arh346: history of graphic design (and more)

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Henry van de Velde's unique combination of style, abstract sense of functionality and elegance

chemnitz villa, germany

stairs of the sanatorium in Trzebiechów, poland

What do we see here:

1. Henry van de Velde's architecture combines Art Nouveau elegance with functionalist principles.

2. Though he is a Nouvean architext, he eschews excessive ornamentation. His style emphasizes flowing lines, organic forms, and a harmony between form and function into a total work of art

3. Van de Velde goes for Gesamtkunstwerk: His buildings and their interiors, furniture, and even typography, denotes a cohesive aesthetic.

4. He uses expressive materials: wood, glass, and metal to highlight natural beauty, rather instead of excessive decoration.

For instance:

Van de Velde's wife showing a dress the architect made for her

Van de Velde co-founded the German Werkbund, an association to help improve and promote German design by establishing close relations between industry and designers. next follows the debate between Van de Velde and Hermann Muthesius in 1914:

1. Van de Velde called for the upholding the individuality of artists, he believed that standardization could begin an era of imitation, which in design is like destroying the embryo in the egg (he ignored that the new is fostered by in-built obsolescence).

2. Muthesius called for strict standardization as a key to development.

Who won? Muthesius.

Why?

Muthessius was in tune with the times. Germany was ready to embrace a full cultural/industrial standardization as stimulus of export excellence.

Poster for Tropon food concentrate (1899) by Henry van de Velde: This swirling configuration may have been inspired by the separation of egg yolks from egg whites.Van de Velde's dress, specially designed for his wife. Staircase of the Sanatorium of Trzbiechów and the Villa Esche in Chemnitz.

The Beggarstaffs. A lesson in simplicity

The Beggarstaffs (Sir William Nicholson, English, 1872-1949 & James Pryde, Scottish, 1866-1941) Under a pseudonym, they virtually created the modern poster with clear outlines and large areas of flat color.

What's the Beggarstaffs' secret?

1- cut and paste (yes, scissors and colored paper)

2- flat treatment of form, silhouette of

3- stylized simplification of shape,

4- Japanese-like handling of perspective (with no influence of Toulouse Lautrec and of the Nabis),

Here's a University of Cambridge link,

SIMPLICISSIMUS, Le plus grand magazine illustré de tous le temps,

1- Simplicissimus combined brash and politically daring content, with a bright, immediate, and surprisingly modern graphic style.

2- Its most reliable targets for caricature were stiff Prussian military figures, and rigid German social and class distinctions as seen from the more relaxed, liberal atmosphere of Munich.

3- The list of contributors in itself speaks of a modern generation of European artists, such as Rilke, Hermann Hesse, Gustav Meyrink, Theodor Heine, Frank Wedekind, Heinrich Kley, Alfred Kubin, Otto Nückel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Heinrich Mann, etc.

Eduard Thony
Karl Arnold, the master of the (oval-figured & squared-figured)
Bruno Paul,

click here for simplicissimus amazing website.

Gaudí, el modernista

casa battlo

casa milá

sagrada familia

what do we see here?

1- novel treatment of ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork, forging and carpentry,

2- French Gothic (Le Duc) and Mozarab influences,

3- this is full Spanish Modernista, subjectivity, romantic & catalonian revivalism,

4- Gaudí's favorite geometric forms: paraboloid, helicoid & conical,

Lucien & Esther Pissarro (the next thing is coming....)

Lucien & Esther Pissarro's pages from Ishtar's Descent to the NetherWorld (1903), where image, color, and ornament combine to generate an intense expressionistic energy. In Britain Lucien (Camille Pissarro's eldest son) established friendly contacts with the Pre-Raphaelites and plein-air painters. In 1894 he founded the Eragny Press (the name comes from a place near Dieppe), which played a significant role in the development of European book art. In 1911 he became a co-founder of the Camden Town Group and in 1919 a co-founder of the Monarro group, which propagated Impressionism in England.

The design of "socarrat"

the following three photos show the process of cooking the paella for socarrat.

1. water boiling with the sofrito and the liquid (very good Pinot Grigio & beef broth)

2. The paella is done, not the socarrat. Now comes to the complex process of getting the right rice-toasting consistency, neither cooked/soggy nor burnt. This is my simile with Gutenberg's press, i.e., socarrat is to paella what a fine indelible print is to a page. Gutenberg's pages are masterful in that the ink trace on the page's surface has a unique "flavor" to it.

3. The socarrat is already formed. As you scrape the pan's surface, you end up with an upside-down uniform film of caramelized beauty.

Amazing!

Jan Toorop

Jan Toorop, a leading Dutch Symbolist Painter, exhibited with Les XX in Brussels, as early as 1884. He developed a unique Symbolist style, with dynamic, unpredictable lines based on Javanese motifs, highly stylised willowy figures, and curvilinear designs. Toorop shows interest in literary metaphor, evocative form, and the linear depiction of scenes in a highly decorative manner of organic nature, often depicting women (he achnowledged Beardsley's influence). Above, Jan Toorop's Psyche (1898).

There was a great toorop site that is gone. here is a short video of his work.

Just in case.

The internationalization of "Art Nouveau," "Jugedstil" and "Modernista"

stairwell in Riga

Known as Jugendstil in Germany, Sezessionstil in Austria, Modernista in Spain, and Stile Liberty or Stile Floreale in Italy.

Art Nouveau has become the general term applied to a highly varied movement that was European-centred but internationally current at the end of the century.

Xavier Schoelkopf, Yvette Gilbert's House, 1899

a link to Hôtel Yvette Gilbert, Paris (destroyed in 1950)

gate of the castle Beranger, hector guimard

Art Nouveau architects gave idiosyncratic expression to many of the themes that had preoccupied the 19th century, ranging from Viollet-le-Duc's call for structural honesty to Sullivan's call for organic architecture.

Taken from Le Duc's Dictionary of French Architecture 9-16th century

The extensive use of iron and glass in Art Nouveau buildings was also rooted in 19th-century practice. In France, bizarre forms appeared in iron, masonry, and concrete, such as the structures of Hector Guimard for the Paris Métro (c. 1900), the Montmartre church of Saint-Jean L'Évangéliste by Anatole de Baudot, Xavier Schollkopf's house for the actress Yvette Guilbert at Paris, and the Samaritaine Department Store (1905) near the Pont Neuf in Paris, by Frantz Jourdain.

Hector Guimard, Entrance of the Metro, Paris

Art Nouveau architects' preference for the curvilinear is especially evident in the Brussels buildings of the Belgian Victor Horta. In the Hôtel Van Eetvelde (1895), he used floral, tendrilous ornaments.

Decorative exploitation of the architectural surface with flexible, S-shaped linear ornament, commonly called whiplash or eel styles, was indulged in by the Jugendstil and Sezessionstil architects. The Studio Elvira at Munich (1897-98) by August Endell and Otto Wagner's Majolika Haus at Vienna (c. 1898) are two more significant examples of this German and Austrian use of line.

What do we have here?

(1) make beautiful objects & constructions available to everyone

(2) no object is too utilitarian.

(3) Art Nouveau sees no separation in principle between high and low and applied or decorative arts

(ceramics, furniture, and other practical objects)

(4) Nouveau reacts against the precise and clean geometry of Neoclassicism. It's a form of maximalism.

(5) a new graphic design language, as far away as possible from the historical and classical models employed by the art academies. It's pretty free-spirited within the conventions of the time,

Who doesn't want 1-5??

Why does modern architecture begin with the death of the curve? A little history

let's start with this promising definition: a curve is an object that follows a specific path which gives it its defining shape. a curve can be a straight line, an open curved line, or a closed, multi-segment path.

so, a line is a curve, i.e., the line is not apriori the curve, but the opposite.

here is a historic presentation of the curve in architecture.

here is an exciting discussion with historical examples.

yet, modern architecture is anti-curve. why?

it rejects ornament.

this is a crucial moment. ornament is essentially curvy.

Edwin Heathcote makes a good point that ornament communicates with a broader public. He doesn't go after the WHY.

here is the manifesto against ornament by the anti-ornament architect Adolf Loos.

here's his house (exterior)

👇🏻

here are nine Loss houses to prove the point.

then, comes Corbusier's amazing Villa Savoye,

then Mies ven der Rohe's masterpiece, The Barcelona Pavillion.

is Jules Chéret & the cherettes

Jules Chéret (1836-1932) was a French painter and who became a master of poster art. Often called the father of the modern poster. Influenced by the scenes of frivolity depicted in the works of Jean-Honoré Fragonard and other Rococo artists such as Antoine Watteau, Chéret created vivid poster ads for the cabarets, music halls, and theaters such as the Eldorado, the Olympia, the Folies Bergères, Theatre de l'Opera and the Moulin Rouge.

As his work became more popular and his large posters displaying modestly free-spirited females found a larger audience, pundits began calling him the "father of the women's liberation."

This is a great source of chéret's illustrations!

Mythic primitivism return to innocence: Koloman Moser Ver Sacrum, 1898

Koloman Moser excelled in diverse fields, including painting, graphic design, interior design, fashion, and scenography, embodying the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (total work of art) philosophy of the Vienna Secession.

His graphic designs for the Secession's journal Ver Sacrum, became a model for graphic design and helped define the art of his time.

Something else: Moser designs have the peculiarity of "reducing" the shapes of furniture and art objects while maintaining high-quality ornamentation, a characteristic of Viennese Art Nouveau.

He is credited as the first Austrian designer to invent a complete corporate identity, in this case, that of the Wiener Werkstätte.

Moser's designs in architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries helped characterize the work of the era, drawing upon clean lines and repetitive motifs of classical Greek and Roman art and architecture in reaction to the Baroque decadence of his surroundings. Influence on Viennese Modernism: Moser's work is considered one of the most important pioneers of Viennese Modernism and one of the most influential artists of Viennese Art Nouveau.

For all of the above, Moser is the powerhouse of the Vienna Secession.

(Here is a quick look at Moser's oeuvre)

Thursday, February 27, 2025

What is Gesamtkunstwerk?

Victor Horta's tassel hotel in Brussels, 1894. this is one of the first examples of Art Nouveau. horta is obviously evoking the vital force of nature. the whiplash curves resembling vines literally overtake the house, and iron support columns are cast in the form of a stem or root that is bursting alive at the top. horta designed literally every element of the interior, including the window frames and stained glass, the metal radiator covers and the floral light fixtures, floor tiles and stair rails.

architect charles rennie mackintosh & his wife margaret mcconald on designing several interiors in their entirety, including their own home (1906). each room presented a different, unified color scheme, with furniture, light fixtures and wall paintings conceived by the couple.

frank lloyd wright's Robie House (1910) is just one example of the american architect's mastery of gesamtkunstwerk. wright took the concept even further than some of his peers by joining different interior elements into single pieces. in the Robie House's dining room the light fixtures are actually a part of the dining table. wright placed the sconces within the ceiling strapwork.

The Barcelona Pavilion, an emblematic work of the Modern Movement, has been exhaustively studied and interpreted as well as having inspired the oeuvre of several generations of architects. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich as the German national pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. Mies writes: "The design was predicated on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosure—a regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes". The floor plan is very simple. The entire building rests on a plinth of travertine. A southern U-shaped enclosure, also of travertine, helps form a service annex and a large water basin. The floor slabs of the pavilion project out and over the pool—once again connecting inside and out. Another U-shaped wall on the opposite side of the site also forms a smaller water basin. This is where the statue by Georg Kolbe sits. The roof plates, relatively small, are supported by the chrome-clad, cruciform columns. This gives the impression of a hovering roof. A masterpiece!

in 1956, SAS commissioned arne jacobsen to build their royal hotel in Copenhagen. jacobsen not only designed the architecture of the building, but also the interiors, from the furniture to the flatware and the door hardware. it is for thisproject that he created his famous Egg and Swan sofas and chairs.

Art for art's sake

A term Oscar Wilde made famous: l'art pour l'art.

A view known as aestheticism, which is synonymous with symbolism or decadence (decadentismo in Italy).

What does it mean really? The artist doesn't do art for any other reason than art's sake.

Art is autarchic!

The movement happened from around 1870 to 1901. It's generally ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.

Ramon Casas, Decadent Youth, 1899

Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, 1919

Dora Carrington, Litton Strachey, 1918

James Ensor, Dunkards, 1883

Gustav Klimt, The Virgin, 1913

charles rennie mackintosh's hill house

house for an art lover by charles r. mackintosh and margaret macdonald

let's start with this video,

hill house, front

hill house, side view with side garden

what do we see here?

1. bare, harled, brutal exterior...
2. the vast colliding masses anticipates Le Corbusier and 1960s brutalism.
3. the prominent gables and conical-topped turrets, point to Baronial and vernacular design,
4. the interior features ornate, organic stencilled designs and coloured glass in light fittings and balusters.
5. the Hill House Chair are influenced by Japanese design.

a masterpiece!