Constructivism, Bauhaus & Dada

Presentation from the session.

Notes from the session.

Task 5

Constructivism was an artistic/architectural movement of the 1920s that emphasised art as a practice for social purposes. It was reflected in a number of mediums. Prominent themes within the movement include the body & the city, technology/machinery, architecture, science, politics and the workers. Constructivists often worked in black & white on a 2-dimensional picture plane, making use of geometric shapes, type, found images and graphic design.

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined both the fine arts and crafts. It was in operation in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin between 1919 and 1933. It was famous for the approach to design that it taught and publicised. 

Dada was a European avant-garde art movement of the early 20th century. The movement incorporated visual arts, poetry, literature, art theory, graphic design and theatre. Through a rejection of the subsisting standards in art through anti-art cultural works, it concentrated its anti-war politics. 

Two Dolls by László Moholy-Nagy (1926)

László Moholy-Nagy was a constructivist artist/ photographer. This work is typical of the constructivist movement in that it's black and white, makes use of geometric shapes and lends itself to a graphic style. Additionally it incorporates the themes of the body & the city and architecture. 

Lecture Three: Graphic Design - A Medium for the Masses

Notes from the lecture.

Self Initiated Research 

A set of emoticons from the book Left to Right by David Crow (featured below). Emoticons are essentially pictures created using alphabetic forms, primarily for the purpose of texting. Phone manufactures caught on quite quickly and made the inclusion of various pictorial signatures a selectable option. This is a good example of graphic design that is used by the masses on a daily basis.

Postmodernism

Presentation from the session.



Notes

Task Four  

According to Photography: A Cultural History by Mary Warner Marien, "the concept of the Postmodern or Postmodernity predated what has become know as the Postmodern era"(2010). However the historical period commonly associated with the Postmodern is that of the 1960's onwards.

There are a number of key features in this particular period common to all area's of art and design. Perhaps the most prevalent is that of the breaking of Modernist rules. Within his book The Postmodern Condition, Jean-François Lyotard argued that Postmodernism's "fertile chaos would feed a new freedom from the oppression and authority of scientific knowledge" (Marien, 2010). Marien also states that "in art circles, Postmodernism came to mean a rejection of themes and subjects that interested Modernist artists" (2010). The loss of an original is another prime aspect of the Postmodern period. Oliver Wendell Holmes "realised that the mass trade in images would change our relationship to originals; making them, indeed, little more than the source of representation" (Wells, 2010, p 22). Other key features include a re-interpretation of history, refusal to provide a narrative, a depiction of a character who appears to be cut off from reality and a tendency for artists to work outside of a singular art form.

The image below is from the series entitled After Walker Evans by American photographer Sherrie Levine. The series consists of images re-photographed from the Walker Evans exhibition catalogue. The work is typically Postmodern in that her recycling of images underlines "the ubiquity of the copy and the insignificance of the original" (Marien, 2010).  

Mary Warner Marien, 2010. Photography. 3rd Revised edition Edition. Laurence King.

Liz Wells, 2009. Photography: A Critical Introduction. 4 Edition. Routledge.

Lecture Two: Postmodernism

Notes

Pure and Straight Photography

Presentation from the session.



Notes from the session.

Task Three 

The image depicts the view of the valley from a mountain situated in the Canyon de Chelly. It was taken in 1941 by American photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams. There are a number of key features within the image typical of the Pure and Straight photographic style. The photograph possesses a maximised depth of field, resulting in sharp focus and heightened texture/detail throughout the print. The image also boasts a full tonal range and strong contrast, with dark shadows and white highlights. The work celebrates the technical aspects of the camera, has been meticulously framed in camera and undergone no manipulation. Additionally, the subject matter reflects Adams's environmental interests.  

Ansel Adams was a founding member of the F64 group. The groups name stems from their use of high F numbers to achieve maximum depth of field within their images.  

Lecture One: Modernism

Notes

Pictorialism

Presentation from the session.



Notes from the session.

Task Two 

The image depicts a young Alvin Langdon Coburn, shot by the American photographer Gertrude Kasebier (1852-1934) in 1902. She has chosen to photograph him leaning to the left of the frame, against a relatively simple background. The overall focus of the image is quite soft, creating a somewhat romantic aesthetic. Pictorialists favoured this photographic style as it removed any distracting details that could be associated with commercial photography. It also succeeded in creating painterly affect despite the use of a camera. Additionally the photograph has been sepia toned and appears to be printed on textured paper. According to a section from Photography: A Cultural History by Mary Warner Marien, this was “so that they resembled watercolours, evoking the earlier Victorian photographs of David Octavius Hill and Julia Margaret, which they admired and exhibited.” 

Gertrude Kasebier was one of the founding members of Photo Secession in 1902. Features of her work include a simple portrait style with backdrops, primarily printed in platinum or gum bichromate emulsions. She also frequently manipulated her images by retouching the negative or re-photographing an altered print.

Alvin Langdon Coburn was an American photographer (1882-1966) and elected member of Photo Secession. His work predominately consists of cityscapes and portraits of distinguished figures. His aim was to shed the romantic aesthetic associated with Pictorialism and bring photography in step with abstract sculpture and painting. An interest in flat perspective and geometrical patterns is apparent within his body of work. He later invented the Vortoscope and produced the first Vortographs.  

Portrait of Alvin Langdon Coburn by Gertrude Kasebier  (1902)

Triangulation

Task One 

In his book 'Ways of Seeing', art critic John Berger states that contemporary viewers experience art in a manner drastically different to that of past generations. Through endless reproductions in the likes of magazines and books, and in their attainability as posters, prints and so forth, works of art have become available to all. "What this means, in theory," states Berger, "is that reproductions of works of art can be used, by anybody, for their own purposes" (Sinclair, 2012). 

Berger discusses the portrayal of both men and women within art. He suggests that women are frequently depicted in an overly sexual manner, so as to please the male viewer. Additionally, he recognises the recurring motif of the mirror to be a reminder of a women's vanity. For Professor Teal Triggs "Berger presents a framework involving the 'surveyor' and the 'surveyed', as one way we might understand sexuality and the female body, her 'presence' and sense of herself, personal relationships and who is actually doing the looking" (Sinclair, 2012). Men, on the other hand, are often portrayed in an overtly masculine manner. 

Berger articulates that the large majority of our thoughts and opinions are influenced by the media, family and friends. He also suggests that the image, more often than not, is affected by the photographers intent. Finally, Berger feels that nowadays artwork is rarely purchased for it's aesthetic qualities and is instead bought for its current value or with its potential future value in mind. 

Sinclair, M, 2012. When Looking Became Seeing. Creative Review, The Annual Issue, 28-32.


Notes from the session