Chapter 13: The Influence of Modern Art

This chapter was one of my favorites that we’ve read so far. I have always been interested in learning more on the modern art movements. Before the movements came, there was much change occurring around the world. As said in the previous chapter, at the turn of the century, there was a new desire for brand new designs and typefaces. Organic, curvilinear styles were basically thrown to the side as rectilinear, abstract forms were wanted. Along with this, World War I was about to begin, in 1914, and much confusion—economically, politically, socially, and culturally—was felt throughout the world. Cars, airplanes, movies, and radios were just being introduced. As there was a growth in science and technology, there was much progress in business and trade. Cubism was an art movement that was started by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Paintings and collages were the basis of their work. The work was comprised of fragments of perceptions of a subject. After perceiving a subject from as many different viewpoints as they could, each view was portrayed in a collage, leaving a geometric, abstract piece of art. The collage consisted of materials from the specific subjects they were portraying and were glued to a painting, leaving a two-dimensional form. This left the cubists with endless amounts of possibilities. Futurism was interesting, for it was an art movement that involved type, and the produced work closely resembles contemporary graphic design. Filippo Marinetti was the founder of this movement; many interesting futurism aspects were brought forth. There was a need to portray speed, energy and noise into their artwork. They were very interested in the war and wanted to incorporate modern everyday life. An interesting addition to design was typography; letterforms were becoming part of images and ornament and eventually began to be used as a way to create form. Poems were expressed by the way the words and letters were placed on the pages. There were no specific margins, for letters and shapes were basically thrown into the compositions. New ideas were only accepted; originality was very important within this group of artists/designers. Dadaism was another art movement; this group actually did not want to be called an art movement since they were anti-art. Their purpose was to pursue freedom. Society was insane because of the occurring war and other destruction going on in the world. Marcel Duchamp is a Dadaist who is most known of. In order for Dadaists to grab the attention of society to prove a point, they took already-made objects and altered them. Although much of their artwork was not seen as attractive, it did not matter because they only wanted to find the best way to grab the attention of viewers—something they definitely did. The Dadaists rebelled; they were in total pursue of freedom and world peace. Because of their work holding so much emotion and meaning, this art movement inspired graphic design. Typography was also used in their artwork. Surrealism was an interesting art movement, for illustrations were created of thoughts and feeling. Realistic characteristics were contributed, yet the entire situation was fantasy and dream-like. Proper perspective, color, and figures were taken into account, but scale and gravity were not. Andre Breton was the man who founded this movement, and he claimed that surrealism was meant to express thoughts with the absence of all control. Viewers were very interested in their work, and much surrealism is seen within artwork and designs today. Expressionism was another early modern art movement. Color and line were exaggerated in the artwork. It was important for emotions to be conveyed. Their main focus was on the poor and social outcasts, and conditions of people and the environment. Two subgroups of expressionism included The Bridge and The Blue Rider. The Bridge created work with emotion through the use of thick, strong stokes and bold statements. The Blue Bridge did not use subjects matters; instead, the spiritual nature of people was expressed through color, line and line. Within some of these movements, the use of typography was important. Photography soon was an important aspect of modern work. Many new styles of art and art movements were formed afterwards up until this day.

The most interesting thing I learned while reading this chapter was how the Dadaists did not want to be seen as artists. It’s kind of funny because their work actually inspired other artists. Meaning was expressed through their work in order to convey something important to the public. For them, what they created did not have to look pretty, for all they wanted was to really draw people in so that they could get their points across. Basically, Dadaists stood opposite against what art stood for. For example, if art was meant to appeal to senses, Dadaists chose to offend. Overall, I really enjoyed reading on this movement because they had an unexpected mind-set.

Were all of the following art movements and styles, up to this day, influenced by the early modern art movements?