March 29th

The Bauhaus is the big cheese.

It existed from 1919 - 1933, in Weimar till 1925

Walter Gropius is the Director of the Bauhaus from 1919 - 1928. He is very important. He has a new idea that maybe we have to go back to the old ways. In publishing the Bauhaus manfesto, he has a woodcut of a cathedral. He is using the Cathedral to represent Painting, Sculpture and architecture. A work of art that represents a new social unity. People put their entire lives into the Bauhaus, they move from other countries to just to be there.

Gropius has his Council of masters; Gerhard Marks in charge of sculpture, Lyonel Feringer of painting, and Johannes Itten of the Priliminary courses.

Itten is extremely interesting, because he invented the way we think about core classes today. He talks about things in relation to their opposites (e.g. soft/hard). Always using contrast and hierarchies.

The movie very interesting explains the rise and fall of the Bauhaus, then the reopening of the Bauhaus in Dessau. It is interesting how it is driven away to somewhere that is more liberal. I think even to this day, art school are more accepted in more liberal areas. The discussion about the addition of architecture to the Bauhaus is extremely interesting, because we dont have anything like it here at ringling, and it is the most interesting because of how much it changes or the Bauhaus. As much as i love sans serif typefaces; Its nice to at least have the option to use serif faces, therefore when the bauhaus gets rid of serif faces, i personally think its crazy!

Learning about the Bauhaus has been extremely interesting, because its amazing to see how such an important historical school progressed, and even though it was only open for 10 minutes, it has made such an incredible impact on art. Why hasnt Ringling made an equal impact on art? are the students just not good enough? or has everything just been done before?

The Bauhaus

All I know about the Bauhaus is that it is a school in Germany that established a lot of influential design. I know there was more than one school in germany associated with the Bauhaus, and they output many famous artists.

March 15th

El Lissitzky moves onto constructivism. He begins to use his work to prove a point, applying it in practical ways such as his USSR photo montage poster. This is built above his base of cuprematism where he uses just simple shapes to express a new form of art. Photography is seen as a tool of the modern age; a tool of the new age... a machine. Its a new way to create art, and its wonderful.

Serge Eisenstein: Potempkin rules over all past films, and opens new doors with its violence, montages, and new tricks in cinema.

This is the iconic scene; the massacre on the steps of odessa literally sets the stage for many future movie scene ideas. This movie also obviously has the greatest soundtrack to ever have been featured in any movie since the dawn of time. I wish it was on iTunes. The untouchables has the same scene! It is extremely strange... in my highschool english class, we watched both of the same scenes from the untouchables and potempkin. Very strange but interesting Deja Vu.

Alexander Rodchenko: The key person of russian constructivism. He attends art school from 1910 onwards. He creates very non representational suprematist work in school, and builds on his style from there. Left front of the arts is a magazine that he works on. Using black bars as graphic elements as we do today! Very lissitzkyesque. In 1932, Stalin is in power, and artists are decimated. No-one wants to center their governmental direction around artists propaganda anymore.

De Stijl: "The style" A utopian approach to aesthetics. If you take a step back and look at suprematism and constructivism, they are creating something that is theory based, based on functionality or spirituality. De Stijl asks the question; what is the key to good art? How can everyone make good art? They use squares and ratios. Dorian is obsessed.

Mondrian, Theo VanDoesvurg. De Stijl dies with him.

De Stijl evolves. In 1921, there is a formal change that explores Asymmetrical composition (Dorian gets goosebumps) It is the foundation of modernism design and composition; very beautiful. There are implied rectangles of the elements, but the air moves around and flows. Theo VanDoesvurg publishes Dadaist poems in his magazine. It is curious to think that it took graphic designers so long to come up with these asymmetrical uses of rectangles and white space, as we take it for granted these days.

Everything keeps builind upon other things before, and moving towards what we are creating as designers today. It will be interesting to see how it came about that we create things exactly how we do today, as i can not pin an exact way that people are designing today. Not like in the past when you can tell exactly when they are from because of the style.

March 1st

reductive reductive reductive. the forms in the new posters by the axis powers are reductive. When hitler looks back at the world war I posters, he thinks that they are not good because they should all speak to the lowest common denominator. They were too intellectual for the average german. Hohlwein has badass posters that are pretty high above the rest. Edward McKnight Kouffer: cubist birds. Uses the language of cubism. you can look at it and decode it baded on relationships. Cubism starts of as an intellectual form of art. But when it catches on, it explodes. A.M. Cassandre makes very structured posters because people are looking to science. Looking to apply logic and science to design.

Cubo futurism is taking the ideas of futurism and cubism, and mushing them together. If youre looking for something new, thats a good direction. Then comes suprematism, then constructivism. suprematism rejects utilitarian function. we do not need any more pictures of trees and cows. The black square form 1913. ridiculous. frick yeah! he is forced to start painting things that arent quite as much BS.

Art should not have utilitarian function: suprematism

the only meaningful art has function. things that have function are art: constructivism.

vladimir tatlin, rodchenko, lissitzky. THEY RENOUNCE art for art's sake. art should serve the new communist society.

Kandinsky invents abstract painting.

Lissitzky invents suprematist paintings.

proun is an acronym. looking for the intersection between painting and architecture. buildings and architecture become very important. beat the whites with the red wedge: bullshevic army vs the white forces who were conservatives opposed to the bullshevics. lissitzky is looking how to construct things and explore space.