ARTH Modern Design

ARTS AND CRAFTS

What is the Industrial Revolution, and what impact did it have on society?

  • Machinery + inventions

  • Unsafe working conditions

  • Cheap labor > skilled labor

What did the Arts & Crafts movement attempt to do to combat the social/labor/aesthetic effects of the Industrial Revolution?

  • Elevate printing + decorative art to fine arts

  • Total works of art

  • Everything being made by the artist with skilled craftsman

  • All of their own materials

How were they inspired by the medieval era?

  • Vines + usage of a printing press

  • Black lettering

  • Designs inspired by the aesthetics but not copying

  • Strong link between act of designing and act of making


How did the Arts & Crafts movement respond to the state of Victorian design?

  • High quality craftsmanship and originality versus cheap factory labor and copies of previous design styles

What reforms were put in place, and what key principles of design did they advocate for?

  • No 3D designs on 2D objects

  • No cheap materials or practices - focus on high quality materials

  • More design schools

  • Total works of art

  • Anti-industrialists


ART NOUVEAU ORGANIC (FRANCE/BELGIUM)

How did the development and popularization of chromolithography change the state of graphic design during the Art Nouveau period?

  • Integration of text and imagery

  • Posters became more image based than random bold color and fonts

How did Japanese art influence their designs?

  • Japonisme -

  • Less lines

  • More flat color blocking

  • More animals and every day life

What was the subject matter of the majority of the posters in French Art Nouveau, and how did Hausmannization impact this?

  • Curvy…. Beautiful…. Women, muses, being used on posters to advertise products

  • Curves and flowy forms, including nature


How did the Art Nouveau period react to the historicism and eclecticism of the 19th century?

Where did they turn to for inspiration to find a style that they believed was more of an expression “of their own time”?

  • Plants

  • Something new and organic

How and why did they shape their domestic environment to be a salve to the soul?

  • Beauty was a salve to the soul - oasis in a chaotic world




ART NOUVEAU RECTILINEAR (GASGOW/VIENNA)

What are the common stylistic characteristics between Glasgow and Vienna Art Nouveau?

  • Geometric forms

  • Separation of text and imagery - text font had rectilinear shapes


Why was Art Nouveau in Vienna termed the Vienna Secession?

  • Secession building; seceding from traditional artistic values

What were they rebelling against?

  • Traditional conservative classical art institution

  • Wanted new forms of art by foreign artists

What were some of the key phrases/mottos of the movement?

  • To every time it’s art, to every art it’s freedom.



AVANT-GARDE GRAPHIC DESIGN (CUBISM, FUTURISM, DADA)

In what ways does the avant-garde break from the past, both stylistically and ideologically?

  • Abstracted, satirical works

What part does WWI play in this break?

  • Departing from rationality

  • “What matters?”

What method of printing do they use to create their layouts?

  • Collaging → photographs → etching, lithography



ART DECO

How does Art Deco respond to the horrors and deprivations of WWI and the Great Depression?

  • Glorifies the future and “looking ahead” even despite there being a small middle crass

How does it exemplify the Great Gatsby lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties?

  • Ignoring economic crises and focusing on the luxurious and rich


How and why does Art Deco utilize elements of the Avant-Garde and other styles from the past?

  • Abstraction(ish) of cubism

Why is there no true manifesto for Art Deco, as there is for so many of the other movements

  • World wide movement - many different artists developing their styles of the movement by themselves.