Some of the -isms

Post WW1
LIS470 Visual Communication

Back to our story ...

Art Deco:
Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art
Nouveau, Futurism ... between WW1 and WW2

Part of the stream of decorate everything endof-the-Victorian era movement

Guimard, Grasset, Lacenal: Socit des artistes

dcorateurs

Main pt: use of modern iconography and faceted,

fractionated forms (e.g., sunburst, chevrons)

Quick list of the movements for today

Art Deco Movement
Art Deco was primarily a design style, popular in the 1920s and 1930s. In simplified terms,
the Art Deco movement can be considered as the follow-up style on Art Nouveau - more
simplified and closer to mass production. The Art Deco movement was dominant in
fashion, furniture, jewelry, textiles, architecture, commercial printmaking and interior
decoration. The best known name is Ren Lalique, a jeweler and glassmaker. The
Chrysler building in New York (1930) is an example of Art Deco style in architecture.
Impressionism
Impressionism began in Paris as a reaction to a very formal and rigid style of painting done inside studios and set by traditional institutions like the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. The exhibition of Edouard Manets famous painting, Djeuner sur lherbe, in 1863
in the Salon des refuss (organized by those painter who were rejected by the Acadmie
des Beaux-Arts), caused a scandal. It can be considered as the beginning of
Impressionism.
The Impressionist painters preferred to paint outside and studied the effect of light on
objects. Their preferred subjects were landscapes and scenes from daily life. The best
known names in Impressionist painting are Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas,
Camille Pissarro and Pierre Auguste Renoir in France and Alfred Sisley in England.

Fauvism
The word Fauvism comes from the French word fauve, which means wild animals. This
new modern art style was a bit wild - with strong and vivid colors. Paul Gauguin and the
Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh had carried Impressionism to its limits by using expressive
colors. Fauvism went one step further in using simplified designs in combination with an
"orgy of pure colors" as it was characterized by their critics. The first exhibition by Fauvist
artists took place in 1905. The best-known fauve artists are Henri Matisse, Andre Derain,
Maurice de Vlaminch, Kees van Dongen and Raoul Dufy.

Expressionism
Expressionism, in simplified terms, was some kind of a German modern art version of
Fauvism. The expressionist movement was organized in two groups of German painters.
One was called Die Brcke, literally meaning The Bridge. The group was located in
Dresden with the artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein,
Otto Mller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After World War I, this group was followed by
another group of artists, calling themselves Dresdner Sezession.
The second Expressionist gathering of artists was centered in Munich. The group is known
by the name Der Blaue Reiter, meaning The Blue Rider. The famous names are Franz
Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Mnter, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Alexei
Yavlensky.

Cubism
Cubism, another modern art movement, was primarily restricted to painting and
sculpture. Nevertheless it had a major influence on the development of modern art.
Cubism was initiated by the Spaniard Pablo Picasso and the Frenchman Georges
Braques in Paris before World War I. Paul Cezanne, usually categorized as a PostImpressionist, can be considered as their predecessor.
Cubism had strong roots in African tribal art. In cubism, geometrical forms and
fragmentations are favored. Everything is reduced to cubes and other geometrical forms.
Often several aspects of one subject are shown simultaneously. As famous artists
besides Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques, Robert Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Juan
Gris and Lyonel Feininger are to be mentioned. Cubism paved the way for abstract art.
Surrealism
Surrealism is another of the many modern art movements in the 20th century. Its
philosophical father was Andr Breton, a French poet and writer who published the
Surrealist guidelines, called Manifesto in 1924 in Paris. Surrealism emphasizes the
unconscious, the importance of dreams, the psychological aspect in arts. Surrealism
became an important movement in the fine arts, literature and in films (by the Spaniard
Buuel for instance).
For the fine arts, the best-known names are Salvador Dali, the Italian Giorgio de Chirico
with his strange and eerie town views, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joan Mir, Yves
Tanguy, Ren Margritte and the Russian Marc Chagall.

Abstract Art
Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is said to be the father of abstract art.
Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter, is another dominant character in establishing
abstract painting. Mondrian had experienced cubism in Paris. During World War II
many leading artists emigrated to the US, for instance Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp
and Marc Chagall. Thus New York became the new center for modern art and
abstract painting.

Cubism and information?

Grid approach to representation

Analytical cubism: a toolbox of visual literacy and
seeing if the result is successful communication

Synthetic cubism: increasingly abstracted ideas

Bracque (l) and Gris (r)

Leger

Picasso

Picasso, painted by Gris

Futurism

Italian school, 1909-?

Marinettis manifesto
Carr, Severini, Balla, Boccioni, SantElia
Goal: to portray the dynamic character of 20th
century life

Glorified danger,war, and the machine age!

Favored Fascism

Representing movement simultaneously,

representing several aspects of form in motion ...

Futurist Manifesto (Marinetti, 1909)

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html
1.
2.
3.

We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.
The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.
Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements
of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist.
4.
We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A
racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring
motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
5.
We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its
orbit.
6.
The poet must spend himself with warmth, glamour and prodigality to increase the enthusiastic fervor of
the primordial elements.
7.
Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must
be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.
8.
We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What is the use of looking behind at the moment
when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are
already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed.
9.
We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the
anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.
10.
We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian
cowardice.
11.
We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; the multi-colored and polyphonic
surf of revolutions in modern capitals: the nocturnal vibration of the arsenals and the workshops beneath their
violent electric moons: the gluttonous railway stations devouring smoking serpents; factories suspended from the
clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny
rivers: adventurous steamers sning the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, pung on the rails like enormous
steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the

flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds.

Futurism

A love of danger, habit of energy and of fearlessness

Is the point to shock the public?
[Informative? Whats communicated?]
Influenced Russian constructivism
Rejection of harmony, increase the number of
colors in the work; crazy for fonts ... Parole en
libert.

Futurism

From harmony, flowing forms, bucolic idealism to

embracing the noise of the industrial age

oral noise [poetry w/o punctuation]

musical noise [no time indication]
choral noise [just yells & shrieks]

Destroy the cult of the past [cf return to

spirituality and purity of the past]

Emphasize originality [hence individualism?]

Futurism

Regard all art critics as useless and

dangerous [but they could critique!]

Support and glory in the day-to-day ... successes of

Science

In reaction: Dadaism (Tzaras 1918 manifesto)

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/English104/tzara.html
There is a literature that does not reach the voracious mass. It is the work of creators, issued
from a real necessity in the author, produced for himself. It expresses the knowledge of a
supreme egoism, in which laws wither away. Every page must explode, either by profound
heavy seriousness, the whirlwind, poetic frenzy, the new, the eternal, the crushing joke,
enthusiasm for principles, or by the way in which it is printed. On the one hand a tottering
world in flight, betrothed to the glockenspiel of hell, on the other hand: new men. Rough,
bouncing, riding on hiccups. Behind them a crippled world and literary quacks with a mania
for improvement.
I say unto you: there is no beginning and we do not tremble, we are not sentimental. We are a
furious Wind, tearing the dirty linen of clouds and prayers, preparing the great spectacle of
disaster, fire, decomposition.* We will put an end to mourning and replace tears by sirens
screeching from one continent to another. Pavilions of intense joy and widowers with the
sadness of poison. Dada is the signboard of abstraction; advertising and business are also
elements of poetry.
I destroy the drawers of the brain and of social organization: spread demoralization wherever I
go and cast my hand from heaven to hell, my eyes from hell to heaven, restore the fecund
wheel of a universal circus to objective forces and the imagination of every individual.

Dadaism (Tzara, 1922)

Ladies and Gentlemen:
I don't have to tell you that for the general public and for you, tlhe refined public, a Dadaist is the
equivalent of a leper. But that is only a manner of speaking. When these same people get close to us,
they treat us with that remnant of elegance that comes from their old habit of belief in progress. At
ten yards distance, hatred begins again. If you ask me why, I won't be able to tell you.
Another characteristic of Dada is the continuous breaking o of our friends. They are always
breaking o and resigning. The first to tender his resignation from the Dada movement *was
myself.* Everybody knows that Dada is nothing. I broke away from Dada and from myself as soon as I
understood the implications of *nothing.*
Dada is a state of mind. That is why it transforms itself according to races and events. Dada applies
itself to everything, and yet it is nothing, it is the point where the yes and the no and all the
opposites meet, not solemnly in the castles of human philosophies, but very simply at street corners,
like dogs and grasshoppers.
Like everything in life, Dada is useless.
Dada is without pretension, as life should be.
Perhaps you will understand me better when I tell you that Dada is a virgin microbe that penetrates
with the insistence of air into all the spaces that reason has not been able to fill with words or
conventions.

Dadaism

Reaction a world gone mad

1916-23 - not long lasting, but not expected to
Just an emphasis on the new, recreating
Rejects war, blind faith in technical progress, and
moral codes.

Had their own journal, of course, Dada.

Marcel Duchamp (Dadaist)

Tristan Tzara

Dadaism

You know youve made it when ...

German Dadaists were

politically charged moves to extreme
absurdism and looses
influence

Dadaism in Germany

Surrealism, 1920s

Andr Breton: Manifesto du surrealisme: the true

function of thought ...

Rejects conventions: speak from unaltered mental

symbols

Intended to be more uplifting, through liberation

from social and moral conventions

Open mind to uninhibited truth

Andr Breton, 1924, Manifesto

Wearestilllivingunderthereignoflogic,butthelogicalprocessesofourtimeapply
onlytothesolutionofproblemsofsecondaryinterest.Theabsoluterationalismwhich
remainsinfashionallowsfortheconsiderationofonlythosefactsnarrowlyrelevanttoour
experience.Logicalconclusions,ontheotherhand,escapeus.Needlesstosay,
boundarieshavebeenassignedeventoexperience.Itrevolvesinacagefromwhich
releaseisbecomingincreasinglydifficult.Ittoodependsuponimmediateutilityandis
guardedbycommonsense.Intheguiseofcivilization,underthepretextofprogress,we
havesucceededindismissingfromourmindsanythingthat,rightlyorwrongly,couldbe
regardedassuperstitionormyth;andwehaveproscribedeverywayofseekingthetruth
whichdoesnotconformtoconvention....[cut]
ItwouldbedishonesttodisputeourrighttoemploythewordSURREALISMinthe
veryparticularsenseinwhichweintendit,foritisclearthatbeforewecamealongthis
wordamountedtonothing.ThusIshalldefineitonceandforall:
SURREALISM,noun,masc.,Purepsychicautomatismbywhichitisintendedto
express,eitherverballyorinwriting,thetruefunctionofthought.Thoughtdictatedinthe
absenceofallcontrolexertedbyreason,andoutsideallaestheticormoral
preoccupations.
ENCYCL.Philos.Surrealismisbasedonthebeliefinthesuperiorrealityofcertain
formsofassociationheretoforeneglected,intheomnipotenceofthedream,andinthe
disinterestedplayofthought.Itleadstothepermanentdestructionofallotherpsychic
mechanismsandtoitssubstitutionfortheminthesolutionoftheprincipalproblemsof
life.
http://www.iefd.org/manifestos/surrealist_manifesto.php

Surrealism

Questions of intentionality (Ernst and Dal)

Visual automism (intuitive stream of consciousness
and of calligraphy)

Joan Mir and J. Arp

Joan Mir

Expressionism

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Symbolic content is very important

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Symbolic content is very important

Tactile properties are introduced into painting

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Symbolic content is very important

Tactile properties are introduced into painting
Revolt against conventional aesthetic forms

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Symbolic content is very important

Tactile properties are introduced into painting
Revolt against conventional aesthetic forms
Reject military, political movements; empathy for
the poor

Expressionism

Color, drawing, proportion are exaggerated or

distorted

Symbolic content is very important

Tactile properties are introduced into painting
Revolt against conventional aesthetic forms
Reject military, political movements; empathy for
the poor

two groups: Die Brcke (1905) and Der Blaue

Reiter (1911)

Die Brcke

Klnisher Kunstverin
(1839-)
koelnischerkunstverein.de

Der Blaue Reiter

Kandinsky

Franz Marc

Kandinsky and Klee - Expressionists tending to the spiritual

Kandinsky

Kandinsky

Paul Klee

Klee

Klee

What do these movements have to do with information?

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?
Artist above society - by right of being an artist

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?
Artist above society - by right of being an artist
Modernism: theories of breaking down wholes into
parts ... instrumental for mass education,
reproduction of ideas; perhaps mode of critique

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?
Artist above society - by right of being an artist
Modernism: theories of breaking down wholes into
parts ... instrumental for mass education,
reproduction of ideas; perhaps mode of critique

Individual art

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?
Artist above society - by right of being an artist
Modernism: theories of breaking down wholes into
parts ... instrumental for mass education,
reproduction of ideas; perhaps mode of critique

Individual art
Colors ... and the technology to print many colors,
cheaply, on large format paper

What do these movements have to do with information?

Advertising ... poster art ... mass communication

Speak directly to the mind?
Artist above society - by right of being an artist
Modernism: theories of breaking down wholes into
parts ... instrumental for mass education,
reproduction of ideas; perhaps mode of critique

Individual art
Colors ... and the technology to print many colors,
cheaply, on large format paper

Ephemeral.

Constructivism

Constructivism

Russian art movement (c 1913,Vladimir Tatlin)

Constructivism

Russian art movement (c 1913,Vladimir Tatlin)

1916: Gabo & Pevsner: politically intended, abstract
constructions

Constructivism

Russian art movement (c 1913,Vladimir Tatlin)

1916: Gabo & Pevsner: politically intended, abstract
constructions

building on cubism & futurism but with

architectonic emphasis

Constructivism

Russian art movement (c 1913,Vladimir Tatlin)

1916: Gabo & Pevsner: politically intended, abstract
constructions

building on cubism & futurism but with

architectonic emphasis

Soviets liked it at first ... but disparaged as

unsuitable for mass propaganda.

Constructivism

Russian art movement (c 1913,Vladimir Tatlin)

1916: Gabo & Pevsner: politically intended, abstract
constructions

building on cubism & futurism but with

architectonic emphasis

Soviets liked it at first ... but disparaged as

unsuitable for mass propaganda.

Nagy, Rodchenko

Constructivism

Taitlin

Tatlins Internationale monument

Constructivism all over the place!

http://www.unb.ca/naweb/2k/posters/Sadikfinal.htm

Constructivism - Lszl Moholy-Nagy

Moholy-Nagy
Dadaist and then
Constructivist ... created
photograms
Joins Bauhaus under Gropius
in 1925;
establishes New
Photographers movement

Lasting influence?

Educational theory using constructivism:

http://www.edwebproject.org/
constructivism.basics.html

http://www.artsined.com/teachingarts/Pedag/
Constructivist.html

Constructivist educational theory

J. Bruner (1960s-80s):
Instruction must be concerned with experiences

& contexts that make the student willing and able

to learn

Instruction must be structured so that it can be

easily grasped by the student

Instruction should be designed to facilitate

extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going being

the info given)

Next?

Theories of the role of art and society

Use of visual communication to speak directly to

the mind ... to avoid social conventions, but at what

cost?

Manipulation of the public?

Propaganda?
Education?