Hi class. On my last lecture (before the midterm) I presented the first Twentieth-Century developments in design. We covered important designers, like Hoffman, Dudovich, Behrens, Klimt, the Viennese Secession, Simplicissimus, The Wërkstatte, Deutscher Werkbund, Adolf Loos, Gesamtkunstwerk, Symbolism, Cubism (Analytic and Collage), Der Blaue Reiter (Munich) and Die Brücke (Dresden).
Go ahead, leave your comments,
See you on Wednesday, March 30.
15 comments:
The Die Brücke group greatly caught my eye because of the unique art forms that the artists within this group attempted to create and the initial inclusion of expressionism. These artists were mainly interested in escaping traditional art styles by beginning to include emotions within their pieces. This concept I thought was somewhat surprising because personally, I find that art and emotions usually go hand-in-hand in modern-day art. If anything, art that is produced from emotions can be the most impactful to the viewer by allowing them to be vulnerable with themselves. Additionally, art incorporating expressionism is just a great way in general for anyone to express or release their emotions. For instance, art is even sometimes used as a form of therapy to help people process trauma or battle depression. Overall, the Die Brücke group clearly introduced a style of art that was very much needed for our world.
Maggie Nusim
I found The Wërkstatte to be very interesting how a large group of artists were able to come together and collaborate and gain inspiration from each other on their work. It's interesting how this group came from the Vienna secession and was made up of artists who specialized in almost every type of design; especially how they were all very avant garde and pioneers of their trades. When I did further research I saw that in 1905 The Wërkstatte had around 100 workers, 37 of these employees were considered masters at their trade. this design movement helped give birth to the modern art movement and heavily influenced the Art Deco style. I also found that when The Wërkstatte first started, there was also a carpentry workshop that was part of it where they produced furniture for a short period of time.
- Alexander Christian
An aspect of our lecture from March 9th that intrigued me was the section that talked about Cubism. Cubism has been a huge influence in the art world through not only the achievements reached through the artworks but through the artists themselves and the world they influenced. Cuban art has always stemmed from the revolution and many changes on the island. Plagued by oppression by governmental dysfunction, the Cuban artists like Wilfredo Lam had helped the way others saw the island in order to create a better perspective of the land for others. Maria Magdalena is another Cuban performance artist whose art had created a shock factor and symbolic representation of the dysfunction of Cuba in order to move the revolution forwards. Cuban artistry and art is a huge cultural and revolutionary landmark in the art world. Cuba was and always will be a catalyst for progress that moves forward through art.
Melanie Bergunker
The most exciting thing about the class on March 9th revolved around the Die Brücke movement. In my previous Art History classes, we went over Kirchner and Heckel, and I was always fascinated by their work. The meaning of Die Brücke (The Bridge) exemplified the bringing of art styles for these German expressionists. After seeing Kirchner’s name again, I couldn’t help to think about his piece, Two Women on The Street, which has so much meaning and history in this period. The foreground and background have two different classes of citizens; the colors of each vary, the clothing style varies, and there seems to be symbolism for prostitution that frequently occurred at the time. The Die Brücke movement has always interested me because it allowed these artists to create their own bold art style. The typography of the movement is also something that stays similar regardless of the artist.
John Dudzik
Something that I found very interesting from class was an architect named Josef Hoffman. His work helped with the early development of modern architecture in Europe. A famous piece that Hoffman designed was called the Stoclet Palace. His building was designed and built from 1905-1911 and is located in Brussels, Belgium. This beautiful structure was mostly made out of marble and hardwood. It also contains many asymmetric cubic forms. This is truly considered a masterpiece by many people from the past and today. This structure is owned by the Stoclet family and is known as one of the most refined and luxurious private houses. This piece of work has helped many other artists gain inspiration as well as future ideas for their own projects.
The above comment was by written by Megan Alexander.^
Keep at it, I'm back! :)
The movement that really caught my attention last lecture was der blaue reiter because of their use of bright colors and violently bold lines. After class, I did a little more research into the movement and learned that the name and style came from both the founder's love for the color blue because they thought of it as a spiritual color. To them, the color represented something more than our world and it bonded them together. They each had different styles but it didn’t matter because they shared the same respect for the color and the understanding that art can be used to heal. Their work didn’t have to look similar to get their message across, because the colors were the expression of this movement. This is a different take on an art movement than what I am used to seeing, so I found it very intriguing and innovative.
Clarke Weddington
Cubism is something that I have never really understood when it comes to its meaning, but this is just one of the main reasons I find it to be so fascinating. Its not exactly its meaning that I do not understand, but the complex way it was put together. In a way it is so complex, yet so simple because of the playful aspect of it. Cubism is an innovative attempt to look at the tired traditions of western art in a different way. It was one of the first of many modern movements and paved the way to look at subjects in new ways.
- Gianna de Landaburu
Something that caught my attention during the last lecture was the conversation about women's photography becoming a hobby. Last semester I took the history of photography and I thought it was extremely interesting to see how women entered the field of photography in the early days. One photographer that came to my mind instantly is Julia Margaret Cameron. She was given a camera in the late 1850s as a way to keep her mind and life occupied while her husband was away on travels. She started with portraits of her family and would create scenes within her home with her daughters. She truly was able to explore the world of photography and the artform within her own space. I believe that with the embrace of photography as a hobby, women were given an opportunity to enter the world of art even though it would take many more years for it to be accepted as equal to male.
Marley Rubin
After revisiting the images we talked about before the exam, I did some further research into Lynd Ward’s type of art as I was so intrigued by his ability to create such moving images and tell a story through these images without using any words, also known as buildroman or bildroman. Based on the images I have seen, it seems as if there is a main storyline that Ward wanted to convey in these images but it is still up to the interpretation of the viewer to an extent. Ward also managed to use different colors of woodcuts to be more psychologically engaged, black and white being the objective actions and his brownish-red paints for a more subjective action. His images were mainly so interesting to me just because they convey this dark and ominous feeling very similar to the artist Zdzislaw Bekinski. While his images are mainly colored, unlike Ward’s, both artist manage to convey such deep meaning with literally no words and have them stick and resonate with you.
Adeeb Ahmed
last class we discussed cubism and its impact in early 1900's art. After doing some outside research, I came across Pablo Picasso's "Girl with a mandolin" which was made in 1910. I found this piece to be captivating as I am a fan of Picasso's work. This piece of cubism features a woman with what is apparently a "mandolin". The work's intense details and it's ability to transcend from 2D to 3D are what has made this piece so well renowned. The piece was made on a canvas using oils. Additionally, Picasso was one of the pioneers of this movement along with Georges Braque. One of Cubism fixations were its simplification of geometric forms, and the association of mechanization and modern life.
-Luke Shea
One topic from the last lecture that caught my attention was the discussion about gesamtkunstwerk and how it has developed in recent years. Early work of gesamtkunstwerk is primarily seen in architecture like houses, hotels or public spaces. Gesamtkunstwerk refers to a 3D design(mark) in which the viewer is surrounded by the design. Architect Charles Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Mcdonald have a well known example in which they designed each room of their home with a discrete design for a visitor to walk through and experience. Now gesamtkunstwerk occurs in art installations all across the world. Most Art museums will include a section featuring a design that has been implemented into the room itself for a viewer to become immersed in the emotions of the design or even transported elsewhere to experience something new. People have even gone as far to create entire museums based on gesamtkunstwerk. One example is the Faaborg Museum, which allows its visitors to walk amongst interesting fixtures and fittings that resonate with the vibrant wall colors, mosaic floors, odd rooms’ dimensions and some paintings and photographs of famous gesamtkunstwerk works.
-Michael Wexler
This might be a hot take, but I really liked Loos' architecture. He seems to be the opposite of an architect/artist like Gaudi, but his ideas were super interesting. His buildings seem stark and, like we said in class, Loos said "Ornament is a crime," but it's not because he didn't see meaning or art in architecture. On the contrary, he placed great stock in the art behind architecture and saw it as a reflection of society’s morality, which is why his buildings were so clean in line and structural. It isn’t art or ornament itself that Loos argues against, but rather the culture of spending exorbitant amounts of money to build buildings with trendy designs that will be out of style long before the building comes down. He basically calls art nouveau “cheugy” before the word existed. He also explains that having a lack of ornament and plainness in our environments pushes ourselves to create than ornament. He says, for example, Beethoven would not have written his symphonies unless he needed that type of ornament to express his individuality in a way that could not be shown in his clothes or belongings. Loos was also a convicted as a pedophile so, I don't think his ornament-less enviornment brought out the best in him.
Julie Erhardt
Gustav Klimt’s work is fascinating, to say the least. It has a very raw, expressive essence to it. He openly embraced eroticism with his female figures, showcasing them in powerful positions. Despite these dominant figures, Klimt handled them with an intimate tenderness– a tenderness that enraged critics who commissioned him in hopes of expert-crafted portraiture, not nude women in decorative situations. I find it incredible how artists of the Vienna Secession, including Klimt, wanted to mingle traditionally academic styles with the styles and techniques of other cultures. After all, art is a global practice and nothing is truly “original” in style. Every artist has their influences and inspirations. This had me thinking about how art is not only a practice, but a shared experience as well. It connects cultures and cultivates a shared experience of learning and understanding.
Melody Macias
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