Abstract Art

Abstract art can be either a painting or sculpture. It that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world, even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, forms, lines, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process (see action painting). Abstract art began in 1911 with such works as Picture with a Circle (1911) by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944).

Wassily Kandinsky "Picture with a Circle" - Oil on Canvas

Abstract art began in 1911. Some of the first works were "Picture with a Circle" painted in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky. This type of art can either be a painting or a sculpture. It does not exactly depict something (a person, place or nature), not even in distortion or exaggerating ways. It is what the artist sees, could be a colour, shapes or size and scale, brushstrokes even. This type of art challenges the emotions of the viewer to stop trying to understand what the artist meant and instead make his own interpretation.

Artists always looked for new ways for expressing their worlds. The 20th century brought technological developments that demanded a bigger response. More progressive and new thinking had to be applied to art. This is when Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso begun to move away from the traditional paintings to abstract. Kandinsky quickly followed when in 1911 he produced his work in complete abstract. In France, artist Robert Delaunay started moving away from his usual Cubist-art to the more colourful world of Abstract. This was evidently shown in the new energy and vibrancy and experimentation with primary colours in his work.  

 11A-Jackson Pollock

Brown, Blue, Brown-Mark Rothko

Not mentioned. (2014). What is Abstract Art?. Available: http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_a/a/a_abstract_art.htm. Last accessed 3rd January '14.

Anti-Design

The anti-design movement started in 1966, and ended in 1980. It is also known as the ''radical-design period''. It originated from Italy, and it's main characteristics were; striking bright colours, scale distortion, irony and kitsch.

Some of the radical groups were; SuperStudio, Gruppo Strum and Studio Achimia.Some radical designers were Carlo Mollino, Cleas Oldenburg, Franco Mello and Alessandro Mendini.Lussu Chair The lussu chair by Alessandro Mendini was designed in 1974. Only two of this chair were ever made. It was made out of wood and was given the Dadaist treatment; fire to obtain the texture it has. It was then painted over. Alessandro wanted to challenge the user and so put a huge platform at the bottom. Just this feature made it a task to climb into the seat. He wanted to eliminate the boundaries between art and design, and went against all the ''design rules''.Thonet ChairThis re-design of the Thonet chair was made in 1978. With this chair, Alessandro was celebrating the last great chair designer inventor Michael Thonet. He also honors chemistry and science behind the bentwood process with the atom adoring the back.

The Boalum Flexible Lamp designed in 1969 is another iconic anti-design product. It was designed by Gianfranco Frattini and Livio Castiglioni and manufactored by Artemide. This lamp consists of one long plastic tube with light-bulbs all wired inside, so it lights up. It doesn't have a permanent form as it is flexible and whoever uses it can manipulate it however they wish or need it to be. In other word, it allows the user to determine the form to some extent.

Left:  Dropped Cone , Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, 2001
Neumarkt Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Right:  Spoon Bridge and Cherry ,  Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, 1988 Another designer That Made a huge part of the anti-design movement was Claes Oldenburg. As he had once said,  "I am for an art thats political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum." The designer took ordinary object one sees everyday, and turned them into gigantic sculptures. He set them in city scrapes  and made ​​them Appear thatthey had leg accidentally dropped. (From Brobdingnag, the continent where giants live from Gulliver's Travels.)

As the 1980's approached, the anti-design was dying out and a new movement called post-modernism swung in full gear. The difference between these two movements was that anti-design was more theatrical, exaggerated and had vivid colours, while post-modernism was an unstable mix of theatrical and theoretical, and characterized by self conscience use of earlier styles.

ANTI-DESIGN

POSTMODERN DESIGN

admin. (/). /. Available: http://antidesigns.com/. Last accessed 1st january 2014.

Design of the Future

Futuristic product concepts inspire our imagination. We think about what else could possibly be invented; function, aesthetics, originality..

Nike's 'Arc Angels' is a new pointy-shoe concept designed for dancers to reduced stress on their feet while doing pointy-work. The particular name was given because it supposedly lasts longer then the normal life span of the pointy dancing shoes of eight to ten weeks.

These innovative glasses by Google's concept is to let you see weather reports, read news articles, watch movies and so on while you are walking, relaxed eating.. 

This product is especially designed to keep all your keys. Instead of multiple bulky key-chains, you just have this "key fob" that allows you to slide out which key you need for the moment instead of trying to find the right one through a load of keys. Efficient and innovative.

One problem people with that are wheelchair-bound face is the want to soak in a bathtub. Some of them are not able to go in and out of a bathtub, have unbearable difficulty or need someone else's need to do so. Multiple solutions were created over the years, this particular one tilts like a sea-saw/ balance scale and the user can climb in using his hands using the arm-rests on both sides.


This innovative camera gives you a 360-degree flexibility and helps you capture pictures at any angle your heart desires. The traditional SLR camera is bulky and heavy to use, you have to change multiple positions to capture various angles and it has an uncomfortable grip when holding the camera and also when changing the lens. The benefits of this All-Round SLR camera are that it lightweight and portable. Its flexibility lets you turn it in any direction you want, including 360 degree and OLED display screen for unlimited framing.


designer daily. 2012. 30 awesome futuristic product concepts. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designer-daily.com/30-awesome-futuristic-product-concepts-26509. [Accessed 29th December '13].

The Memphis Group

The Memphis group was founded by veteran Ettore Sottsass. It was an Italian group of young  furniture and product designers that dominated the beginning of the 1980's. It had a post-modern style.
The main aim of this group was to create original and interesting designs that had no rules regarding the built, shape and colour of the final product. 
The group experimented with unconventional  materials, historic forms, colours, styles, decorations ans kitsch motifs . They were mainly inspired from Art Deco and Pop Art. Their designs lacked functionality, but they broke down the barrier between the high and low classes of design. 

Dublin sofa, 1981
Design: Marco Zanini

Some of their furniture and light designs were revolutionary at the time, they were made out of industrial materials such as printed glass, fire-flake finishes, neon tubes, zinc-plated sheet-metals that were painted in flamboyant colours and patterns, spangles and glitter. As Sottsass liked to say, "Memphis is not new, Memphis is everywhere." 

This is the Beverly Cabinet designed in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass. It had a snakeskin effect laminate doors in green and yellow with brown tortoiseshell-inspired book shelves positioned at a particular angle, and a bright red bulb. 

Oberoi armchairs designed in 1981 bu Sowden. They had a combination of a tomato-red upholstery with bright yellow, or blue legs with Natalie du Pasquier’s 1950's chubby pink and black mosaic print.

Super Lamp designed in 1977 by Martine Bedin was among the first contributions to Memphis. This version of the lamp is the initial prototype that was first shown at Memphis exhibition in 1981. It was made out of painted steel mounted with lighting components. 

The Carlton cabinet, designed in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass is an iconic and one of the most outspoken pieces ever designed in the Memphis Group collection. It was made out of laminated wood and plastic.Its colourful, happy colours were inspired from Sottsass' trip to India.

Not everyone was in agreement to the Memphis Group in the design world. Vico Magistretti once said that "This furniture offers no possibility of development whatsoever, it is only a variant of fashion." The co-founder of the IDEO industrial design group Bill Moggridge claimed that "You were either for it, or against it. "All the boring old designers hated it. The rest of us loved it."

Although the Memphis group did not last long, the work of the various designers in the collection remained important and challenged the traditional modern-making furniture and has been an inspiration even to this day.This moving-panels bookshelf reminds me a lot of Sottsass' Carlton Bookshelf.

Admin. (/). MEMPHIS Product + Furniture Designers (1981-1985) Design Museum Collection. Available: http://designmuseum.org/design/memphis. Last accessed 26th december 2013.

Claes Oldenburg

Born in 1929 in Stockholm, Sweden, but quickly moved to America where he became well-known for his soft sculptures. 
He attended School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Yale.

At the time, plaster was not suited for the task Oldenburg had in mind. It was too fragile and too heavy. To solve the problem, he created sculptures of fabric. He used to design them, and his wife, whose was a very talented seamstress used to sew them. They used to fill them with foam, but after a while, because they were so big Oldenburg started filling them with boxes. After this, Oldenburg used to paint them in colour.

His wife sewing together the giant burger

  

The inside of a soft sculptor filled with foam

He decided he would make his sculptures bigger then normal when he saw luxury cars and grand pianos in mid-town showrooms. He thought that people would love to see sculptures as big as cars and pianos, that they could touch and feel their softness. 

He used to inspire himself from everyday objects he saw on the way to work. His work was simple, yet made a statement, and the colossal scale infused humor. He created an alternate form of sculpture by challenging the rigid and austere composition of the sculpture. 

Floor Burger. 1962

French Fries and ketchup, 1963

Giant toilet, 1963

BLT sandwich, 1963

After a while Oldenburg started using harder materials, such as plaster to exhibit outdoors as well.

Apple Core


Shuttlecock



typewriter erasor

Oldenburg was also an artist. This "red tights with fragment" was soaked in plaster over wire frame, and was later painted with enamel. The artist said that this relief is his "vision of a pair of teenage tights seen in the wind at the corner of Avenue A and 14th Street". He refers to the displays of merchandise and also a torn advertisement.

Interesting video of Claes Oldenburg talking about his soft sculpture, inspiration etc.: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/357/4839

(2014). Flag to Fold in the Pocket. Available: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4397&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1. Last accessed 20th december 2013.

(2006). Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks.Available: http://www.yale.edu/publicart/lipstick.html. Last accessed 20th december 2013.

Art Nouveau

It started in the 1800 and lasted until the first world war. It influenced America and Western European. The designers wanted to create a new and modern life and invent new shapes and free lines that together would form a unique work of art. Nature and life were the two main sources that inspired visual arts such as paintings, architecture, graphic design, literature, music and so much more.

Some of the characteristics of this movement are; 
-sinuous lines
-whiplash curves
-deep sea illustrations
-feminine figures and curly hair
-controlled lines
-geometric details
-colourful new shapes

Some well-known designers from this era were 
-Josef Hoffman
-Henry Van de Velde
-Henry Ford

Side chair designed in 1899Materials used for this chair were palissander wood and damask upholstery.

The violent era the industrial revolution brought inspired the fields of architecture, interior design, furniture, fabrics, glass, tableware, jewelry, perfume bottles, posters, wallpaper, textiles and lightning with all kinds of new and creative ideas and innovations. 
New materials were combined together to create innovative and eye-pleasing pieces, like wood or metal with glass.

Art Nouveau Jewellery

Art Nouveau silver and hand decorated with enamel. Inspired by the Natural world.

Art Nouveau silver brooch with a maiden delicately holding a little crystal bead. Decorated with turquoise blue Champ-levé enamel.

Art Nouveau still inspires designers to this day.

An antique jewelry box

A modern art-nouveau inspired jewelry box

Antique Angel-wings inspired earrings 

Modern angel-wing SWIRL

"Sitzmaschine" Chair with Adjustable Back was designed in 1905 by one of the most well known designers of Art Nouveau; Josef Hoffmann. It was originally inspired from Philip Webb's Morris chair designed in 1866. The armchair's exposed structure represents machine production, but at the same time, its sequence of grid squares in the rectangular back, the bentwood loops of the armrests and legs and raw knobs on its adjustable back illustrate decorative and structural elements from the Wiener Werkstätte style. This chair was sold in various styles, the majority of them were cushioned on the seat and back rest. 

Philip Webb's Morris chair, 1866

Reclining Chair, designed in 1903/04 by Henry Van de Velde for his own Wiemar flat. The elegant, modern look of this chair shows comfort. This was something that was lacking from seating furniture in this period. The back is adjustable by a simple metal rod. This chair was made out of solid beech-wood and cream lacquered, upholstered with patterned fabric.

Cybele Gontar. (2000-2013). art nouveau. Available: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm. Last accessed 29thnovember 2013.

DaDa

The art movement emerged in the early 20th century. It was born out of the negativity of the horrors World War 1 brought with it. The movement started when a group of poets and artists joined together. They rejected reason, logic and prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. 

The movement involved:
-visual arts
-literature
-poetry
-art
-manifestoes
-art theory
-theatre
-graphic design

Dada poet Hugo Ball had once written “For us, art is not an end in itself, but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.” The group was about anti-war politics and embraced modernity in forms of technology, newspapers, films, and advertisements. They liked working with photo-montage and collage. 

A well-known piece from the Dada movement was the "fountain" by Marcel Duchamp, 1917. Made from porcelain. It basically consist of a urinal, laid flat on its back and signed  'R. Mutt 1917'. The original was lost and replicated again in 1964 (the one in the picture), and is one of Duchamp's most famous artworks and is considered to be an iconic 20th century masterpiece. He got his idea from a discussion with a friend. He bought the urinal from a plumber shop and placed it in an exhibition organised by the society of Independent Artists.  'Mr Mutt's fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bathtub is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumbers' shop windows. Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object.' ('The Richard Mutt Case', The Blind Man, New York, no.2, May 1917, p.5.)

"ABCD" collage by Raoul Hausmann is a self portrait. The open mouth and clenched teeth around the "ABCD" lettering shows intensity and discomfort. The lettering is information on one of Hausmann's upcoming poetry readings. Hausmann seems to be using the Hands, money, a fire extinguisher and different hidden words to make the audience accept a to accepted the different beliefs and create individual opinions by the use of art.

not mentioned. (/). dada. Available: http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada. Last accessed 28th november 2013.