Monday 30 November 2009

The Idea Of The Modern World

During roughly a two hundred year period starting in the mid eighteenth century one of the most important and influential art movements occured in response to ongoing greater cultural and social changes. Leading the way was the city of Paris where the artists of the avant garde began to draw on their own experiences of changing Europe and so composed the different facets of their reception to the modern which were marked through Cubism, Expressionism and Futurism.
Modernism marks the point where humanity began to detatch itself from its traditionally historicist viewpoint and instead people look to themselves by embracing significant technological and scientific advancements. By a strange inversion it appears that modern picture, rather than showing all that now makes the modern world, had internalised its modernity and so became a thing in itself.

Bibliography:

Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (ess) (1997)
'Art in Theory: 1900-1990', Oxford, Blackwell, pp 125-9.

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Modernist Design Examples - The good, the bad and the ugly


The Le Corbussier C2 armchair- Or maybe not.


Form follows function - The Polystyrene Cup.


Nothing but the necessary - Internal Building Pipework.

Monday 9 November 2009

Image Analysis: War Poster


This poster designed by Saville Lumley was created in 1915 - a year into the first world war and was designed to help recruit more soldiers to the British army.
It essentially plays on guilt and shame by creating a preview of how society would judge those that did not contribute anything during the war. It is aimed at the middle to upper classes, those that felt they were too good to have to join the army or that they had too much to lose. It could be said that the working classes were more proud and passionate and more easily encouraged to fight in the war.
The image and accompanying text are both personal and forceful. Personal in the sense that the father figure couldn't lie to his children about what he did or didn't do during the war and forceful by implying that when the 'great' war was won he would accept glory for it even though he did not deserve it.
Subtle symbolic influences are included such as the red rose curtains, fleur-de-lit pattern on the armchair and 'guardsmen' style soldiers (even though they wouldn't have looked like this) to try and instill some patriotism amongst the middle and upper classes.
Overall it presents an uncomfortable vision of how you would be perceived had you not contributed to the war efforts.

Image Analysis: The "Uncle Sam" Range


The Uncle Sam Range is an advertising image by Schumacher and Ettlinger produced in 1876 to mark one hundred years of American independence from the UK.
In basic terms it is an advert for a range cooker, but in actual fact it is much more a representation of the times in the USA. The image depicts a celebratory dinner in centenary hall ,Philadelphia, with the now iconic figure of 'Uncle Sam' sitting in the centre. What we see is the early self promotion of America and how far it claims to have come in one hundred years to now lead the world.
This highly patriotic, self celebratory image combines many subtleties to serve a number of purposes;

- Depicts a 'buffoonish' globe.
- Stereotypes the food of other countries on the menu.
- Uncle Sam is a wise and proud character dressed in fine clothes.
- Saloon bar font style and decoration as well as red,white and blue details join the different areas of America together.

The image i feel is aimed particularly at the middle classes, those trying to become elite and the range cooker is therefore marketed as a symbol of success. In a sentence i would say this piece marks the inception of the American Dream.