Analysis of the Industrial Exhibitions - Assignment Example

Analysis of the Industrial Exhibitions Before going to deep into an exhibition world it is essential to think about the indicators which force a community to go through such activities. As literature of a certain period presented by the literary persons of that very time reflects the contemporary society and the movements same is the case with exhibition. Both literature and exhibitions are the part of art and therefore interrelated with one another. The dreams in human mind have deep impact on human psyche. The mind has to draw the events hypothetically on the canvas of human feelings. The human imagination yields something productive full of information, fears, future intimations and guidelines for next generations. These ideas or imaginations are imparted to the future generations through their innate artistic approach. When speaking in terms of literature there come great names in minds like Geoffrey Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare and many more who have represented in their poetic thought the contemporary society of their time. Then there are certain economic issues which have deeper impact on a society in terms of financial prospects. To boost the economy it is the root issue to boost the industry. So again behind this economic issue there is a catalyst which is called an idea to enhance the economy. And this catalyst or the idea is presented in the form of an industrial exhibition. The main purpose of the industrial exhibition is to boost the industry of the state in a sublime way that adds something to the economy rather than of shattering it. The dreams or ideas are turned into reality in the form of a literary piece, painting, and a commodity or into an industrial or political revolution which change the whole scenario of a country. These artistic approaches forces one to feel delight or mourn depending upon the situation which is reflected in that artistic piece. An artistic approach is well in terms of taking an initiative to intimate the deeds performed at the time when the artist was forced to use his or her artistic instrumentation. The purpose of above arguments was to track one to the actual point of debate which in our case is the exhibition. Tate Modern and Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden are going to present a mega event on Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) first time in UK. Theo van Doesburg the great Dutch also known as I.K. Bonset is a man with multidimensional aspects. The aspects render him as a painter, typographer, designer, poet, art critic, performance artist, writer, editor, publisher, architect and the founder of the movement and magazine De Stijl. The span of De Stijl movement is covering a range of 1917 to 1932. The De Stijl movement was presented to streamline the ways for international art and design which follow the geometric horizontals and verticals in a strict compliance as well as the right angled geometric shapes. The De Stijl movement harmonized a universal style of art and design for the artists after World War I. This universal art style united the diverse form of art designs into a single one. Simply speaking Theo van Doesburg is an inventor of the new artistic style. Piet Mondrian was the artist among others who got the greater fame due to the De Stijl movement. About De Stijl a magazine wrote “The influential avant-garde movement called De Stijl (the Style) that Mondrian and other artists founded in...evolution of the spirit, Mondrian and the others in the De Stijl group believed” (The Wilson Quarterly 1996 ). The major inspiration behind this new approach was to introduce a new avant-garde or an advance type of generation. His curiosity was to change all the disciplines of art or rather to shift the paradigm. And this curiosity to bring changes into all these artistic disciplines turned the man to synthesize the art with full attention. Theo van Doesburg exhibition shows his influence on international avant-garde or European avant-garde. The exhibition is presenting a collection of the works of round about 80 artists with more than 300 artistic pieces. The art works of famous artists are presented in the exhibition like Gino Severini, Werner Gräff, László Moholy-Nagy, Walter Dexel, Kurt Schwitters, Hans and Sophie Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hans Richter, Piet Mondrian, El Lissitzky, Vilmos Huszár, Bart van der Leck, Karl Peter Röhl, Alexander Archipenko, Henryk Berlewi, Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, Francis Picabia, Gerrit Rietveld, and Sophie Taeuber, The paintings which are being placed are the museum are rarely seen by general public and are arranged from different countries on loan. The rarely seen artistic works include semi-figurative and abstract paintings such as Stained Glass Composition: Female Head (1917), Composition IX, Opus 18: 'Decomposition' of The Card Players 1917 (Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands), Counter-Composition VI 1925 (Tate) and Simultaneous Counter-Composition 1929-30 (MoMA), Counter-Construction, Axonometric, Private House (1923). The works of Theo van Doesburg are taken from the whole spectrum of his artistic career. It’s outside the scope of the review that to discuss the messages hidden in these artistic works because for them there is the need of a separate review in which we have to inculcate our mind solely to the sheer messages being imparted. The exhibition’s colorfulness lies in the presentation of different art pieces like furniture, music, film, magazines, paintings, design, stained glass, typography, sculptures and scale models. Along with all the requirements the music, theatre, film and many other events are placed in the way for amusing the audience especially the children in the art exhibition as the little guests. Further a detailed catalogue is also available for contextualization of the artifacts and to now more about the event. The catalogue is full of color illustrations and is available at € 25. The said catalogue is edited by Gladys Fabre and Doris Wintgens Hötte. Gladys Fabre, Vicente Todolí and Doris Wintgens Hötte are the personalities behind the mega event which is going to be held in Tate Modern London from 4 February – 16 May 2010. The events of the exhibition are organized in a well mannered way. As Theo himself was an excellent organizer of several exhibitions so as tribute for the artist it is essential to organize the artistic works of the Dutch in a more glorious way rather than of just taking it as a casual one. So for the information of general public a series of films is also arranged for the sake of showing connections between Theo van Doesburg and De Stijl. These films also reflect the core purpose of the exhibition. For throwing the liveliness into the exhibition different groups has funded or sponsored by showing their generosity to confer attribute to the great Dutch artists. The groups involved are: Tate Patrons Tate International Council Dedalus Foundation, Inc Mondriaan Foundation The Van Doesburg Exhibition Supporters Group Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation (Straver Foundation) The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands SNS Reaal Fonds The theme of the exhibition is to present the Dutch artist as the pioneer of the Geometric Abstraction. Further the other issue is that every one has well acquaintance with Piet Mondrian and he is famous in the society but it is not so in the case of Theo van Doesburg. Both Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg are from the same age but why the dissection line is there between the fame of both that one is the hero and the other is at the footnotes of the art of 20th century. The whole museum is inducing a sense of feeling that the famous Dutch was not given the due considerations during the past years but his excellent artistic approach is speaking loudly about him as a promoter of new horizons in art and design. His picture is presented as a man with some special characteristics which separate him from other artists. In Dutch De Stijl stands for “The Style” and the event is exhibiting the Dutch artist as a true promoter of the ideas of Suprematism, Constructivism, Dadaism, Elementarism and De Stijl which is also called as Neo-plasticism. Through these ideas Theo van Doesburg started influencing the Bauhaus students who were interested in these ideas. So the exhibition is also showing Doesburg as an introducer of curiosity for the contemporary society and also for coming avant-garde generations. The neoplasticism is a kind of new art in which paintings are actually the plastic driven. The idea of neoplasticism is applicable to De Stijl. Mondrian in his essay “Neo-Plasticism and Pictorial Art” wrote: “As a pure representation of the human mind, art will express itself in an aesthetically purified, that is to say, abstract form …The new plastic idea cannot therefore, take the form of a natural or concrete representation … this new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour” (De Stijl). Constructivism is a branch of abstract art. The Russian artists Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko are the founder of constructivism and this approach originated around 1919. As earlier discussed the art and literature are the representative of contemporary society so same is the case with constructivism. Constructivism is an artistic approach in which the modern industrial world is reflected in a pictorial form with all its pros and cons. Bauhaus is an art centre or school established by Walter Gropius at Weimar in Germany in 1919. Walter actually introduced Bauhaus as a new revolutionary approach in the sense that traditional approach of class room culture must be replaced with a group approach in which the artists of the community must work together. Bauhaus approach emphasizes the design and brings the art closer to everyday life. Dada is Zurich movement during the First World War and its origination was in neutral Switzerland. The Dada approach is actually the replacement of traditional art with a new one. This new approach tends to focus the war games and their ultimate impressions on society. Actually the indicators of horror, butchery, bloodshed and disrespect are represented in the Dada approach. The basic purpose to present the introduction of all these approaches is to get acquaintance with this knowledge that why Theo van Doesburg was promoting these contemporary movements and what the ultimate goals were behind all these movements. There is a lesson for all the new artists, students of arts and the present society and the lesson is “never to forget the deeds of great heroes who have spent their lives for their nations”. The scope of the artistic work of the great artist is not limited only to the people from the same line but also has same importance for other people in general. The messages delivered by the artistic are generic in the sense. The innovation is very essential either through change or using the existing artifacts. Critically speaking about this exhibition the share of the organizers in organizing it is justified. They gathered all the abstract works with great delicacy and effort. Their efforts in the sense that they have gathered all the pieces from different countries and through them they tried to promote the ideas of Theo van Douesburg. By this way they will be successful that how the artist has introduced a unique style in art and style. And his struggle for the avant-garde generation is of great applause. The exhibition going to be held in UK must be celebrated in a manner which would confer a great tribute to great Dutch artist who is under historical oblivion. Bibliography Ashton, Dore, ed. Twentieth Century Artists on Art. New York: Panthion Books, 1985. Jane Beckett. Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl Journal of European Studies, Mar 1979; vol. 9: pp. 1 - 25. Journal De Stijl vol. 1-11 (1917-1931) Lynton, Norbert. The Story of Modern Art. New York: Phaidon Books, 1980. Reyner Banham. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960; 2d ed. 1967) Theo van Doesburg at Tate Modern. www.netherlands-embassy.org.uk/about/ index.php?i=445 Van Doesburg, www.lakenhal.ln/does/en/vandoesburg.php Tate Collection. www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp The Wilson Quarterly. Abstract Art’s Mystical Heart. vol 20, winter 1996 Read More