Bauhaus

Walter Gropius

He studied architecture and started working for Peter Behrens. Gropius was a member of Deutscher Werkbund from 1910. He joined Henry Van de Velde foundation as being the head of the applied arts school.

Gropius founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar, then in 1925 the Bauhaus moved to Dessau which he designed the building Gropius refined the ideas which were put in practice before WW1. The building consisted of three wings; students hostel, workshops and design school which connected by a bridge. He designed concrete pillars set back from the façade to have a glass façade for more light.

Bauhaus

Over the years Bauhaus attracted several students. The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education, it was a school were arts meets industry. Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Georg Muche, and Oskar Schiemmer were among those who taught graphic arts and painting.

When Johannes Itten left László Moholy-Nagy took Itten’s place as a professor. Nagy was a Hungarian painter, photographer and graphic designer. He was the most influential figure after Gropius. 

Composition A 19 - László Moholy-Nagy, 1927

He used perfect opaque shapes, red and black linear shapes overlapping each other which have a certain translucency effect. His graphic works are very similar to the constructivism movements works.

Composition Z VIII - László Moholy-Nagy, 1924

Moholy-Nagy used a flat negative space with overlapping shapes. He used a lot of black, grey, red and yellows. It shows luminosity and transparency in certain forms.

Bauhausbucher 8, Malerei, Fotografie, Film- László Moholy-Nagy,1927

Nagy was responsible for the typography and graphic design of the Bauhaus books. The design of this book is quite rational. It featured clean lines and typeface, all in black, red and white with a chiaroscuro background finish.

References:

• ART HISTORY - The Bauhaus Movement - Dieselpunks. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/art-history-the-bauhaus. [Accessed October 2013].
• Frank Whitford, 1984. Bauhaus.(World of Art). Edition. Thames & Hudson, London.  
• The Bauhaus, 1919–1933 | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm. [Accessed October 2013].

Constructivism

Constructivism flourished in Moscow, Russia after the Revolution in 1917. The Constructivists; El Lissitzky, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin where highly influenced from the previous movements, Cubism and Futurism.

The movement rejected the idea of arts for arts’ sake. It favoured art as a social change that would serve the social purposes. The graphic design in the constructivism movement ranged from product packaging, logos, posters, book covers and advertisements.

El Lissitzky

A Russian designer, typographer, photographer and architect. He is mostly known for the propaganda graphics such as; posters, books and exhibitions.

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge,1919

The red wedge represents the army which are beating the white circle. The use of sans serif typography with bold primary colours and basic shapes.

The diagonal line that’s dividing the image into two creates a certain balance in the composition due to the black against white. The red wedge that’s pointing at the centre of the circle creates a certain rhythm.

Alexander Rodchenko

A Russian artist, designer, sculpture and photographer. He was really influenced from the Russian revolution. Rodchenko’s graphics inspired others such as Jan Tschihold.

Russian Revolution Poster – Alexander Rodchenko

A well recognized poster of Rodchenko which has a stylized design using only few block colours, the use of lettering combined with the design itself was new for the time, so it was quite surprising that the message was still conveyed clearly in the advertisement.

Modern Posters inspired from the Constructivists (Lissitzky & Rodchenko);

References:

• David Britt, 2010. Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. London. Thames & Hudson.
• Flask, D. 2013. Constructivism : Design Is History. [online] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/1920/constructivism/ [Accessed November 2013].

Futurism

Futurism was a movement which lived on publicity. It was an international movement perceived by an Italian designer, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The Futurists sought to capture the idea of modernity, in the aesthetic of speed, movement and industrial development.

In 1909 Marinetti founded the first Manifesto of Futurism. He saw futurism as a movement which embraces of the human activities. 

Le Figaro (The first Manifesto) – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, 1909

 “Une assemblée tumultueuse” - Filippo Marinetti, 1919

Since Gutenberg’s invention of movable type, most graphic designs used a vigorous horizontal and vertical structure. Freed from the tradition layout, they animated their pages with a dynamic or non-linear composition.

Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini & Fortunato Depero where all popular Futurists. Several other Manifestos where followed on by these Futurists on paintings, music, photography, sculpture, architecture, cinema and even clothing.

Reconstruction of the Universe – Giacomo Balla & Fortunato Depero, 1915

New Futurist Theater Company poster -  Fortunato Depero, 1924

Fortunato Depero was amongst the artists who applied futurism to graphic and advertising design. He produced a dynamic poster which incorporates typography and advertising design. A diagonal compositional graphic which has, flat planes of vibrant colour and angular repetitive forms which produce kinetic energy.


The Dynamism of Bodies in Motion of the photographer Etienne-Jules Marey, couldn’t get enough of it was a good sources of inspiration for them due to the human movements depictions.

It was very influential, and could be clearly seen in Giacomo Balla’s work;

Dynamism of a Dog on Leash – Giacomo Balla, 1912

It was one of the most striking paintings at that time because it captured all the physical motion with the use of the repetition of movements. The use of contrasting black against a white background draws your attention on the movement that’s happening. The use of fine streaks in the background and the transparency of the bodies gives a certain illusion of speed.

References:

• David Britt, 2010. Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. Thames & Hudson, London.
• Italian Futurism - Smarthistory. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/futurism.html. [Accessed November 2013].

Cubism

Cubism flourished in Paris between 1907 and 1914, by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque which were highly influenced from Paul Cezanne’s work. Cubism was a revolution in the visual arts, the Cubist’s wanted break the perspective of the paintings and emphasize mostly on the two dimensionality of the canvas so they started to fracture the objects into geometric forms.

Cezanne flattened the space in his paintings to place emphasis in their flat surface. He did this to stress the difference between paintings and reality.  It was this flat abstract approach that appealed to the cubists.

The Cubists works were mostly still lifes with musical instruments, newspapers, bottles, glasses or human figures.

Three Musicians - Pablo Picasso, 1921

A two-dimensional painting, the objects are all fragmented in a way that the objects and drawn from multiple angles at the same time they are all messed together to create a good composition. It’s made of repetitive, sharp edged solid block forms. Picasso used monochromatic colours lots of greys, blacks, blues and ochre.

Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, Henri le Fauconnier, Marcel Duchamp and Juan Gris adopted the style and joined the Cubists.

Juan Gris

Referred to as the third cubist, although not as famous as Picasso or Braque his work is important when considering the Cubist movement. Gris transformed Picasso and Braques Cubism and making his style became increasingly free and lyrical.

Still Life with Open Window, Rue Ravignan – Juan Gris, 1915

A Cubist still life where Gris used several traditional objects, such as; bowl of fruit, newspapers, books, bottles and balcony window. Gris flattened the composition, and used several geometrical shapes overlapping one another.

The shapes are very balanced with light and dark, positive and negative spaces, one could definitely see the transparency/ opacity there is which creates a certain feel of layers usage.

References:

• Artyfactory.com. 2013. Juan Gris - The Third Cubist. [online] Available at: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/still_life/juan_gris.htm [Accessed November 2013].
• David Britt, 2010. Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. London. Thames & Hudson.
• Gersh-Nesic, B. 2013. Cubism - Art History Basics on Cubism - 1907 - Present. [online] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/cubism_10one.htm [Accessed November 2013].