Chapters 11-13

Question 1

Alphonse Mucha

Answer 1

Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.

Art Nouveau Style.

Created the famous Gismonda poster. He only had from Christmas Eve to New Years to create the poster (the bottom remained unfinished), but he became an overnight sensation with his unique poster design. The actress depicted in the poster, Sarah Bernhardt, loved his work so much she commissioned him to do 9 more posters (in a 6 year contract) and worked with him exclusively for many of her design needs.

Question 2

Art Nouveau

Answer 2

an international philosophy and style of art, architecture, and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that was most popular during 1890–1910.

Literally means “new art.” It was a transitional style, also international and decorative. Identifying visual qulaity is organic, flowing, plant-like lines. This style was actually inventing new forms, not being influenced by the past.

Important artists: Cheret, Grasset, Mucha, Bradley, van de Velde, Livemont, Eckmann, Christiansen, Behrens.

Question 3

Aubrey Beardsley

Answer 3

an English illustrator and author. His drawings in black ink, influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic.

Prolific for about 5 years before his death at 26. Started a magazine that was influential for a short period of time. Featured in the first issue of The Studio magazine. William Morris’s decorative borders influenced his designs.

Question 4

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Answer 4

a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. He was a designer in the post impressionist movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom.

One of “The Four” that tends to get the most attention now. In his poster for the Scottish Musical Review (over 8ft tall), he depicted an abstracted human form. Many were outraged, but he also had his defenders. Many of his works were identified by flat color, long shape, abstracted forms, and hand drawn type. Also influenced architecture, furniture design, and interiors.

Question 5

Cubism

Answer 5

an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris[1] that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture.

This movement introduced a design concept independent of nature–began a new artistic tradition and way of seeing that challenged the 400 year old Renaissance way of pictoral art. This movement has a strong relationship with the process of human vision–we scan the parts to make a whole. Cubism changed the course of painting and to some extent, graphic design as well. It became a catalyst for experiments that pushed art and design toward geometric abstraction and new attitudes toward pictoral space.

Important Artists: Picasso, Cezanne, Leger, Braque

Question 6

Dada

Answer 6

an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Many claim it began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter but the height of New York Dada was the year before in 1915.

“Anything is art if you call it art.” This movement claims the invention of the collage. A sort of “anti-art” movement, it is reacting to the carnage of WW1–they has a strong negative and destructive element. Writers and artists in this movement were concerned with shock, protest, and nonsense.

Important Artists: Marcel Duchamp (most prominent), Kurt Schwitters

Question 7

Edward Penfield

Answer 7

a leading American illustrator in the era known as the “Golden Age of American Illustration” and he is considered the father of the American Poster.

Developed a series of posters for Harper’s, showing famous people (or regular people, as in one famous work of everyone on the train station) reading Harper’s. This campaign was wildly successful. He evolved into a mature style, using contour drawing with flat planes of color. Eliminated the background, forcing the viewer to focus on figure and lettering. Also used a very successful stippling technique.

Question 8

Ethel Reed

Answer 8

an internationally recognized American graphic artist.[1] In 1890s, her works received a critical acclaim in America and Europe and currently are exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Frederick R.

First American woman to acheive national prominence as a graphic designer and illustrator. Became well know at 18, but disappeared from historical record at age 22 (why remains a mystery).

Question 9

Eugene Grasset

Answer 9

a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.

Along with Cheret, played an important role in the shift from Victorian graphics to Art Nouveau style. He was the first illustrator/designer to rival Cheret in public popularity. Designed and illustrated Histoire de quatre fils Aymon (Tale of the Four Sons of Aymon). Illustrates in “coloring book style” with a black outline and flat color. He used muted colors, and created formal compositions. Used floral motifs that pointed toward French Art Nouveau.

Question 10

F.T. Marinetti

Answer 10

an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement.

Published his Manifesto of Futurism in the Paris newspaper. His manifesto would influence those to follow. Established futurism as a revolutionary movement. The manifesto encouraged war, the machine age, speed, and modern life. He called for typographic revolution against the classical tradition. A new and painterly typographic design (“words in freedom”) was born on the page. He urged poets to animate their pages with dynamic, non-linear compositions of words.

Question 11

Fernand Leger

Answer 11

a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style.

Joined with Picasso and Braque in the cubist movement, but steered cubism away from the initial impulses of its founders. His flat planes of color, urban motifs, and the hard-edged precision of his machine forms helped define the modern design sensibility after WW1.

Question 12

Fortunato Depero

Answer 12

an Italian futurist painter, writer, sculptor and graphic designer.

Produced a dynamic body of work in poster, typographic, and advertising design. The Young painter shifted from social realism to symbolism to futurism. He published a book of his own designs that was bolted together with two large bolts. The book became a work of art in and of itself.

Question 13

Frances MacDonald, Margaret MacDonald

Answer 13

a Scottish artist whose design work became one of the defining features of the “Glasgow Style” during the 1890s.

Sisters. Insterested in Japanese woodblock prints, celtic manuscripts, and arts and crafts movement. Met their husbands in school and became “The Four.” Not full time designers, but had a significance in the field. Created “long” looking posters.

Question 14

Frank Lloyd Wright

Answer 14

Famous American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1000 structures and completed 532 works.

He was known for his architecture, but also influenced other areas of design. He saw space as the essence of design–he incorporated white space and assymetry into his work. Also dabbled in graphic design.

Question 15

Futurism

Answer 15

an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city.

Launched when Italian poet Marinetti published his manifesto in Paris. Established this as a revolutionary movement. All the arts were to test their ideas against the new realities of scientific and industrial society. Manifesto encouraged war, the machine age, speed, and modern life. In poetry, artists used dynamic designs with text all over the page.

Famous artists: Marinetti (poet), Depero (painter/designer)

Question 16

Henri Van de Velde

Answer 16

a Belgian painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered as one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium.

Designed the famous Tropon poster. Innovator of Art Nouveau, but was very interested in firthering the arts and Crafts philosophy than the art as an end in itself.

Question 17

Jugendstil

Answer 17

artistic style that arose in Germany about the mid-1890s and continued through the first decade of the 20th century, deriving its name from the Munich magazine Die Jugend (“Youth”), which featured Art Nouveau designs. Two phases can be discerned in Jugendstil: an early one, before 1900, that is mainly floral in character, rooted in English Art Nouveau and Japanese applied arts and prints; and a later, more abstract phase, growing out of the Viennese work of the Belgian-born architect and designer Henry van de Velde.

When art nouveau arrived in Germany it was called Jugendstil (youth style) after a new magazine, Jugend (Youth), which began publication in Munich in 1896.

Important Artists: Hans Christiansen, Otto Eckmann, Peter Behrens

Question 18

Jules Cheret

Answer 18

a French painter and lithographer who became a master of Belle Époque poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster.

Established a printing firm that produced over two hundred thousand designs a year. He later sold his share to only do the design aspect of printing. He was one of the first to seperate himself/designs from creation. Posters became an important medium. He was a big part of that. Often depicted flaboyant females. There was a focus on female form in his work and others. He idealized beauty. Girls called the “Cheretts.” They were self confident, alluring, sensual–but not enough to distract from the message. Known for creating very large posters/prints.

Question 19

Koloman Moser

Answer 19

an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.

Work looked Grecian with Art Nouveau influences. However, the Vienna Secession (of which he was a part) favored Sans Serif fonts instead of serif. For a short time, Vienna was the center for creative innovation. Appointed to the faculty of the Vienna School for Applied Art. Helped launch the Vienna Workshops, whose goal was to provide an alternative to poorly designed and mass produced goods. Left the workshops in 1907, and died in 1918 at age fifty, cutting his promising design career short.

Question 20

Kurt Schwitters

Answer 20

a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound

Created an non-political offshoot of Dada art called Merz. Utilized collage as a medium, often including rubbish, found materials, etc. Combined nonsense of Dada with solid design techniques. Created a book of type where the letters are animated as characters.

Question 21

Louis Rhead

Answer 21

an English-born American artist, illustrator, author and angler who was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, England. He emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-four.

Worked in NY for 8 years as an illustrator. Went to Europe, adopted Grasset’s style, and came back to the USA. Created a prolific flow of posters, magazine covers, and illustrations. This work led him to join William Bradley as one of the two major American practitioners of the Art Nouveau inspired graphic design/illustration.

Question 22

Man Ray

Answer 22

an American modernist artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal.

Worked as a professional photographer while applyig Dada and surrealism to photography, using both darkroom manipulation and bizarre studio setups. He was the first photographer to explore creative potential of solarization–reversal of tonal sequence in the denser areas of a negative or print, which adds strong black contours to the edges of major shapes. Also developed his cameraless prints called rayographs (used beams of light, photographic paper, etc.).

Question 23

Marcel Duchamp

Answer 23

a French-American painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Dadaism[1][2] and conceptual art,[3] although not directly associated with Dada groups.

Most prominent visual artist in the Dada movement. To him, art and life were processes of random chance and willful choice. “Created” the bicycle and urinal sculptures. Also painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

Question 24

Maxfield Parrish

Answer 24

an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.

Posters even sold today. Very innovative design for Collers (magazine covers), and also did advertising. Tended to use a certain blue (“Parrish blue). Rejected from art school because he was told he didn’t need it. Told to develop his own style.

Question 25

Pablo Picasso

Answer 25

a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.

Genesis of the cubist movement. Influenced by African art and masks.

Question 26

Peter Behrens

Answer 26

a German architect and designer. He was important for the modernist movement, and several of the movement’s leading names (including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius) in earlier stages of their careers.

Played a major role in the direction design took in the new century. Did work for the AEG–considered the first industrial designer. Inherited money from father, which gave him freedom in his work. Beleived that type, after architecture, provided the most characteristic picture of the period. Published his type experiments in a booklet (Celebration of Life and Art…). Very interested in sans serif. Typographic reform was one of his major interests. In his font(s), he standardized the strokes on his letterforms. Style changed in 1904-more geometric. Made the hexagonal AEG trademark. Sometimes called “Mr. Werkbund.” Combined decorative borders with sans seri fonts.

Question 27

Rene Magritte

Answer 27

a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. His work challenges observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality.

Maintained a poetic dialouge between reality and illusion. Porlific body of images inspired many visual communications.

Question 28

Salvador Dali

Answer 28

a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, in the Catalonia region of Spain. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters.[1][2] His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí’s expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.

Influenced Graphic design in 2 ways: deep perspectives in his prints (inspired designers to bring depth to the flat printed page), and has been frequently imitated in posters and editorial images.

Question 29

Surrealism

Answer 29

a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.

Movement with roots in Dada.

Question 30

The Modern Movement in Photography

Answer 30

Artists (photographers) began experimenting with different types of exposures and light sensitive materials to create abstract and surreal compositions.

Important Artists: Francis Bruguiere, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Man Ray

Question 31

Toulouse-Lautrec

Answer 31

a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 1800s yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times.

High-kicking can can poster creator. Used flat panels of color. Painter, but made 32 posters. He helped establish poster making as a valid art form. He would sketch at Parisan nightclubs and sometimes use a toothbrush splatter affect in his work. Often he would work from memory the next morning and draw his designs directly on the stone used for printing.

Question 32

Vienna Secession

Answer 32

formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus.

Technically, the refusal to allow foreign artists to participate in exhibitions was the main issue, but the clash between tradition and new ideas emanating from France, England, and Germany lay at the heart of the conflict, and young artists wanted to exhibit more frequently. Became a countermovement to the art nouveau that flourished in other parts of Europe. Their type also less decorative–Vienna artists preferred sans serif.

Artists involved: Hoffman, Moser, Klimt, and Olbrich

Question 33

Will Bradley

Answer 33

an American Art Nouveau illustrator and artist. Nicknamed the “Dean of American Designers”, he was the highest paid American artist of the early 20th century.

“Father of American Posters.” Most prominent American graphic designer. Apprentice at a newspaper at age 11. Became a type designer at Knight & Leonard at 19. Always read design magazines and books. Inspired by Beardsley. Called by some “the American Beardsley”, he only used Beardsley’s style as a stepping stone to fresh design. Made innovative use of photomechanical techniques and to produce repeated, overlapped, and reversed images. Also inventive in his typographic designs. Established the Wayside Press. Produced a publication of an art and literary periodical, *Bradley: His Book. *