Design Movements of the 20th Century - Essay Example

Design Movements of the 20th Century The various design movements in modern art during the 20th century are Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Russian Constructivism, De Stijl, Surrealism, Expressionism and Pop Art. Cubism was founded in the years 1907 and 1908 by the Spaniard Pablo Picasso and the Frenchman Georges Braque. Cubism is a style of painting that features natural forms as geometric shapes and interlocking planes. Cubism was an art movement that exerted considerable influence on other art forms in the 20th century. Many historians are of the opinion that the French artist Paul Cezanne had influenced the work of Picasso and Braque, and provided the main stimulus for the new movement (Cubism-Microsoft Encarta). Cezanne had rendered art forms easier and more flattened, before he died in 1906. He also employed a technique that was termed as passage, whereby a physical object was depicted as passing through another physical object. The invention of this passage technique proved to be of immense help to the cubists. This was due to the fact that this new technique not only disregarded the tenets of human experience, but it also rendered art works independent and different to physical experience. Cezanne’s paintings had influenced Picasso and Braque to such a great extent that they produced a series of landscapes in 1908, which were similar to those of Cezanne, especially in the use of colors and in depicting the form in simple geometrical shapes (Cubism-Microsoft Encarta). The pictures of houses painted by Braque and Picasso resembled three-dimensional cubes. This prompted the French art critic Louis Vauxelles to coin the term Cubism, to describe these paintings. Most of the works of Picasso and Braque show the overbearing influence of cubism (Cubism-Microsoft Encarta). Even though cubism had influenced various artists, their use of cubism was vastly different to what had been done by Picasso and Braque, specifically, with regard to the look and purpose. The result of their new technique was the discovery of a novel art movement. Italian futurism, English vorticism and Russian Rayonism have been deeply influenced by cubism. The geometric fragmentation of cubism was adopted by the Russian suprematism, constructivism movements and also by De Stijl, which was a Dutch movement; and they treated geometric fragmentation in a more theoretical way, like for instance, Leger, the French artist (Cubism-Microsoft Encarta). Several artists of the German expressionism movement have used the cubic forms to express more individual, passionate feelings, thereby indicating the great influence that cubism had on their work. The discovery of collage in cubism had influenced the dada movement, which blends words with pictures and art with non-art. The surrealism movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s uses obscure pictorial presentations, on purpose, with specific influence of cubism. The abstract expressionism movement of 1940’s and 1950’s was also influenced by cubism, due to its requirement of flatness of the picture plane (Cubism-Microsoft Encarta). Another artist who had been deeply influenced by cubism was the French painter Juan Gris. His cubist paintings of 1912 were more planned than those of Picasso and Braque (Juan Gris-Microsoft Encarta). There was another art movement in the twentieth century, which was labeled as Futurism. Its objective was to elevate contemporary life by laying emphasis on two prevalent themes, the machine and motion. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet, had created the principles of futurism, which he had published in a manifesto in the year 1909. Futurism is marked by the attempted portrayal of the movements of mechanical processes. This movement ended in the year 1914, but it had significant influence on the paintings of renowned French artists like Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, and Robert Delaunay, and Russian constructivists (Futurism-Microsoft Encarta). The art movement called Dadaism was started during World War I, during the period 1914 to 1918 as a medium to mock at the unparalleled savagery of the World War. It achieved this aim by resorting to irrational and incongruous performances, poetry and visual art. Dadaism was often described as nihilistic, which means refusing all moral values, but Dadaists state that the movement was an assertion of life, on being confronted with death (Dada-Microsoft Encarta). Prominent artists who adapted the genre of Dadaism were Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Hans Richter and Jean Arp. As Pop Art is very much influenced by this Dadaism movement, it is often referred to as neo-Dada (Dada-Art Movements). Another art movement of the early 20th century was that of the Russian Constructivism. It had considerable influence on the later art movements. Constructivism was founded by a Russian sculptor and painter, named Vladimir Tatlin. It is characterized by the making of abstract sculptures from wire and pieces of metal and plastic. The foremost works of this movement were the relief constructions that had been sculpted by Tatlin between the years 1917 to 1919 (Constructivism-Microsoft Encarta). Constructivism has split into many sub groups in 1920s. Even then it represented the goals of abstraction, functionalism and utilitarianism. The theory that the actions are right if they are useful and understandable to a majority of people was followed by constructivism (Constructivism-Microsoft Encarta). Tatlin emerged as the most influential and powerful designer of his era by blending his doctrine with that of the newly formed USSR. The sculpture, architecture and industrial design of mid 20th century were very much influenced by the constructivism, due to its support for modern objects and clean design (Constructivism-Microsoft Encarta). In 1917, a Dutch arts movement called De Stijl was started in Amsterdam. De Stijl connotes ‘the style’ in Dutch. De Stijl has advocated an abstraction that would create universal harmony and order (De Stijl-Microsoft Encarta). Some of the eminent proponents of this art form were the painters Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doesburg. A journal by the same name, that is, De Stijl was also published by them during 1917-1932 (De Stijl-Microsoft Encarta). The movement, De Stijl was also termed as neoplasticism. It simplified the visual elements by employing straight lines, right angles and pure primary colors along with black, gray and white. The decorative arts, and especially architecture are influenced by the principles of De Stijl (De Stijl-Microsoft Encarta). Surrealism is another such artistic and literacy movement. It created visual art, poetry and motion pictures to express the imagination of the subconscious mind, as revealed in dreams. This movement was started by Andre Breton, a French writer in 1934 in Paris, France; while writing the first Surrealistic manifesto. Later on this movement spread to the other parts of Europe and the Americas (Surrealism-Microsoft Encarta). Surrealism was influenced to a great extent by Dadaism, but unlike Dadaism, it depicted a lesser sensibility towards anti-rationalism (Surrealism-Art Movements). Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychoanalyst had deeply influenced surrealism. According to him, even if the mind tries to suppress desires in the waking state; the unconscious mind reveals itself in dreams, myths, accidents and art. The Surrealists, under the influence of Freudian theories, discovered new techniques and art forms to express the imagination of the unconscious mind. Surrealism was one of the most important and influential art movements in Europe during the early 20th century (Surrealism-Microsoft Encarta). Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Rene Maritte and Joan Miro are considered to be the leading artists of Surrealism. This art movement has influence on even the present popular culture, and advertising is the more visible example for this (Surrealism-Art Movements). An art movement, named Expressionism was founded in the early 20th century. This category of art consists of the depiction of art forms that are the influence of the artist’s emotions and responses to objects and incidents. Such artists, generally, create paintings that are replete with exaggeration and fantasy, while applying the artistic elements, in a violent and vivid fashion (Expressionism-Art Movements). In a manner that is similar to many modern artists and art movements, expressionism emphasizes personal and spontaneous self expression. In expressionism, an artist can implement his own sensibility to represent the world, unlike impressionism, wherein the artist reproduces the impression, according to what his surroundings suggest. Expressionism was mainly restricted to Germany, during the year 1910. It was considered to be inherited from certain art forms of the medieval times and from Cezanne, Ganiguin, Van Qosh and the fauvism movement. Max-Beckman, Oho Dix, Lionel Feininger, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein are the most famous expressionists of Germany (Expressionism-Art Movements). Another visual arts movement called Pop Art was founded in the United States and Britain during the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Pop Art is an abbreviation for the term Popular Art. The main images of the Pop Art emerged from everyday objects like soup cans, beer bottles, comic strips and road signs (Pop Art-Microsoft Encarta). Many artists have used them in their paintings, collages and sculptures, while other artists embedded such objects, in their entirety, into their paintings or sculptures. Pop Art is considered to be the most important art movement of the 20th century. It has influenced the work of numerous artists and also shown much effect on commercial art, and graphic and fashion design (Pop Art-Microsoft Encarta). Pop art was greatly influenced by Dadaism, because it seems to be making fun of the established art world by using everyday objects from the street, the supermarket and the mass media, as its images. Andy Warhol, who used coke bottles, Campbell’s soup cans and film stars in his paintings, played a major part in bringing Pop art into the limelight (Pop Art-Art Movements). Pop art adopted commercial techniques in creating machine-produced art, which was completely different from the Expressionism that had come immediately before it. Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Roy Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg were the well known exponents of this stupendous art form (Pop Art-Art Movements). Subsequent to Pop Art; Op Art or Optical Art made its debut. This genre of art was characterized by reduced geometrical forms, which were at time depicted in dazzling color. However, black and white contrasts were also employed, in this art form, with telling effect. The veritable virtuoso in this type of art is Vasarely, who was born in Hungary. Its popularity was so great, in the 1970’s that it made a bold foray into the world of fashion design. Nevertheless, its glory was short lived and unlike Pop Art, Op Art did not attain the status of a popular mass movement (Modern Art Movements, 2008). List of References "Cubism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "Constructivism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "Dada," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "De Stijl," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "Futurism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. http://www.artmovements.co.uk/dada.htm http://www.artmovements.co.uk/surrealism.htm http://www.artmovements.co.uk/expressionism.htm http://www.artmovements.co.uk/popart.htm "Juan Gris," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Modern Art Movements. (2008). Retrieved April 12, 2008, from artelino: http://www.artelino.com/articles/modern_art_periods.asp "Pop Art," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "Surrealism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Read More