Style & Cubism

Modern Life is Rubbish: Revolutionising the Image

Style

In todays lecture with Dr Anna Powell we cover the movements of cubism and futurism. To begin with we discussed the meaning of style and how this contributes to the art movement. Style refers to the particular characteristics, aesthetic or form of work. For a long time Doryphoros (know as the Canon or the rule) by Polykleitos was said to be the ultimate perfect work of art. Artists would refer to this sculpture as if it sets the mathematical rule of how the human body should be presented. Comparing this sculpture to a modern sculpture of Kate Moss in a yoga position shows how we have adapted this style today and the significant impact it has had on art.

Artists can also have multiple styles themselves, for example; Pablo Picasso was well known for his abstract art of distorted faces and bright colours, but he also created work like this (below). The paintings have high contrast in characteristics.

The End of Art Nouveau? 

By the end of WW1 Art Nouveau had quickly fizzled out. The movement didn’t last very long and people still question why. Some people assume it is because it wasn’t modern enough while others argued that due to the intricate detail that it wasn’t suitable for mass production.

Taking a look at Lucian Bernhard who was an german graphic designer (1883-1972), he was exposed to Art Nouveau during his early days. His work seemed to be heavily influenced by the Beggarstaff Brothers (William Nicholson and James Pryde). The brothers were known for their reductive abstraction and seemed inspired by Japanese wooden blocks. They made use of positive and negative space and took Art Nouveau and minimised it, taking away the criticised parts of the style and adding text.

Lucian Bernhard became known for what we called the ‘object poster’. He designed the Sachplakat Plakatstil. These were basically simplified posters which were straight to the point, including just the brand name and imagery of the focus point. You didn’t have to use semiotic or your knowledge of cultural understanding to know what the poster was saying.

As you can see from the examples below that these are a big influence in design today and has even been developed into a minimal reductivist style using symbolism as a feature.

Cubism

Cubism began in the early 20th century and has very strong characteristics that distinguish it from other art movements. It was developed in 1907 by Pablo Picasso (Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907) and Georges Baraque (Large Nudes, 1908) and was thought to be a revolutionary approach representing reality. Pablo was very interested in African mask art which you can see from the example below. He quoted ‘A head is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like’.

Some people critised cubism as it was a revolutionary and innovative movement and people didn’t easily adapt to new styles and they weren’t used to it. Some said that it all looked the same and was rubbish, that people only bought it if it was given a good title. It was frowned upon for it’s harsh lines and distortion but artists said it was a reaction against realism. It involved fragmented and broken aspects, geometric shapes and intersecting lines, blocked colour – sometimes monochrome, conceptual approaches, and chose to take more of a persons perspective rather than a realist. Classic examples would be Juan Gris (Violin and Glass, 1915) and George Braque (Violin and Pitcher, 1910). 

Paul Cezanne was another big influence in the Cubism movement, particularly his piece ‘Bibemus Quarry‘ in 1895. His idea of presenting multiple perceptions and planes was strongly adapted. Cezanne was analysed in an essay called ‘Cezannes doubts’ in 1945 by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He discussed how he gave up the traditional painting methods and no longer wanted people to think about what they’re seeing, but rather have a sense and perception on the subject. He believed that he could capture a moment in time

Iconology & Art Nouveau

This after we had a lecture I found quite interesting based on Iconology and Art Nouveau with Dr Anna Powell.

Iconology means looking instead of seeing. It is when the meaning in visuals isn’t always as obvious and it seems so we use evidence in the picture to unlock the meaning instead. Sometimes these can be metaphors, meaning an object can stand for something else other than it’s physical value. E.g, an onion could stand for tears as it can brings tears to your eyes when cutting in literal form. A way to decode images is to think what genre are we looking at or why type of text? Then you have to think further; what else is there? You need to read between the lines. What is the evident detail? A point to bear in mind when following this method is that it is possible to over read as it doesn’t always work. This will enable you to create your own interpretation and theories of the meaning behind art.

An example we looked at during this session is Jan Van Eycks ‘The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait’ 1434 which is referenced in the intro to the TV series ‘Desperate housewives’ along with many other iconographic associations such as Adam and Eve. The TV intro shows how iconography can be used in the modern day. The painting is very popular amongst theorists as there are so many different ideas about what the portrait actually means.

First, looking at this painting you can see a man and a woman. This is thought to be Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini; a wealthy merchant, and his wife. The second thing you see is that the woman appears to be pregnant. Looking further you begin to notice that the couples aren’t wearing their shoes, the reflection in the mirror, the dog, and the single lit candle. There are endless features of this painting which give open potential to analyse the iconology. After picking out the little things in the painting, we can then begin to ask why? The clothes and decor and very intricate suggesting the couple are wealthy, this is an obvious thought. But thinking deeper; there is a single lit candle which is odd when it is day light. Some people believe this represents that God is always watching and is present in the room. Another theory is to suggest life. It is believed that Arnolfini’s wife passed away at least by 1433 and so this could be to signify a tribute to her, the lit candle been on his side, while the candle above his wife is out. Another icon in the painting is the mirror. At the time, it would have been impossible to have such a big mirror as the tools and technology wasn’t invented to be able to produce it. Ignoring this fact, some people believe it suggests clarity and purity. If you pay attention to smaller detail around this, there is imagery from the Passion of Christ in the detail showing a spiritual and religious side. In the reflection of the mirror you can see the door way, in which too people are standing facing the couple. To this day no body knows who the other two people are, but by the couples gestures  (Arnolfini appears to be holding his wives hand, possibly blessing her, while moving his hands in the sign of the cross), this suggests that this is some kind of ceremony which is where the painting got it’s name from. The two people could be family, or the artist, or the audience. The final point I am going to make on this painting is based on the roles of the gender. In those times, woman were painted to made to look like porcelain dolls. This is because they are seen more for their beauty and to be gracious, as the man has far more detail in his face giving his a more real life appearance. The fact that the woman is stood nearer the bed and the man nearer the window suggests that the womans place was within the home while the man had a life outside the home. Below are a couple video’s where you can listen to others idea of the theory behind the painting.

Another example of iconography is Santa Claus. Many people believe that Coca Cola revolutionised his outfit to make people believe he wore red, however this idea began long before then. St Nicholas originally wore a green coat and literally had claws like a monster. Looking back to older version, nowadays it would be very difficult to recognise him without his red suit although he still wears his belt and clothing the same way. Over the years people have manipulated his image to become something more jolly and exciting to children. We now recognise him from his ‘traditional’ red suit and rosy red cheeks.

Looking at a more modern day example of semiotics is The Beetles album covers. The ‘Abbey Road’ cover has a few icons you could read into, although most are just theories and not proven. For example, the oddly placed Beatle car; Some people believe this was coincidence that this was parked there, however others believe that the 281F on the reg plate means that if Paul McCartney was still alive he would have been 28 years old on the release of the album. There are other things to pick up such as been shoeless and the cigarette in the right hand when he was left handed. People have made many suggestions over these. The ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band’ album is also rumoured to have hidden iconography. The cover actually has 88 people featured, including the band members, cardboard cut outs and wax sculptures, it took a long time to gather everyones permission for the making. Some theorists suggest that all the people used in the photograph are very successful and loved by many, however this doesn’t mean they feel it and may sometimes feel lonely sometimes.

Moving onto Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau was a very brief art movement that ran from the early 1890’s to the start of WW1 and had a very high impact. It was known as the ‘new style’ and influenced all elements of life from furniture, architecture, jewellery and poster design. It was popularised by the German magazine ‘Jugend’ translating to ‘youth’.

We looked at several popular examples of Art Nouveau to enable to pick out the similarities in the designs. Using examples by Peter Brehrens ‘The Kiss’ 1898, Henry Van De Velde, Alphonse Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley (who was said to be one of the most controversial Art Nouveau figures at the time) , we can analyse that the style consists of black outlines, themes of nature and flowing lines, woman figures and resistance of geometric shapes and lines.

At the time the Arts & Crafts movement was very popular, particularly a guy called William Morris who I’ll be looking at later. They believed in traditional art methods (use of hand crafts). People began to notice that not all art was accepted and some was even rejected from galleries. A group formed that believed they could combine all types of crafts such as woodwork and painting, they thought they could align all arts onto the same level. The german term ‘gestamtkunstwerk’ was often used which translates to ‘the total work of art’.

From 1898-1903 Ver Sacrum (a magazine) was published. It is latin for ‘sacred spring’. At the time is was thought to be ground breaking and innovative as it promoted the Art Nouveau movement and used pioneering techniques such as typography styles and the grid system. Back then, most publications were the same size, but the Ver Sacrum broke free of this and use a square format.

Art Nouveau is very much still a large influence in todays design. Some of it’s characteristics returned in the psychedelia movement such as the curvy lines and typography. It was an influence in Gaudis ‘House of Bones’ and Cathedral in Barcelona. It is even reflected in tattoo design, anime, posters, and photography, – especially the female figure surrounding with flowing lines. It is also believed by some people that Starbucks and Coca-Cola have adapted it into their logo’s.

Anthony Burrill: Oil & Water Do Not Mix

Anthony Burrills screen print ‘Oil & Water Do Not Mix‘ is a prime example used in Dr Anna Powells lecture of semiotics. The print was actually made using washed up oil and sand on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico after the disaster. His idea gave a very strong message, not only in the actual text but the use of media supports this too. Using the oil and sand was a physical example to represent the contrast between the substances. It is quite powerful using contrast to show the seperation of the substances.

Semiotics and Theory

Todays lecture with Dr Anna Powell we learnt the basics of semiotics and colour in theory. Semiotics is important in the graphic design industry, it is having the ability and confidence to talk about and explain why things are like they are, such as explaining the communication principles of your work to a client, or saying why a visuals means something e.g sign or symbol. It is also having the ability to question why things are how they are and to think aboutand try things you hadn’t thought about before. Semiotics explore the study of signs. They work to give meaning and decode visuals whether it be symbols, non-linguistic, sound or text. They can give people different interpretations or have various meanings by playing on peoples memories, experience or emotions.

Designers are all part of a culture which share ideas and understands of the same meaning. Good designers are highly sophisticated code readers, we subconciously decode visuals to understand them and navigate our surroundings. The diagram below basically shows the components and explains how we ‘make meaning’ with semiotics.

People understand semiotics subconciously from an early age. It helps to communicate messages much easier. For example, the figures used on toilet doors to indicate which gender is allowed is a international icon understood by everyone. A well known example of using semiotics to communicate is Paul Rands ‘Eye Bee M’. It was said that the logo did not just create a corporate iD, but created ‘basic design philosophy, permeated corporate conciousness and public awareness’.

Colour & Semiotics

Colour can play a large part in semiotics. They can implying another meaning, express certain codes and give a specific message or meaning. An obvious example of using colour to communicate is traffic lights. World wide they are known to be red to stop and green to go. These again are subconciously decoded from childhood and help people to understand and navigate on Earth. Colour in semiotics can also be culturally conditioned. This means they can have various understandings for different cultures. For example, in the UK black relates to death, where in Syria the colour for death is blue. This must be considered when communicating through visuals. Branding corporates relies havily on colour, for example: Supermarkets logo’s (think of Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys..), especially when implying they have cheaper prices, e.g promotional offers are yellow or clearance items are red. Another example is McDonalds, as yellow and red is supposed to generate the feelings of important and hungry, making the restraunt seem more necessary and desirable. Below is a colour guide for logo’s to show the basic idea’s of what brands feel they want to be associated with.