Chapter 15 & 16

Question 1

Bauhaus

Answer 1

Formed from two schools by Walter Gropius, a famous architect. Became a highly influential art school, although it was only open 14 years.

No distinction made between fine art and applied art. Very forward thinking. Trying to improve “cheap and nasty” goods from the industrial era like William Morris tried to do. However, Morris looked to the past to inform, the Bauhaus looked to the future.

First had a very complex logo, but they became aware of the de stijl movement and the logo was redesigned.

Bauhaus eventually had problems with funding and had to move and then close. Closed Aug. 10, 1933.

Question 2

Eric Gill

Answer 2

Englishman. Embraced historical design. Believed flush left ragged right was the most legible type. Created the typeface “Gill Sans.”

Question 3

Isotype

Answer 3

Isotype (International System of TYpographic Picture Education) is a method of showing social, technological, biological and historical connections in pictorial form.

Developed by Otto Neurath. Now used in many signs.

Question 4

Herbert Bayer

Answer 4

Student at the Bauhaus, de stijl influence.

His exhibition poster now hangs in the MOMA.

Traits of his works: Exclusively sans-serif, flush left rag right, extreme contrast in size and weight, organized by rules, B&W photos with one or two colors, believed type was only to communicate, not to be expressive; wanted type to be geometric (no old style type); felt capital letters were unecessary.

Designed a cover for the Bauhaus magazine anda typeface. Also a currency design.

Question 5

Herbert Matter

Answer 5

Swiss designer. Promoted ski resort tourism. Utilized scale–extreme closeups superimposed on distant landscapes, etc. His posters were at an angle.

Question 6

Jan Tschichold

Answer 6

Attended first Bauhaus exhibition. Became artist of the “new typography.” Put together a 24 pg. Insert in a german typography magazine.

Principles he used expressed the new age of the machine. Believed type should be contrasted largely in size, and only a few typefaces should be used.

Sometimes used a “split fountain” technique in his posters (rainbow ink effect).

Question 7

Josef Albers

Answer 7

A former studend turned professor at the Bauhaus who taught a systematic preliminary course investigating the constructive qualities of materials.

Later became the director of the art school at Yale University.

Albers had a passion for type and typography. From his teaching at the Bauhaus, Albers brought exercises that examined letters and typography as formal elements devoid of their literal function.

Question 8

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Answer 8

Teacher at the Bauhaus–taught the foundation classes. Shift toward a constructivist style.

He believed photography and typography were the new forms of visual communication. Experiemented with photomontages and photograms. He believed most of art was in the concept, he would sometimes have another person execute his works.

Designed book covers for the Bauhaus.

Question 9

Marcel Breuer

Answer 9

the head of the furniture workshop at the Bauhaus, who invented tubular-steel furniture. Former student of the bauhaus.

One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer extended the sculptural vocabulary he had developed in the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus into a personal architecture that made him one of the world’s most popular architects at the peak of 20th-Century design.

Question 10

Paul Klee

Answer 10

A professor at the bauhaus who synthesized elements inspired by all the modern movements as well as children’s and naive art, achieving intense subjective power while contributing to the objective formal vocabulary of modern art (Fig. 13-51).

His published lectures are the most complete explication of modern design by any artist.

Question 11

Paul Renner

Answer 11

Designed Futura typeface. Became closely associated with Bauhaus.

Question 12

Piet Zwart

Answer 12

Zwart created a synthesis from two apparently contradictory influences: the Dada movement’s playful vitality and De Stijl’s functionalism and formal clarity.

Zwart’s activities over a long and illustrious career included photography, product and interior design, and teaching.

Question 13

The New Typography

Answer 13

Both a style of printing and a book by Jan Tschichold.

Featured asymmetrical typography. It was a new asymmetrical typography to express the spirit, life, and visual sensibility of the day (Fig. 16-29).

It emphasized objective communication and was concerned with machine production.

The new typography was a reaction against the chaos and anarchy in German (and Swiss) typography around 1923.

Question 14

Walter Gropius

Answer 14

Influential architect. Merged two schools to form the Bauhaus.

Question 15

Wassily Kandinsky

Answer 15

Professor at the Bauhaus.

Argued that art must remain an essentially spiritual activity apart from the utilitarian needs of society. Very much against industrial design.

Question 16

Alexander Rodchenko

Answer 16

One of 25 artists that renounced “art for art’s sake.” Moved to practical art. Wanted to advance communism.

Art was most representative of constructivism. Experimented with type, photography. Used crayons to create posters that looked like photographs.

Created a magazine, LEF. Used a similar grid system/format for each cover for layouts.

Did first ever corporate identity for Russian airline. Duty driven marketing (guilt trip!) to make people invest.

Question 17

Bart van der Leck

Answer 17

Another founder of de Stijl. His work is often confused with Mondrian’s.

Believed work could represent anything–math, science, etc.

Used a process of simplification/reduction/only goemetric shapes on the poster of the man with the bottle.

Question 18

Constructivism

Answer 18

Movement more aligned with graphic design. Often confused with the very similar Suprematist movement.

Question 19

de Stijl

Answer 19

Means “to syle.” Dutch artistic movement. Reductive, goemetric designs. Founded by Theo Van Doesburg. Pure form, visual harmony. Expressed abstract ideals.

Artists had a hard time selling art to the commercial world.

Movement had it’s own publication. Logo designed by Van Doesburg. Suggested all art be applied art. Van Doesburg also did the logo redesign for the same magazine. Acknowledged white space more in redesign.

Utopian ideals, but very vague.

Question 20

El Lissitzky

Answer 20

Most important artist to emerge from the Russian Avante Garde movement. Influenced by Malavich.

Believed constructivism could be understood by all. Also believed that the artist’s touch was of no consequence.

Popularized the very dominant and popular Red & Black color combo. Used photomontage. Also designed a book of poetry with only typographic elements. Also started a magazine/art publication, Besche (“object”).

He was a conduit for Russian thinking in Europe (he traveled). He also became good friends with Kurt Schwitters.

Used bars and rules to organize space.

Wrote “A Tale of 2 Squares,” a narrative for children that appeared in a special issue of the de Stijl magazine.

Question 21

Georgii & Vladimir Stenberg

Answer 21

Designed movie posters–designed them for the way the movie feels.

Reflections in the glasses poster, woman falling apart in the wormhole poster, etc.

Question 22

Gerrit Rietveld

Answer 22

Designed the Schroder house. Also designed a restaurant (with large panels of primary-colored panels) and the very famous “Red & Blue Chair.”

Question 23

Kasimir Malevich

Answer 23

Leader of Suprematism. Pushed cubism to the extreme, painted the black square. Very far from representational art. Worked a lot with geometric forms. No narrative, only forms–that is the content.

Developed a painting style that was between painting and architecture. Balanced by form and color.

Question 24

Photomontage

Answer 24

A montage constructed from photographic images.

A relatively new technique used by Moholy-Nagy and other designers.

Question 25

Piet Mondrian

Answer 25

Most closely associated with de Stijl. Originally started as a landscape painter, but was influenced by cubism to such a an extent that he changed his whole visual vocabulary. Reduced it to only blue, yellow, red, black, and white.

Question 26

Suprematism

Answer 26

Movement more aligned with painting, often confused with the very similar Constructivist movement.

Question 27

Theo Van Doesburg

Answer 27

Founder of the de Stijl movement.

Graphic Design work was similar to his painting style.

Designed the logo for the de Stijl movement’s art publication. Also did the redesign.

Designed a typeface on a square grid with only straight lines.