CONSTRUCTIVISM & DE STIJL

Constructivism

Constructivist’s motives were to replace the traditionalist’s view on composition with construction. The principles behind creation were not to be based on beauty or the artist’s perception, but rather on the form of material and the form of art. The design philosophy followed that the design should represent functionality and demonstrate the objects uses in design. The goal is to translate a new style expressing the dynamism of modern life (Story, 2010). Russian constructivism was a movement dating from 1913 to 1940. The movement was created by Russian avant-garde philosophies, about creating objects based on form (Archive, n.d.).

De Stijl

The avant-garde based approach to art as a reflection on creating a utopian society after World War 1. De Stijl is an art movement of the Dutch between 1917 and 1931. The motive of this movement was sole to transform the way people lived through art, by using abstract geometric forms and primary colours to insinuate a feeling of perfection – a new, spiritualized order.  Not only did the artists use a traditional material such as paint and sculpture, they further transformed industrial design, typography, literature, and music (Story, 2010). De Stijl founding artist was Mondrian, a painter who based his motives on expressing purist forms of shape and colour (Britannica, 2018).

Eiffel Tower

The 19th-century engineer Gustave Eiffel, was a leader in the engineering of the Eiffel tower in France 1889. The structure soon becomes a world-renowned building and the face of France (Zeitoun, 2016). The daring design of the Eiffel tower was incorporated with the consideration of the wind forces, of it being an attempt to being the tallest building in the world. The building follows both influences from Constructivism, in that the building focuses on design as form, and De Stijl – which focuses on representing the purest form of the object  (Wikipedia, 2010).

 

Shaniel Hira,

2018

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archive, T. A. H., n.d. The art history archive. [Online]
Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/constructivism/
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

Britannica, 2018. Encyclopedia Britannica. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/De-Stijl-art
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

Story, T. A., 2010. Constructivism. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-constructivism.htm
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

Story, T. A., 2010. The Art Story. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-de-stijl.htm
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

Wikipedia, 2010. Wikipedia. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

Zeitoun, C., 2016. CNRS NEWS. [Online]
Available at: https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/who-built-the-eiffel-tower
[Accessed 27 April 2018].

 

EXPRESSIONISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Expressionism was the 19^th century at the movement that swept across Germany. The movement recovered concepts of authenticity and symbolism to reinvent the way art was perceived at the time. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor had a particular influence on expressionism – being a guide of form and the deployment of bold strong color, collaborating to convey ideas of anxiety and yearning.  The leading phenomenon of the expressionism movement was that “art was meant to come from within the artist rather than as a representation of the visual world. Swirling, swaying and exaggerated brushstrokes make up the composition of an expressionism painting – to reflect the emotional state of the artist in reflection to the anxieties of the modern world. Their representation of the modern world featured alienated figures as individuals of urbanization, they used images of prostitutes symbolically commenting in capitalisms role in the emotional distancing of people (Story, 2015).

 

The Scream (Painting)

The 1893 painting by Edvard Munch is an expressionist styled composition. The orange skies and distant figures emphasis on a screaming face in the foreground. Edvard revealed that the painting was an inner glimpse of his personal troubles with anxiety and that the painting was rather a subject of personal meaning than on technical skill or beauty (Shabi, 2013).

“I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous infinite scream of nature.”

– EDVARD MUNCH.

 

The Scream (Ghostface Mask)

The Wes Craven directed film “The Scream” is a Hollywood culture film of 1996, inspired by the Edvard Munch painting. In the painting, the figure appears to be screaming in a fearful anxious way. Designer Sleiertin, the creator of the mask “Ghostface” for the film, said that it displayed multiple emotions, “It’s a horrible look, it’s a sorry look, it’s a frantic look”. Since the film, the scream has become the most worn on Halloween in the US (Kendzior, 2000).

 

Shaniel Hira, 2018.

 

Kendzior, S., 2000. The Face Of The Scream. Starlog group Inc, 1(1), p. 29.

Shabi, K., 2013. LEGOMENON. [Online]
Available at: http://legomenon.com/meaning-of-the-scream-1893-painting-by-Edvard-munch.html
[Accessed 24 March 2018].

Story, T. A., 2015. TheArtStory. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
[Accessed 24 March 2018].

 

CUBISM

Between 1907 and 1914 the artistic movement of Cubism began, founded by late artists Picasso and Braque. The cubist style moved away from traditional ideas of perspective, they used flat, geometric shapes to create multiple perspectives of a single object – rejecting that art is to imitate nature and natural form (Britannica “Cubism”, 2018). The artists Picasso and Barque used right angle and straight-line construction, creating sculptural form through perspective. Their use of simplified monochromatic color schemes was intended to create a visual focus on the subjects form rather than the composition as a whole. In their work, they combined representational recurring subjects of musical instruments, bottles, pitches, glasses, newspapers, the human face, and figure. Beginning with paint as a medium, Cubism also influenced sculpture and architecture – major sculptors Archipenko and Lipchitz adapted cubist ideas in their sculptures, and Swiss architect Le Corbusier used cubist aesthetic in his house designs of the 1920s (Britannica “Cubism”, 2018).

 

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 by Pablo Picasso

 

IMPASTO

Impasto is the painting technique where the thick paint is applied to create a 3-dimensional form on top of the canvas. The brush strokes of the impasto technique are visible and become more important that the subject matter of the composition. This “sculptural” painting technique leaves the thick paint highlighted by whatever natural light is available, it also casts a shadow underneath the paint to emphasis dimensional form. The thick layering technique is used in abstraction art, creating emotional form and often expressive abstract art as reality (Emptyeasel.com “What is Impasto? Thick, textured paint).

Bonsai – Under the Sun

 

SHANIEL HIRA,

https://www.britannica.com/art/Cubism

http://emptyeasel.com/2007/07/26/what-is-impasto-thick-textured-paint/

http://www.lorigrimmett.com/oorder/paintings/

THE VIENNA SECESSION***

The Vienna secession promoted the artistic philosophical goal to “show the modern man his true face.” – Otto Wagner. A circle of artists in Viennarevolutionizedd their artistic identity, they moved away from the traditional influences of Vienna art academy and aspired to promote modern truth. The Vienna Secession was promoted and presented free, as public exhibitions free from the strict guideline of Vienna’s annual salon (Artsy “Vienna Secession,” 2018). To continue the movement, they created their own housed space: The Secession building. The Vienna secession promoted their design ideas by using exhibition posters and they had created a journal of design influences and reproductions, poetry, illustrations and graphic art (Senses “Austrian Artistic Movement” 2011).

 

GUSTAV KLIMT

Among the artists, Gustav Klimt was the leader of the resignation from the Viennese Kunstlerhaus (state art institute). The conflict was because they put in question the “value and status of art itself”. Klimt’s style was motivated by classical myth, symbolism and his critique of modernity (Suites Cultureless “Vienna Secession – Klimt, Freud, and Jung). In 1902, Gustav Klimt painted The Beethoven Frieze, in celebration of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (Klit.com “Beethoven Fries 1902” 2018). The painting features the interpretation of one of Beethoven’s 9^th symphonies – the painting illustrates humanity struggling to overcome hostile forces of sickness, madness, recklessness, and intemperance, and finally finding comfort and bliss in the art (Suites Cultureless “Beethoven Frieze – the Kiss to the Whole World).

INGE PRADER

Inge Prader a photographer in Vienna was inspired by the 2015 Annual AIDS charity event, by the Vienna Secession and more specifically Gustav Klimt’s paintings. She uses models and props to bring to life the characters, patterns and design principles of Klimt’s paintings in photography. Semi-nude figures, backdrops of ornament and golden mosaic characterizes the true phase of the Vienna Secession (Azarella, N. 2015).

 

Shaniel Hira, 2018.

https://www.artsy.net/gene/vienna-secession

https://senses-artnouveau.com/biography.php?artist=SEC

http://www.klimt.com/en/gallery/beethoven-frieze.html

https://suitesculturelles.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/beethoven-frieze-the-kiss-to-the-whole-world

https://www.designboom.com/art/inge-prader-life-ball-gustav-klimt-paintings-11-16-2015/

 

 

”IMPRESSIONISM” the motion of things.

Impressionism can be considered to be the first modern distinction in what was considered fine art. The movement began in Paris in the late 1860s, spread throughout Europe and later America. The artists who began the movement were rejected by the government-sanctioned exhibitions and academic art institutes (“impressionism movement,’’ 2010). Disobeying the expectations of capturing fine detail and replacing that with capturing movement, gesture and the scene in motion, is what inspired the artists. Art now became more interactive with the subject matter, artists would compose pieces outside of their studios capturing daylight in natural space (“impressionism movement,’’ 2010).

The term “Post-Impressionist” was said by an art critic, Roger Fry (1866). He described a few artists who worked alone as post-impressionists, these were Vince van Gogh, George Seurat, Paul Gaugin ­and others (Voories, J. 2004). What these artists had in common was that they all followed stylistic paths – to convey a more true nature of intellectual and artistic achievement. As the development of scientific discovery became more evident in the world, so did science influence art – George Seurat, documented optical and color theories in his works. He placed dots of color adjacent to each other, the viewer would mix the colors with their eyes, and this created a three dimensionality of the subject matter painted (Voories, J. 2004).

The Cliff at Fecamp1 1881

Quick brush strokes are used to create the painted illusion of movement and spontaneity. The reflection on the water alone seems to be an impression of its movement rather than the reality of the waves. The achievement of this painting is that the scene was captured as a single fleeting glance, rather create the effect of the scene over rendering each detail (”En Plein Air,” 2018).

Gesture Drawing

A gesture drawing is a quick caption of the line of motion of an object. It is the action, movement, and emotion of the object as an expression of motion. As a form of expression, every drawing needs an initial gesture drawing. This allows for the drawing to not be static (Lieu, C. 2013).

Much like Gesture drawings today, impressionism captured the motion, gesture and movement of the subject matter (“impressionism movement”, 2010). Today we are able to create art that expresses life, rather than art as documentation because of the Impressionism movement.­

 

Shaniel Hira, 2018.

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-impressionism.htm

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm

http://www.impressionism.org/pleine.htm

https://claralieu.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/ask-the-art-professor-what-is-a-gesture-drawing/

 

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

The arts and crafts movement is about a design reform that began in the most industrialized place on earth, at the time of Great Britain (Obniski, M. 2008). The time of mass production positively called for a revaluation of quality and the principles of beauty, as such, the arts and crafts movement promoted an end to labor as the beginning of craftsmanship. The philosophies of improving the standards of design believed to be destroyed by mechanization fueled this movement (Obniski, M. 2008).

 

The Morris Chair 

The Morris chair was created by a company founded by a guild of designers called Morris and Co. The chair is delicately created to be aesthetically pleasing, the use of subtle angles make it more refined and appealing. (W.Lang, R. 2011). The chair had a reclining feature and the incorporation of Italian medieval nature depicted, set the standard of craftsmanship sophistication. (Hass, A). (The Morris chair could thus be a symbolic artifact of the arts and crafts movement, as it conceals the pure philosophy of craftsmanship of the 19th century. As well as historically recording the reform of design in the society as an object of mechanization resistance).

 

Ely Farmhouse Furniture

‘’This quaint Farmhouse High Back Slat Grandad Chair is the perfect way to bring country chic to your dining room, kitchen or even bedroom. The traditional design is both timeless and stylish and with high-quality construction, you can be sure that they will retain their charm even with day to day use’’ (Ely Farmhouse furniture, 2017) Ely Farmhouse Furniture is a company in England that creates handmade wooden furniture. In the modern day, the evidence of craftsmanship still exists, and the philosophy of quality is prominent in our society. Much like the Morris chair, farmhouse furniture is craftsmen persistent in a world years after mass production began.

The ideology of the arts and crafts movement is that human ability is capable of quality in the presence of technological advantage.

sources:

Obniski, M. 2008. TheArtsAndCraftsMovementInAmerica. Online. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm

W.Lang, R. 2011. PopularWoodworkingMagazine. Online. Available at: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/editors-blog/history-of-the-morris-chair

Hass, A. ConditionsAndProductsOfTheIndustrialAge. Online. Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/graphicdesign/chapter/chapter-2/

Ely Farmhouse furniture, 2017. ElyFarmhouseFurniture. Online. Available at: https://www.elyfarmhousefurniture.co.uk/product-category/handmade-furniture/rocking-grandad-chairs/