Ars and Crafts Movement

The arts and crafts movement was all about quality.  The leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement William Morris called for purpose and truth to the nature of the materials and methods of production and individual expression.
John Ruskin inspired the philosophy of Morris' movement.  According to Ruskin there was a severance of art and society caused by industrialization and the development of technology.  His claim is that creativity took a hit due to these factors, basically people just wanted to make products quickly in order to make money.  Ruskin believed that beautiful things were useful simply because they were beautiful.
Morris rested well to the beliefs of Ruskin and suggested that art and craft needed to be looked at a bit closer.  Mass produced goods lack this "honest" craftsmanship that needed to be applied when making all goods, from fabrics to buildings.

William Morris, Rose fabric design, 1883

Cabinet design for Morris and Company, 1861. Paintings by Ford Madox Brown, which illustrate the honeymoon of the fifteenth-century Italian King Rene of Anjou, grace this cabinet. Meggs' History of Graphic design 5th edition

Printmaking

In the early 1300’s pictorial designs were being printed on textiles in Europe. Card playing became popular and even though it was outlawed many people still played.  Since people were still playing cards, cards were still being designed which allowed block printing to still develop.  

Playing cards were the first printed pieces to be available to people that couldn’t necessarily read.  Laymen could now play card games that were originally only played by nobles.  Since almost everyone had access to cards that had all types of symbols on them, these symbols created a new way for people to communicate. 

Since these illustrations were typically quite simple they were used for religious instruction of illiterates.   

Woodblock print of Saint Christopher, 1423. The unknown illustrator depicted the legendary saint, a giant who carried travelers safely across a river, bearing the infant Christ. The inscription at the bottom reads, "In what so ever day thou seest the likeness of St. Christopher/in that same day thou wilt at least from death no evil blow incur. -Megg's History of Graphic Design 5th edition

Greek Alphabet History

The oldest known inscriptions date back to the 8^th century but the Greeks made major advancements in graphic communication when it came to their alphabet. 

            The story goes like this, Cadamus, King of Phoenicia set out to find his sister.  During his journey, he killed a dragon and planted its teeth like seeds and an army sprouted from them.  And in his return he brought the alphabet to Greece.  The stories main point is that Cadmus used the alphabet to bring his army to power.  He used the alphabet as a communication and information tool. 

ww.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Cadmus.html

            The Greeks applied Geometry to the structure of letters to the Phoenician alphabet to make them into their own art form.  They first adopted the style of writing from right to left which soon turned into alternating every line so that one could read continuously.  Eventually it became the way that we read English today, left to right.     

            The Greek alphabet was adopted as Athens standard in 400BCE.  Around 700BCE the Greek alphabet became crucial because they developed a representative government.  When citizens voted they used tokens with inscriptions on them so they could vote in secret, instead of raising their hands.  They were also now able to authorize documents with a seal, which would typically be stamped into wax.  This also allowed for personal identification because you would be able to have your own seal.

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             The growth of oral communication to written began to grow in 350 BCE.  This led to the development of libraries.  These libraries contained papyrus scrolls, some of which we still have today.  Without the development of the Greek alphabet we would not have other languages like Latin, which also means English. 

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born an incredibly shy and anxious child with the ability to draw at a very young age.  He was raised off the coast of Spain which gave him a mass amount of beautiful things to paint a draw.  Dali’s father being a lawyer was reluctant to send his son to art school but his mother encouraged him to go. 

  When Dali moved to Madrid to study fine art he quickly came out of his shell.  He began to dress in lavish clothing and was eventually expelled for claiming that his teachers where not good enough to teach him anything.   He decided to traveled to Paris to continue to learn about art.  Dali worked on his art no matter what and knew that he would make an impact.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Dali

Dali being born in 1904  allowed him to discover the Surrealist art movement that was flourishing in Paris, in his early twenties.  Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 1920’s. The goal of surrealist’s were to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super reality.  Surrealism was inspired by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious, the thoughts in the mind that occur automatically.  According to Freud all of us have an inner unconscious world in which all of us have emotional and sexual repressed feelings and the only way to express them was to release them without censorship.  Salvador Dali quickly took to the ideas of surrealism, he was able to express his anxieties through his artwork however he wanted.   

Lobster Phone, Dali

Dali had a paranoiac critical method that he contributed to surrealism which said that what we are paranoid about is what we see in reality.  He believes that we see what we want to see, not what is actually physically there.  Everyone’s own perception helps create an alternative reality, a reality in which you feel most comfortable. 

The Persistence of Memory, Dali

  If Dali was not born at a time where he could discover Surrealism as a fresh new thing he probably would have not been able to become such an important figure. His ideas were the new face of surrealism.    

Dali’s ideas were beyond just painting. His surrealist ideas consumed him and everything that surrounded him which is how he surpassed the rule. He used surrealism in, cinema, jewelry, fashion, design, advertising and comedy.

During World War II Dali moved to the United States.  Dali moved to New York which is where he used surrealism to sell ordinary products such as chocolate and alka seltzer and stockings. The art of a great salesman is they don’t have to sell.  They can get you to feel something about the product and not question why you feel that way and Dali understood that.  He used element of surprise and was able to influence cinema based on his passion for surrealism. 

The Face of War, Dali

Dali took whatever was new at the time and used surrealism to make it popular.  Just like he used Freud’s theories about the unconscious in his art he used the influences of nuclear physicis in his work.  He would rework some of his old pieces to fit the time period.  He was determined to always stand out and be new.      

Dali became so committed to surrealism and getting a reaction from society that he believed he was surrealism. Dali was one of the few artists that wanted publicity.  He created things that make you think why and his answer is always why not? 

Inspiration and Influences

Andy Warhol has been labeled as an artist and an icon. His work established an art movement and has been described as controversial, revolutionary and unoriginal. A museum director once described Warhol as a serious artist who was all about the unserious.

The Last Supper, 1986. Warhol

Last Supper Series, Warhol

The Last Supper, Da Vinci

Warhol recreated Da Vinci's Last Supper.  He used his own hand drawings, black and white copies of Da Vinci's, and silkscreens.  Some of his series keep the original composition that Da Vinci had while others focused on one zoomed in image of a single character or a small group of them.  He transformed a highly religious work of art into a cliché. He played with repetition, color and orientation of the objects from Da Vinci's original piece. He started with something that had highly religious value and made those values non existent. 

Warhol’s inseparable life and work influenced the world of art and pop culture more than any other artist of his time, and his work remains one of the leading inspirations for following generations. His output included prints and paintings that have become as famous as the pop images on which they are based.

O'Keeffe and Kollwitz

I believe that there are obvious differences between Georgia O’keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz. Their use of color, they way they mark the surface and the purpose of their work is all incredibly different. 
Kathe Kollwitz (1867- 1945) was a German artists that focused on the tragedy of war.  Her work depicts her empathy towards the less fortunate and almost a fascination with tragedy.  Her work is said to possibly be inspired by the death of her siblings, the loss of her son to World War I.  
Kollwitz’s aggressive and bold marks on the page helps to intensify the message she wants the viewers to get.  Her marks on the page are spontanious, kind of an organized madness. What she chooses to draw is also and obvious statement about the way she feels about the world around her.  She depicts sorrow, sickness, death, depression and every other lost emotion you can think of.  All most all of her pieces are black and white which also contributes to the darkness of them. Yes, you can have a black and white image portray “happiness” but your brain wouldn’t typically correlate hot pink with death and sorrow.  Kathe Kollwitz’s work is very “in your face”, moving and is a clear advocate of the less fortunate that surround her.

The Survivors, Kollwitz

The Widow, Kollwitz

Self Portrait, Kollwitz

Georgia O’Keeffe  (1887-1986) is an American artist who’s work is centered around the beauty of Americas landscapes.  She is most famously known for her large, boldly colored images of flowers and still life's.  In 1929, O’Keeffe took a vacation to New Mexico and became fascinated with it’s landscapes.  She continued to vacation in New Mexico every summer in order to paint it’s beauty, eventually New Mexico became her permanent residence and her inspiration for some of her most famous works. 

Poppy, 1927. O'Keeffe

Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue, 1931. O'Keeffe

Purple Petunia, O'Keeffe 

Unlike Kollwitz, O’Keeffe used bright imagery, abstract shapes and smooth flowing lines to create her work.  She also created “zoomed in” images of the flowers, landscapes and animal bones versus the dark portrait images that Kollwitz did. Similarly to Kollwitz, O’Keeffe’s work typically reflected her life experiences and the location she lived in.  I consider both Kollwitz and O’Keeffe’s work to be expressionism. Expressionism is presenting the world from a personal perspective, distorting it greatly for emotional effect in hopes to stir up ideas.  O’Keefe’s work is to get people to see the natural beauty that America has and Kollwitz wants people to see through the eyes of the distressed.  

Both Michelangelo and Leonardo were obsessed with the body, as were most artists during the renaissance.  Michelangelo was born in Caprese and when he was first starting to draw his father did not respect how much time he spent on drawing but he eventually recognized his talent and apprenticed him at the age of thirteen.  The man that he was being taught by died and Michelangelo was left out on his own at the young ago of seventeen.  He did most of his work for high paying royalty and sculpted only out of the finest materials.  Michelangelo was obsessed with the male body and was known for his accuracy and delicate markings of the page.  Michelangelo was such a perfectionists that when he was hired to paint the sistine chapel he fired all of his assistants and did not let anyone see it until it was completely finished.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo

The Last Judgement, Michelangelo

Self Portrait, Michelangelo 

Leonardo was raised by his father in Italy up until he was about fifteen, at that age he was apprenticed to an artist in Florence. Unlike Michelangelo, he was not much of a sculptor and was by no means a perfectionists.  He did various sketches and inventions, many of which he never finished.  His true obsession was getting everything that he could think of down onto a piece of paper, most of what he painted is not still here today other than works preserved in a museum.  Most of what we still have today are from his note books, which were filled with his inventions. Most of his inventions were way ahead of his time 

The Last Supper, Da Vinci

Eight Barreled Machine Gun, Da Vinci

Mona Lisa, Da Vinci

Michelangelo was a artist and sculptor while Da Vinci was a artist and a scientist. They each had great masterpieces but Leonardo was more of a inventor and researcher than a artist. He put more time into trying to create new things and to see how things worked so he could improve them. Both were master painters but, Michelangelo was the dedicated artist while Leonardo was a scientific genius for his time.