Evaluation

While attending the lectures on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings I have learnt a lot about the history of art and design. Most of the lectures I found relevant, mostly the lectures on Tuesdays. Some lectures on Thursday’s I didn’t find relevant or interesting, mostly because they were a more wide range and could be open to any subject in the art school at Glyndwr. The most interesting subject while attending the lectures I think is about the Bauhaus, it is very relevant to my course Graphic Design and I can relate to this subject. Also the fact I have been to The Bauhaus archive makes it a lot more interesting as I have witnessed first hand the artwork of the school and how they worked. I was also interested in the Ethics lecture as it made you think about your actions and why you act as you do in certain situations. Is it because you are told to act that way for example, when you are employed ie. work ethics. Or because you want to act that way or react that way because that is who you are. Most of the lectures I attended made me rethink things and also wonder. Which I think is good because that means the subject is making you have an opinion. Overall I have enjoyed writing my thoughts about these certain subjects on my blog the past few months. And although some lectures were not as thrilling as others I understand all lectures will broaden my mind and make me understand things I didn’t before. I am happy with my blog and I hope that my thoughts will make others re-think the subject I talk about.

Introduction

In the up and coming blog posts I will be analyzing the Tuesday lectures within the art school and also the Thursday lectures I have been attending in Plas Coch campus. I will also evaluate and critically analyse the lectures. During the lectures I plan to take notes during the lecture and then talk about the lectures that I find most interesting on my blog. In my blog you will find facts, quotes, youtube videos and also my opinion on many of the subjects that will be brought up. I will also look at artwork and what media the artwork is made by artists spoken about during the lectures. Also I will look to find videos and pictures that i like and to show examples of work and also other peoples opinion of their work. I am looking forward to analysing the lectures and I hope to learn a lot from attending these lectures and also reading up on the subject after and thinking about the subject further. I hope attending these up and coming lectures will make me a better and more creative designer, whom can understand the history of Art and Design. In addition I hope to learn about artists of history and interesting facts, in particular graphic designers, but I do appreciate other forms of art. I hope you enjoy my blog and my views on the up and coming subjects I intend to discuss.

Ethics

I recently attended a lecture about ethics, which I found very interesting and insightful. Before the lecture I wasn’t too sure what ethics were and associated them with work matters. The definition of ethics according to the dictionary is

“the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation”.

The quote is basically saying to have good ethics you should know the difference between right and wrong and realise what is the good and bad thing and to always do the good thing. This quote is very insightful and also makes you realise morals are relates to ethics. Morals are an instant choice and it relates to you as a person. During the lecture morals were also spoke about. What is the difference between Ethics and Morals? It is different to many people but in my opinion morals seem more personal than ethics. As I have mentioned Ethics seem more related to work, for example you follow an ethical code at your work place. You have to follow the rules made by your workforce and there is no compromise, but in the first place one person has to come up with these ethics. Does that make them morals? Were they once a personal thing? There are many questions related to Ethics, and most of them are unanswered. I find this very interesting as it divides opinions. During the lecture one thing that was spoken about was South African Photo Journalist Kevin Carter and his Pulizer Prize winning photo, pictured below;

It was discussed is this picture ethically right? The photo was taken in 1993 in Sudan, it caused wide controversy and made people realise about Africa and the poverty going on there. The fact that in the background there is a big bird looking at the girl speaks a lot, as it is looking at the girl as pray. In my opinion as harsh as this picture is, it did the right thing and made people think about the harshness of life in Africa, about poverty and the way they live their life. If this picture wasn’t taken how would people know about the poverty and way of life in Africa? Ethics as a whole makes you think, it is the actions you take and why you take those actions. I really enjoyed this subject as it makes you think about why you take the actions you do. And also makes you think about the difference between Ethics and Morals.

Sources:

Ethic – definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic [Electronically accessed 11th December, 2013.]

Fig 1. Kevin Carter. (1993) Photo. At: http://vsmeets.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/kevin-carter-pulitzer-prize1.jpg [Electronically accessed 11th December 2013]

Beautiful Losers

‘Beautiful Losers’ is a film about an art collective in New York, it concentrates on the characters and why they do what they do. The film also concentrates on the lives that these artists have had and why they ended up to be an artist. It seems as they’re breaking the boundaries of art and design. After watching ‘Beautiful Losers’ I realise that within art there should be no boundaries. No matter what field of art or design that you are in from Graphic Design to Fine Art, you should be able to produce what you like. The message of this film seems to be in my eyes that if you want to create something then do it, and do it for yourself and not the people you get paid by. The film is definitely a inspirational film. Although I don’t agree with every aspect of the film I understand most of the things that go on within it and agree with doing things for yourself, and to enjoy making that thing. I understand most things within this film but I do find some parts of it particularly weird. The characters in this films seem to not care about anything except art, which I find weird because to understand art you need to care about other things. The characters also seem to be a stereotype of an artists, a weird and maybe people that take drugs. But not all artists or designers are like this and I despise when people stereotype most artists to be that way when it generally isn’t true, but this film/ documentary promotes that. They seem a bit selfish creating their art for themselves but I understand why they would as art is made by you so it should be for yourself firstly and then others. I consider the characters in this film as futurists as they never mentioned talking about other artists or learning from other artists, they learn from themselves and their peers, which I find interesting. I found the film boring at times as the characters spoke slowly as nothing much happened on screen but I am glad i watched this film as it is inspirational and the main thing I take from this film is that you should make art for yourself and then others. In other words be selfish.

Post War Design

Post war design started in the 50s and continued until the 60s. It was mainly poster design and in my opinion when Graphic Design really started in the art world. There were new ways of advertising through Graphic Design and artists were using the tools they had to create things that were very different to the usual art of that age. Ludwig Hohlwein was a German architect until 1906 which was when he started a new career in graphic design, specializing in posters, this was the start of Graphic Design. His work was very well made and also colourful and fun until he was pulled in by the war and started making war related posters including this one which is in German and translated to “And you?”

Hohlwein was one of the many people in Germany who were brainwashed and followed the Nazi way, but he promoted it. During the war The Bauhaus shut and most of the Professors fleed to different countries to teach the world design. After the war many people wanted to escape on holiday and Graphic Design posters were at the forefront of this, advertising a better land in the UK and abroad. For example this poster by Abram Games promoting Blackpool.

The poster makes Blackpool look like a fun, sunny place to go. Also after the war many other Designers did other Graphic Design related things. Including Lester Beall who was an American Graphic Designer. He once said “the designer’s role in the development, application and protection of the trademark may be described as pre-creative, creative and post-creative.”. I agree with this statement, a designer has to be creative in every part of developing an idea whatever it may be and after the war people were finally allowed to be creative with no barriers after the war.

Sources:

Fig 1. Hohlwein. (1932) Und Du?. Poster. At: http://tundrablog.com/wp-content/uploads/Und-du1.jpg %5BElectronically accessed 25th November 2013)

Fig 2. Games. (1952) Blackpool. Poster. At: http://designmuseum.org/media/item/4471/-1/70_9Lg.jpg %5BElectronically accessed 25th November 2013)

The Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was an institute for the very highest of designers in Germany from 1919 to 1933. Bauhaus in German means ‘house of construction’, which is exactly what they did. Key people in The Bauhaus included Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Josef Albers, Albert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy Nagy, Gunta Stozl and Paul Klee. The Bauhaus curriculum was a very structured thing. Student all had to learn the basics of art and then move on to other media’s, for example Construction with glass, colour and clay.

The school opened in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. Later opening 2 other Bauhaus schools and in 1933 was closed after pressure from the Nazi’s during World War 2. The Bauhaus was very structured as I have said. The students studied many things like point, line, plain and volume. In my opinion this is a good way of learning as you get all the basics in drawing and therefor can use those skills later on if needed when things get more complicated. Although the Bauhaus was very modern for its age in terms of art it was still behind in terms of sexism. The school received more women applicants than men in 1919 and Gropius was quoted to say

“no difference between the beautiful and the strong sex”

which in itself was a sexist quote as he is clearly saying men are the ‘strong sex’. I admire The Bauhaus and what it stood for but everything has flaws and The Bauhaus’ were that it was sexist and also very formal. I attach a video about the Bauhaus and it’s history, I found this video very insightful and it discussed things that I didn’t know about the Bauhaus before it. The video clearly thinks The Bauhaus is about Design, I agree with this as it seemed as the hub for design in that age and in my opinion if it was still open the school would produce many amazing designers and artists for the world.

After the lecture and reading about the Bauhaus and also visiting the Bauhaus archive in Berlin while on a University trip I greatly admire it and what it stood for, it was very forward thinking for it’s time and I look up to things like that. In my opinion I think university’s should still be like the Bauhaus, the way they teach everyone the basics and then go on into your criteria is something that i admire greatly.

Fig 1. The Bauhaus Curriculum (1919-1933) At: http://www.remixtheschoolhouse.com/sites/default/files/Bauhaus%20Curriculum.jpg %5BElectronically accessed 25th December 2013]

Haus proud: The women of The Bauhaus http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/nov/07/the-women-of-bauhaus [Electronically accessed 11th December, 2013.]

The Open University (2013), Bauhaus: Design in a Nutshell. Available from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQa0BajKB4Q . . [Electronically accessed 25th November, 2013.]

Constructivists

At the time Constructivism was very different to how art was usually created. Art was seen as something you had to study and also had to be difficult and the constructivists went against this. Their motive was to bring art and design and life into one, which seems a pretty big goal. The artists were starting to have more tools and use a wide variety of media, to some extent were engineers. Malevich a key figure in Constructivism said

“The transferring of real objects onto canvas is the art of skillful reproduction, and only that…Color and texture in painting are ends in themselves.. Painters should abandon subject and objects if they wish to be pure painters.”

Malevich was a lover of depth in his paintings and demonstrated it well in his paintings, for example his painting ‘Reaper on Red Background’ 1913. Suprematism, part of constructivism made art a simple thing. For example Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ can be part of Suprematism. In my opinion I think it’s too simple and you don’t require skills to create the square. But for when it was created, in 1915 it must have stood out compared to the art of that era.

Sources:

Kazimir Malevich, From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting (1915). http://www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/ConstrBau/Readings/MlevchSupr.pdf . [Electronically accessed 24th November, 2013.]

Fig 1. Malevich. (1913) Reaper on Red Background. Oil. At: http://www.humanitiesweb.org/gallery/298/2.jpg [Electronically accessed 24th November 2013)

Fig 2. Malevich. (1915) Black Square. Painting. At: http://www.russianpaintings.net/articleimg/malevich/malevich_black.jpg [Electronically accessed 24th November 2013]

Futurism

The definition of futurism is

“A belief that the meaning of life and one’s personal fulfillment lie in the future and not in the present or past”,

which came as a great shock to me. I had no idea that such people in the past wanted to obliterate history and how we developed in art and also culture. Futurism was in fact a type of fascism with the leader Filippo Marinetti publishing the ‘Manifeste du futurisme’ which had orders to the reader to do as he says, the futurism way. After reading sections of the manifesto I disagree with almost all of what was said by Marinetti. His views were very direct and also cruel.

“We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism”

this quote sums up the Futurists, they didn’t care about the past, they wanted to destroy it and start again. I think this quote is very narrow minded they didn’t care about what made the present, which was the past and just about the future and how it would be for them. Which in itself if very selfish. Many people have worked hard to get the art world etc up to how it was in those days and the futurists didn’t care about that. Although I am against futurism I admire their desire to be original and to not look at past artists and people for inspiration or to copy. I myself don’t particularly like looking at previous artists from the past or present for inspiration. Futurists were themselves, original. When you discuss futurism it makes you have an opinion, are you for or against it.

Sources:

Futurism (art) – definition of futurism (art) by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopaedia. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Futurism+(art) [Electronically accessed 18th November, 2013.]

The Futurist Maifesto. http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html  [Electronically accessed 18th November, 2013.]