Art deco or deco is a design style that began in Paris. It started to spread around the world and become international in 1930s. This spread was quiet rapid because art deco was started in 1920s. The movement was created in the World War II era. Art Deco influenced multiple areas of design such as; industrial design and interior design. It also affected fashion and jewelry as well as the visual arts such as painting, graphic arts and film. Art Deco was first used widely in 1926 as a term. After an exhibition in Paris,  celebrating the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts the new movement was appreciated and introduced to people who live in Paris as a modern art. Art deco was thought to be representative of elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity.

Here are some art deco works to help me to explain it better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The art deco spire of the chrysler Building in New York, built 1928–1930

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Hall in Buffalo, New York; John Wade with George Dietel, built 1929–1931

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Musician”, oil in canvas by Tamara de Lempicka, 1929, stolen in May 1, 2009 from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terracotta sunburst design above the front doors of the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles; Claud Beelman, 193o

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nash Ambassador Slipstream sedan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1934 Chrysler Airflow sedan; Carl Breer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1930 Parker Duofold desk set.

 

As you can see this movement has it clear style of being modernist and also following the old styles such as Egyptian style of  colors, figures and lines.

“émigré”

Émigré is a French word that refers to people who has ‘migrated out’. In this blog i will be talking about its another aspect. Emigre is also known as Emigre graphics. It is a digitay type foundary, It is responsible of publishing and distributing  graphic design centered information. Emigre is based in Berkeley, California. It was found in 1984 by Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. Who happened to be a married couple. Emigre type foundry also published Emigre magazine between 1984 and 2005.

Below there is a collection of the covers of the Emigre magazines. I wanted to give a hint about what you will see in this blog post.

With the come up of Machintosh computer Emigre started to design digitital typefaces and took the advantage!. These new typefaces did not require manufacturing of the traditional type foundry. Licko who is the  wife of Rudy VanderLans began designing fonts that, without using the imitating letterpress technology. She was the key person on journey from bitmap design, dot matrix printing to the vector-based design.The company is credited with being the first type foundry to design original fonts made on and for a computer.

Below you will see Mr.Rudy VanderLans and Mrs.Zuzana Licko

Emigre has published lots of books that are related with graphic design. The couple achieved a very important success with establishing this foundation. I wanted to continue with giving some more information. The traditional serif typeface; Mrs Eaves designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996, and licensed by Emigre. Below you will see the chart that show  members of the Mrs. Eaves family.

Emigre also licensed several typefaces. Below there are names of them:

• Cholla Slab
• Dalliance
• Dead History
• Democratica
• Exocet
• Filosofia (based on Bodoni)
• Journal
• Matrix
• Modula
• Mrs Eaves (based on Baskerville)
• Priori
• Template Gothic
• Vista Sans

If you want to learn about the works of Emigre and it’s style you can visit its website:

http://www.emigre.com/

Avant-Garde

In this blog post I will define what is Avant-Garde and some of the works that belong to it.

Avant-garde, is French originated word. In English it means Advance guard or Vanguard. It is used to refer people or works that are experimental or in respect to art,culture and politics.

Avant-garde is a cultural aspect that represents pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm. It’s existence is considered by some to be a hallmark of postmodernism as distinct from modernism. The movement has got its influence from Dadaism around 1981.

Salvador Dali was one of the most important artist in Avant-garde movement. Dali was the master of surrealism and he brought Avant-garde movement to a whole new level.It can be said that: Dali unleashed his over active imagination and erotic sensitivity on canvas. The effect-people unwillingly played right into his hand and began to question and reevaluate their moral standard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thinkers tried to explain Avant-garde movement.

Italian essayist Renato Poggioli surveying the historical, social, psychological and philosophical aspects of vanguardism, “reaches beyond individual instances of art, poetry and music to show that vanguardists may be seen as sharing certain ideals or values which are manifested in the non-conformist lifestyles they adopted, vanguard culture being shown to be a variety or subcategory of Bohemianism.” in his book Teoria dell’arte d’avanguardia (The Theory of the Avant-Garde). (1962)

Other authors also thought about this movement and tried more to understand Avant-Garde movement and Pogguoli’s studies.German literary critic Peter Bürger’s Theory of the Avant-Garde (1974) looks at the Establishment’s embrace of socially critical works of art and suggests that in complicity with capitalism, “art as an institution neutralizes the political content of the individual work.”

We can easily understand that both thinkers tried to say that the movement was about understanding the id of people by considering the political content of the artworks.

Avant-garde movement also affected music. A great example would be Arnold Schoenberg. His method was to create music pieces with using twelve tone method. It is a very complicated method. When you read the notes inverted from above or end they still have the same noting system.

Below there are two videos the first one tries to explain this method, the second one is a piece that belong to Arnold Schoenberg. When you listen the music you will feel very different because you would easily understand that it wants to tell something to you and also bores you, by belonging bomenianism sub category just like Avant-garde.

 

Brand new topic for me: Lithography

I would like to start with introducing the word Lithography.

It is a Greek originated word. ‘lithos‘ stands for ‘stone‘ and ‘graphein’ stands for  to ‘to write‘.

It is one method for printing. It is done with using a stone,later on categorized as lithographic limestone, or a metal plate that has got a completely smooth surface. Lithography is invented by Alois Bavarian in 1796. Basically it is used for printing a text or artwork. It might be produced on paper or other needed suitable material.

Johann Alois Senefelder (6 November 1771 – 26 February 1834) was a German actor and playwright who invented this particular technique called lithography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To print in lithography technique the image has to be drawn into a coating of wax or any oily sbstance that has been already applied to a plate, which is made of  lithographic limestone as the medium. With this method ink is being transfered to bland paper and the printing process is done. This method is cheaper than the others.

Early works that had been done with lithography includes dictatived approaches. For example the first photograph below is a map of munich. On the left we see the negative of the print which is drawn in to wax and pasted on the lithographic limestone. And on the right we see its positive, printed version.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late prints of lithography included more colors and it got better in quality.  Below there is A 1902 lithograph map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To understand the process better I would like to share a photograph of a printing press example in Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned that Lithography is used for Artworks too. I also wanted to share some artworks that have done with Lithography method.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City of Words, lithograph by Vito Acconci, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon, 1891

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm by Edvard Munch

 

I also want to share a video that has got an introducing purpose for lithography.

The Curios Case of Leonardo Da Vinci

Painter, sculptor, architect, musican, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer.

It is so weird to hear that one human being is being capable of doing this amount of work! He drew this self-portrait in 1515.

In this blog i would like to talk about some interesting information about him that i have found.

First of all i will start with the very interesting ones!

• Paper was so expensive so Leonardo wast “filling” most of every page.
• Leonardo Da Vinci was a vegetarian, for humanitarian reasons unlike the people in his era.
• Leonardo was sneaking into graveyards at night to steal corpses and study human anatomy
• He was a left-handed
• He left many paintings unfinished and destroyed most of his work.
• Leonardo enjoyed purchasing caged birds so that he could set them free
• Leonardo would wear pink to make his complexion look fresh.

Now the rest…

• He drew maps of Europe.

• He invented the scissors and hydraulic pumps.

• He designed a movable bridge for the Duke of Milan.

• He invented the bicycle 300 years before it appeared on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Leonardo’s first solo painting, completed in 1478, ‘Madonna and Child’.

• In 1483 he started to paint the first version of the ‘Virgin’. He completed it in 1485.

• He drew the plans of the first armored car in 1485.

• ‘The Mona Lisa’ is perhaps his most famous work. There is a debate on this painting. One of them is that the woman in the painting is Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo. The most unusual hypotheses is that it is a self-portrait of Leonardo as a woman.

• It took him about ten years to paint Mona Lisa’s lips

Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1398 – February 3, 1468)

Gutenberg was a publisher  who introduced us one of the greatest invention: printing press. He used moveable type printing  has started the printing revolution and paved the way for the most important events of the modern period. Like Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific revolution.

He is the first European who used moveable type printing in around 1439. There are many contributions of him to printing such as: using oil-based ink, using a wooden printing press.

Since he developed this method of printing, printing technology spread rapidly throughout  Europe. It took over the place of the handwritten manuscript methods. Woodblock printing, rubrication and engraving continued to be used to supplement Guttenberg’s printing process.

Printing Process

Method was found by Guttenberg around 1140.

The printers were lining up the metal bars according to the text and then they were filing them with the oil based ink. After that they were pressing the metals towards paper then accomplishing a printed paper.

Of course it was very hard for them to arrange the metal bars. It was taking a half day to make the lining. Then they were waiting for the papers to dry.

After drying the printers were working on the page numbers and the raking the pages together.

Finally they were printing the book covers and the book was ready to publish.

This is also a long process but it should stay on mind that it is not harder or taking longer than handwritten text’s process.

I found a video that talks about printing history. If you are interested you can click to this link and enjoy watching it.

Some Pictures are below to give clues about this way of printing.

Guttenberg Bible

Guttenberg Press House

Metal types.

Shahnama-i Shahi

This week we will be dealing with manuscripts. I would like to talk about an Iranian one. Shahnama-i Shahi. It was written in Iran, ca. 1520-30. This manuscript is a luxury copy of Shahnama-i Shahi.

It’s qualities:

• Pages = 48 x 32 cm
• 759 folios
• 258 paintings (almost 1 per folio for the first 100 folios)
• Commissioned by Shah Isma’il I
• A gift to the returning Prince Tahmasp(Shah Isma’il’s son)

In this manuscript Firdawsi and the poets of Ghazna are sitting together. Firdawsi is completng a poet for Shah Isma’il.

This one is about the Court of Gayumars. I made it a little bigger than the others because i want to examine it a little bit.I want to take attention how it has embellished with gold and the artist’s decision on colors. The details in figures.

In Iranian manuscripts the text is always framed and the paintings are always grow out of the general frame.

Putting the important figure in center or making it bigger is one of the methods of  emphasis. But in iranian manuscripts you cannot understand the situation without reading the text. For example in this one the story is about a lady who ate a wormed-fruit from a seller. Who is at the left bottom corner of the manuscript.

Another thing to add might me their understanding of perspective. I can say they really did not care about that. They found their method to paint the events. The buildings do not seem realistic. I can say this also for the whole paintings.

Lastly i want to show one Turkomand manuscript. Then you will understand the differences between the Iranian ones and the Turkish ones.

As you can see in this one the Suleyman is the bigger figure. He seems in motion but the others are standing and looking at him. So we can understand the story is about him. In Shahnama-i Shahi characters are not needed to be important people. They are sometimes casual. But it Turkomand ones the character is always the Sultan.

I would like to talk about the Phaistos Disc which made me got thrilled when I red the ‘Alphabet’ post in the blog of History if Visual Communication Design

 

 

Phaistos – also Phaestos and Phaestus – was an ancient city on the island of Crete.  The clay disk from 1700 BC, sophisticated, pictographic on it was found in 1908, in Crete. The Phaistos Disk is a curious artifact.

Physical Description

The text is done by pressing the letterforms into the soft clay. It is done by following the clockwise direction, spiraling towards the disc’s center. Then it was baked in high temperature. There are 241 figures on the disk. Some of the figures are very distinct, from daily life. Like  human figures, fish, birds, insects, plants, a boat, a shield, a staff, etc. There is a small diagonal line that is repeated 18 times, underneath the final sign in a group. It has got some corrections made by the scribe in several parts.

The Strokes

There are glyphs marked with an oblique stroke. The strokes are done with hands. Carving method. The strokes are attached to the first or last sign of a ‘word’ depending on the chosen direction of reading. One of the hypothesis is the meaning of the strokes is that they were used to subdivide the text into paragraphs. There are some other meanings have been offered.

Direction of Reading

Because o the diverse epigraphical facts like overcuts, angulos points of the spirals and the corrections it can be said that the text has been written from exterior to the center.

The symbols on the disk:

The inspiration for the Quicksilver Company Logo is from Far East

My previous blog post was about ukiyo-e. This is again is about that style. But i want to share a very interesting information by this post. We all know the company which is called Quicksilver that produce surfing stuff. I have learnt that it’s logo was inspired from the well-known ukiyo-e art work.

The art work belongs to the great Japanese artist Hokusai. The work of his was published sometime between 1830-1833.

Here is the work of his:

And here is the Quicksilver Company Logo:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see the wave and the Mountain Fuji?

Now let’s check how the wooden print ‘The great Wave’s layers are printed. Wooden block printing has got steps. You don’t carve the wood for white areas you just left them blank and carve single wooden block for each color. That means it is very important to carve the blocks carefully with measuring.

I found some other examples that includes the inspiration from Hokusai’s The Great Wave.

Far East Art Printings are Just Like Paintings!

I was in summer school for last summer and took the class Major Works of Eastern Art. After the semester has finished i have realized that i’ve learnt so much from the class. In this blog post i am going to talk about one of the famous known art in East. Ukiyo-e.

Ukiyo-e means Pictures of the Floating Word. It is a japanese print technique. The pictures are producing by printing blocks of wood. This technique was introduced to Japanese in the 8th century from China and used principally for the illustration of Buddhist texts. By 17th century the printing technique began to used for books, poems and personal illustrations. This is when the style of Ukiyo-e was born. The style reflects the lives of the lowest class in the society: merchants, artists and  rōnin, who were developing their own art and literature in urban areas such as Ode (today’s Tokyo), Osaka and Sakai.

Here some lines from Tales of the Floating World, ca, 1660 that i think will be a little helpful for us to understand more about Ukiyo-e ethos.

“…living only for the moment, savoring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking sake, and diverting oneself just in floating, … like a gourd carried along with the river current.”

Here are some examples of Wood-Block Prints

Woodblock print by Okumura Masanobu, Depicting the Theater Ichimura-za, ca. 1741-44

Isn’t it so interesting and hard to put so much detail with carving the wooden blocks?

Another example is from Sazai Hall- Temple of Five Hundred Rakan. We see the Mountain Fuji that is very important to Japanese people.