

The essence of Art Nouveau is described by sensuous lines and subtle light, stylised feminine figures and curly hair, fluent dresses and attitudes which is the direct inspiration of the Bohemian life style and the beauty Sex and sexuality. An important aspect of sensuality came from a famous actress at the time, 'Sarah Bernhardt' which was considered as crucial muse for Art Nouveau designers.

 Natural vegetation, "whiplash" curves and willow leaves, twisting waves and fleeting smoke and from botanical studies and illustrations of living organisms which included insects and sea creatures.

 Also in the style one can identify elements of  controlled lines, geometric details and colourful new shapes along with the use of pattern 

Art Nouveau was first introduced in 1900 at the 'World Fair'/' Universal' exhibition. For this grand occasion two magnificent buildings were built showcase this international exhibition. 'Le Grande Palais' and 'Le Petit Palais". The 'Petit Palais' was a tribute to the new Art movement and the façade and interior of the exhibition hall was designed following the characteristics that encompassed  Art Nouveau. In the exhibition works of designers of the era were exhibited, such artist include 'Rene Lallic' and 'Emille Gallet'. also the Art Nouveau style was starting to be introduced to the general public. Such example of such could be seen with the design of the new Metros

Façade of 'Le Petit Palais'

vegetal curved vines and floral motifs railing  

 curved  'whiplashed' vines and floral motifs design(main door) 

metro entrance in Art nouveau style.
( Natural  and organic elements portrayed using
 man made manufactured materials  i.e steel and glass)

Alphonse Mucha

During this decadent time art nouveau could be seen everywhere in architectural design and commercial products. This paved the way for mass advertising and the demand for new poster designs. A crucial designer of the time was 'Alphonse Mucha' which was the father of Art nouveau poster design. He made his break trough when he was commissioned by 'Sarah Bernhardt' a famous actress to create a poster for her next play 'Gizmonda'. 'Mucha' portrayed 'Bernhardt as a young decadent goddess as the main focal point in a stylised manner draped in a long floral patterned gown wearing a crown of flowers all drawn in a stylized form, making use of a pale shaded pallet of colour which revolutionised poster design. Sarah Bernhardt was so impressed that she continued to work and commission 'Mucha' to design other posters which  put the artist on the map and became considered one of the most prolific artist/designer at the time.

Mucha continued designing ads for other businesses (ex; cigarettes etc) using the sensuality of the female figure in his works which became very popular subject in 'Mucha' work which later on helped him concluded that "with sex as a subject one is able to sell anything" creating an ideology that works till 

today.                                                                                        

• Bibliography:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/art-nouveau.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm

http://www.senses-artnouveau.com/art_nouveau.php

http://www.arthistory.net/artstyles/artnouveau/artnouveau1.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PHHhmLA8Sg                                                                              (BBC Documentary: The Allure of Art Nouveau)