Art and design do coveys various types of communication, for informative purposes and for entertainment value. In order for a creator to produce something creative they must draw from their inner impulses, and the environmental and historical influences around them in order to communicate a language. Throughout the centuries art and design has seen numerous art movement arise depicting their views on how are and design should be communicated in the hope for social reformation.
They sought about enforcing changes in art and design by creating new ideals, adopting and adapting to old ideal and regurgitating new ones in order to form new art movements throughout each era. However they never succeeded to conform to one art style, instead they carved theories, styles and techniques into history. With the emergence of the following eras we have arguably gained three of the greatest painters/designers the world has ever known. They have not only brought some of world famous paintings and advertisements, they have also developed theories and techniques in which all new designers/artists follow when creating work.
Techniques like the way we construct our pieces with strong visual depth of field, and illusions can be obtained from the eighteenth century, decoration style, Rococo. Art Nouveau with its sensuous curves, flowing lines and its ease with abstract motifs, ensured that all things resembles handwork and handicrafts and not purely bland conformity. The Bauhaus however followed on after the Art Nouveau and striped ornamentation leaving behind clean lines and function, ensuring that students reform to an artistic process (Malyon, 1997-2001).
Rococo was an art style during the eighteenth century. It emerged from French migrs, who used the word to designate the whimsical fashion of the old shellwork style (style rocaille). It was seen to be the climax or degeneration of Baroque, however both styles had little effect on architectural construction, and were regarded as merely a new kind of decoration which culminated in the resolution of architectural forms of the interiors (pilasters and architraves), rather than being an actual style (The Age, 2004).
Rococos decoration portrayed the carefree life of the aristocracy rather than on grand heroes or pious martyrs (Delahunt, 1996). Love and romance was portrayed considerably as they were seen to be better subjects for art rather than historical or religious subjects. The eighteenth centuries notion of painting was as a staged fiction in order to involve the viewer on a purely imaginative level. The style produced many artists who were masters of light, colour and fantasy.
Arguably one of the greatest painters was Giambattista Tiepolo (1696- 1770). His works combined Illusionism and Veronses extravagance from High Baroque. However he also paints with imagination by transposing the world of ancient history, myth, the scriptures and the sacred legends into a grandiose, even theatrical languages. His work The banquet of Cleopatra (figure 1) represents this era of luxury and extravagance, through its shear size and its dramatic style it captures a famous incident from the life of the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.
Tiepolo has portrayed Plinys story of a wager between Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and Mark Anthony, Roman consul in Egypt. This story shows them challenging each other to spend the most on a single banquet, Cleopatra finally winning by dissolving one of the rarest pearls of the ancient world in vinegar and swallowing it. This theatrical piece portrays the setting in the The banquet of Cleopatra with no relevance to Egypt apart from two Egyptian figures and a Sphinx fountain. Instead of creating a painting of historical information, Tiepolo has portrayed a kind of exotic, grand fantasy.
The clothing that he has painted them in too shows no historical continuity as Cleopatra is wearing a 16th Century Venetian dress, and Mark Anthony is in a Roman costume. Rather than the justaucorps, waistcoats and breeches that the men typically wore, or a polonaise a robe, which was lifted up and poufed in back, supported by a bustle pad that gave the illusion that the lady had an overly large backside, known as Cul de Paris, which the women typically wore (Jaeggi, 2003).
Tieopolo paved a style which can be can be characterised by a free, graceful movement; through a playful use of line, and delicate colours by artist and designers today. His techniques radiate strength, movement and colour, through carefully painted tiles, the placement of each columns and the way he has aligned each characters gaze allows the viewers eyes to be lead to the banquet setting. This rule of placement can be applied to all visual artists and communicators today ensuring the viewer obtain the message being conveyed by the artist/designer.
In a broad term the artist/designer is an inventor of images, who draws on his own inner impulses and tries to communicate them through a language of information and gesture (Jacques Garamound). Another Art Movement focusing on the international style of decoration and architecture, was Art Nouveau (New Art in French) It was developed in the 1880s and 1890s however arose largely as a reaction against the increasing drabness of industrialized society. One major result of the nineteenth century was mass production, and although it did provide a greater number of commodities at a lower cost, it did cause masses of bland uniformity to goods.
The movement put emphasis on decoration and artistic unity, links the movement to contemporary Symbolist ideas in art, as seen in the work of the Vienna Secessionists, but the movement was also akin to William Morris Arts and Crafts movement in England, which attempted to eradicate the divide line between art and audience. Morris states that everything could and should be art (www. bpib. com). Art Nouveau arose to combat the negative results of industrialisation and the struggle with historicism.
The new ornamentation was carried out through all design disciplines transcending what they though was the boundary between fine arts and applied arts. A room was not just a room in which one placed art, but was considered a total work of art, to which ornamentation served as a linking member, not just arbitrarily employed, but organically arising from the construction and function of an object (A Concise History P:44). One of the foremost exponents of Art Nouveau was Alphonse Mucha a Czech artist who was born in Bohemia in 1860 and moved to Paris in 1890 where he became the star of the poster-art movement.
The exciting rigid Victorian attitudes were giving way in Paris, allowing various modes of expression to adapt. Being that his ideals expressed the Victorian idealisation of womankind using strong compositions, sensuous curves, flowing lines and the ease with which abstracted and stylised motifs from the natural world coincided with new trends in both art and society (Mourey, 2002). The Art Nouveau precepts were used too, but never at the expense of his vision. Muchas style is virtually synonymous with French Art Nouveau and he is one of the most imitated artists and designers of all time.
Although he did not create Art Nouveau, his work especially as a poster artist, came to symbolise the full flowering of the style and the era. One of the pieces that gained him extreme recognition was Au Quartier Latin (Figure 2) a lithographic poster, created in 1982. This new style was advertised extensively through the medium of the poster. Like the poster Au Quartier Latin it draws the passers by into a direct, sometimes short-lived, correspondence. However what attracted the viewers was the artwork itself rather than the advertisement. The wording can be seen couched and cleverly integrated into the design.
Because of its aesthetic enhancement, the message was more likely to make a favourable and memorable impression on the viewer (The world and I, 1987). In order to have the viewer linger longer over the advertisement Mucha presented insouciant, flirtatious females in occasional dishabille (The world and I, 1987). It seems though that Mucha had a fascination with the femme fatale. Quite like the artists from the Rococo period Mucha seemed inspired by a variety of contemporary literary sources or by celebrated historical archetypes such as Delilah, Helen of Troy or Cleopatra.
While artist though this Art Nouveau style was rejecting industrial mass production and thought that they reformed handwork and the handicrafts, by replacing patterns with their vegetation, they were merely replacing one kind of ornamentation with another (A Concise History P:95). The compression of space can be seen as a characteristic that todays artists/designers have opted to illuminate from their rules of thumb, as the message seems to get lost amongst the excessive elaboration.
Todays artists/designers have selected sections of their work to reveal Art Nouveaus elegance. They have integrated formats of sweeping lines, exotic shapes and resplendent juxtapostitioning of tone through aspects of their work rather than engrossing the whole artwork with imagery, this is what we call minimalism. Bauhaus occurred during the period 1919-1933, and was focused on forming the ideas that made students realise that the future is primarily about industry and mass production rather than individual craftsmanship.
It was a firmly established industrial design movement that stripped away decoration and left behind clean lines and function. Some say it was the removal of human craft, but to the teachers and followers of Bauhaus, function was their major concern, removing the past from the damage that World War One caused, so rather than adding decoration to the objects like Rococo, they returned to the basics design fundamentals. Bauhaus was thought to be the design of purest forms, simple structures and the exclusion of ornamentation and excess (Carvan, 2003).
Although Baroque and Rococo tried to establish a style with exquisite decoration and ornamentation, they were unsuccessful as ornamentation as a rule makes the product, more expensive (A Concise History P:13). It was a beautiful art form that can co-exist with industrial products but not merely by itself as they cause the products to be costly and extremely time consuming. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) was perhaps the most influential architect of the mid-20th-Century. Miess phrase less in more became the essence of architecture paving his way through the style, and also influencing todays designers.
He achieved international recognition as one of the leading figures of modern architecture, due to the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Exhibition. The Pavilion was built from glass, travertine and different kinds of marble. It was contrived to accommodate the official reception presided over the King Alphonso XIII of Spain with the German authorities. Some say that he stripped architecture of all humanity, creating cold, sterile and unlivable environments, others praise his work, saying he created architecture in its most pure form.
However as individuals having natural prejudices and preconceptions to design it can mean all sorts of things to others and absolutely nothing got the rest of the population (Powell, 2000). Due to an obvious abundance of followers Van der Rohe s Barcelona lounge chair (Figure 3) is a notable piece of modern design and part of the permanent design in todays history, being replicated around the world. Each chair is meticulously constructed of hand polished stainless steel and individually sewn squares of fine leather. The straps and buttons are made of cowhide while cushions are made of urethane foam with dacron polyester fibrefill.
Although his chairs were constructed using machinery he always believed that adding the perfection and uniqueness could only he created by hand, hence the sewing and polishing of each chair. He had a highly developed sense of classical proportion, appreciation of modern structure and materials, and keen sense of craftsmanship, which has had a profound effect on todays artists/designers. They seek influence from the art period and also replicate his work. Bauhaus probing means to reconcile the artist and the machine became an inspiration to todays artists/designers around the world.
Without its particular attention to pursuing new forms and new solutions, todays artists/designers would not have returned to the fundamentals, the basic materials or even the basic rule of design. Today, Bauhaus is still an influential movement, still effecting todays industrial design culture. (Whitford; Masters and students, 1992, P 10) proclaimed, everyone is sitting on a chair with tubular steel frame, using an adjustable reading lamp, or living in a house partly or entirely constructed form prefabricated elements.
Communication will continue to occur throughout the following eras as individuals need to be informed and continually entertained. There is a constant demand for new ideas designers today have opted to borrow elements from the past design styles, like imaginative metaphorical paintings from the Rococo era, or streamlined dynamic lines, organically formed handles, chair legs, that are reminiscent of Art Nouveau, or even the basic material and fundamental design of Bauhaus.
As design should ooze individuality depict their art and design within trends rather than making rules in which everyone has to conform to. Socialism cannot be changed by conforming a culture to sets of rules in art and design. Designs rules are not like that of the law, rather they are an act of individualism.
