CONTEXTUAL AND ETHICAL STUDIES
07.12.2002
I have written a essay below talking about fast fashion and its impacts it is having on the world.
How Fast Fashion is destructing our world
Fashion. The worlds third most polluting industry. But Is fast fashion to blame for the world environmental degradation? The demanding production of new styles and clothing lines in high street stores was initiated during the 2000, when the fashion industry manufacturing scale almost doubled, meaning the pollution emitted also took a dramatic increase. With a staggering 10% of the world carbon emission generated from fashion, this is a statistic that needs some attention.
The effects fast fashion has on the environment is catastrophic, some of the factor include cotton farming, gas emission into the atmosphere from manufacturing and the fashion industries carbon emission. All of these are components pollute the worlds main bodies of water, impact the ozone layer and contaminated vegetation as well as overall impacting other industries environmentally such as agriculture.
One of the factors that fuel fast fashion is the lower qualitied goods. Lower prices result in poorer quality clothing. The leading shops that produce these garments all compete with one another as a way of gaining attraction to the audience, therefore these high street shops are forever on-going a competition to be the most attractive to their audience by selling the ‘newest’ clothing for the ‘best’ prices. This is where disposable fashion is initiated from. To put this into perspective, with fashion forever evolving trends and styles, clothing collections are always being created within high street brands. If one shop was selling a new in pair of jeans for £30 but in addition another competing shop was selling almost a duplication of this product for £20 the buyers would purchase the cheaper pair, unaware of the impacting factors this has on the long term environment. As I had mentioned before the lower priced items are poorly made both physically and in terms of how negatively impacting, they are on the surroundings. By purchasing these items, the disposable fashion percentage increases, as these items will not remain their origin state for a long period, resulting in them ending up in land fill. This is the reason for 85% of textile goods ending up in landfills each year, (in terms of scale that is enough to annually fill the Sydney harbour.) Landfills are then contributing to the emission of green house gasses, as over the decomposing period they produce CO2 and methane which are both green house gases, impacting our ozone layer. Personally, I feel these factors manifest the harm fast fashion is emitting on the world. The United Kingdom alone has 5,300 ‘highstreets’ and this is excluding the online platform these shops use. If fast fashion is not changed for the better, C02 emissions will continue increase. Its not just one correction that needs to be made, the entire fashion industry needs to adjust its ways.
Highstreet shops, use several marketing methods to draw their audience in. Some including, mobile apps, emails, shop window advertisement, in store merchandising and campaigns. These marketing strategies are normal for any working business, but they have become part of the toxic traits within the fashion industry. A aspect that contributes to the toxic marketing strategies are sales promotions, and Black Friday. Black Friday is a name given to a specific day annually where shops offer ‘highly promoting sales’ but some excessive sales feed over consumption. A recent example is ‘Pretty Little Things black Friday flash sale’. Pretty little this is a very popular online shop, which offers the new trending clothing for low prices. On black Friday the brand was offering 3000 items on their website at a discount of 99% off. Not only does this make they audience purchase items they don’t needs but it also shows how poorly made the clothing is, for the brand to be able to sell it at this price point and still make a profit. For example with this 99% off 3000 items discount it made most of the items 50p or less, and the brand still made a profit, therefore the price point the items are to produce along is a primary example of how poor the quality is, and how impacting on disposable fashion this will be.
Examples from the ‘Pretty Little Thing’ Black Friday 2020 sale.
Despite all of the negative components the fashion Industry still have to overcome in relation to this topic, some changes and strategies are starting to be put in place. Adidas, the worlds second best sportswear brand In the world, has begun to recognise this issue and take action. Their new mission to ‘use only recycled plastics by 2024’ was initiated in 2018 and the results are already exceptional. “ In 2020, for the first time, more than half of the polyester used in adidas products will come from recycled plastic waste. From 2024 onwards, the company is committed to using only recycled polyester.” Movements like this will create a large positive impact on the issue this industry is facing, but more brands need to contribute to, see a long term positive impact. Already with adidas’s movement, they saved 40 tonnes of plastic waste, just in the year the campaign was launched (2018).
Controversially H&M’s chief executive isn’t looking to be cooperative with the change in fast fashions direction. The chief executive has been known to like the amount of consumerism within today’s society. Here is a extract from a article quoting ‘Karl-Johan Persson’ chief executive of H&M. ‘Last month, he told Bloomberg that choosing to decrease one’s environmental footprint by buying less or by refraining from carbon-emitting activities would have “terrible social consequences.” Persson said. “At the same time, we must also continue to create jobs, get better healthcare and all the things that come with economic growth.” Whilst Pearson Is thinking about short term effects like the economic growth and consumerism, through the eye of providing jobs and financing the economy, he isn’t thinking about long term effects the fast fashion is producing.
In conclusion, Is fashion to blame for the environmental degradation? Is a powerful question, and one that cant be answered simplistically, but from my research I can conclude that a large portion of damage to global warming and damage to the world is a result of fast fashion. I conclude this because of the statistical facts that alone acknowledge the issue, 10% of the worlds years carbon emission is emitted from the fashion industry. As a whole the fashion industry has a complexed operation to change and overcome, starting with the initiation of sustainability.
05.01.2021
Contextual studies: Modernism- The impact of World War One and the Dada Movement
Introduction: People century- Killing fields (YouTube video.)
The video is a overlay of videos from world war one, showing the contrast of the primary and secondary impacts of the world war. “They become numbers in a war of numbers.” – Talking about the soldiers, this shows the insignificance their lives were as a soldier because of the mass number of men called up (70 million men from over 20 countries.)
Berlin: when the soldiers left home, everyone become very patriotic and the soldiers were treated highly (they were given flowers and cigarettes as they left.)
Britain: At the start of the war Britain was the only country that still relied on volunteers.
Key words: Democracy, Patriotic.
What is Dada- National Museum of Scotland
Avantgarde definition: New and experimental ideas and methods.
Dada is a anti-art movement looking at observed features. Dissolution, and the absence of meaning.
Avantgarde movement- Dada is a artistic movement, founded by Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, but also included other associates such as Hans Arp a french sculpture and Tristan Tzara a french Romanian Avantgarde poet.
The movement is primarily a reaction to the negative impact of war.
The movement was revolutionized with the idea of Anti-art.
A Dada magazine was created along with multiple exhibitions as a way of spreading their anti-War and anti-art ideas.
A very popular method of art in the Dada movement was collage, and photomontages with hidden movements, and combining political views.
In the 1920’s many artists in Paris gathered, and formulated ideas that would later on become surrealism, which initially bought the Dada movement to a end.
The movement was still very influential. Artists such as David Bowie went on to use it for album covers collaging lyrics and manipulating composition.
Dada Movement: Artist Research
Raoul Haussmann- The Art Critic 1919-20
The medium Raoul Hausmann worked in was Lithograph and printed paper on paper.
Hausmann was a original member of the Dada group, from his work we can see that his development of photomontage and protesting against political matters was a very key component to the Dada movement.
This piece of work uses photomontage to represent a very strong perspective of undermining cultural values and supporting anti-war art. The central figure is undermined by being completely out of scale, as the head is much large then any other component of the body. This figure is identified as George Grosz, who was the art reporter of the Dada movement. I personally feel this photomontage is illustrated with cartoon features, highlighted by the eyes and mouth, and the fact the figure is holding a pencil that appears enormous in comparison to him.
The method of distorting the completion of the figure and making it appear disproportionate was a method used to show that Haussmann thought that critics of the Data movements opinions were irrelevant.
Hannah Hoch- Cut with the Kitchen Knife 1919
The method used with in Hannah Hoch’s work is also photomontage along with drawing, she uses a much more busy and visually drastic approach in comparison to Haussmann’s Artwork. Hoch’s work is inspired by Pablo Picasso.
As a artist Hannah Hoch approached the medias articles and images and reinterpreted them, as a way of criticising the Weimar German Government. Her approach to the movement was very interpretational and she did not want the concept to be easily read, therefore she used much more metamorphic imagery, and confrontational text extracted from the German media, and gender issues relating to themes of feminism.
This sculpture sculpted by Marcel Duchamp, is a porcelain urinal, which was signed by R Mutt. This sculpture was entered into a exhibition in New York but due to its presentation and context was never displayed. Due to this the artwork was photographed and published, and since then the original artwork has been lost.
Because Marcel Duchamp didn’t personally sculpt his art work him self ‘Fountain’ is all about the image his work creates. ‘Acheiropoieton, meaning an image not shaped by the hands of a artist.’ Therefore, instantly the composition, and concept becomes very important, as this is what the artist focuses on communicating. The concept that Duchamp wanted to communicate was too de-deify the concept.
12.01.2021
Contextual Studies: Design
Task One: Describe a Design Object I use frequently
My Laptop
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Sleek
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Compact
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Charcoal Grey
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Visually complexed
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Rectangular
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Three- Dimensional
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Technology
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Electronic
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Light emitting
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Primary Source of research
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Portable
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Multi-functional
Task Two: Exploring the vocabulary of Design
Function: The working characteristics or manor something is operating in, in a proper or way.
The word function related to my laptop/ any laptop because they are very diverse and functional. A laptop is a compact, multiple-purpose electronic device and is widely use universally. I personally bought my laptop to complete schoolwork on, and it has every single function and more I need, from the performance software it has built into it such as google, windows 10 and more. To its storage and the way the laptop runs/ functions. Additionally, laptops can be used for so many other reasons; personal, entertainment, work, gaming and more, their functions are almost limitless.
Consumerism: The promotion of a consumers interested, for example. The businesses providing everything their consumer needs. In order for the service to be the highest performing possible.
Consumerism is related to my topic of ‘my laptop’ because technology is a highly performing industry of today, through many processes, one being consumerism. The consumerism of laptops alone has cause almost everyone universally to be reliant on the highest-techn available for purchase. Technology is one of the highest competing industries, because the consumers are always looking for more, and better models/ software. #
A statistic shows, globally we spend about 1 trillion US dollars on technology a year.
Task Three: Design in A nutshell- Arts and Crafts YouTube Video
Arts and crafts the movement
1863: People became fed up with machines (in the steam age.)
Steam-age: The introduction of the steam age means mechanisation was introduced to two main industries: agriculture and transportation.
The induction of this meant things were being produced a lot easier than before the industrial- revolution, and these effects of mass production were being shown.
The arts and crafts Movement: This was a movement caused by the industry- revolution and the beginnings of mass production, and its negative impact. William Morris was the man who lead the movement, a poet and artist. His biggest concerns were that is was removing all creativity and skill from society.
William Morris went on the create a company; Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and co, to continue the trend of skilled production. They produced Wallpaper, furniture, carpets and stained glass.
The movement promoted crafts people and under appreciated work people.
In a way the movement has never ended, as Today we still love getting handmade goods. Despite the fact we now rely on technology.
Task Four: Political Theory William Morris YouTube Video
William Morris was a 1900 century poet and artist.
Morris was the first individual to notice two important aspects of the world.
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The nature of consumerism
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The role of pleasure in work
William Morris trained as a architect, but after completing this he was more interested in creating good for his own satisfaction and friends.
One of Morris’s projects as a architect was designing his family home, he created everything by hand with the help of a close friend, also a architect. While doing so he realised it would have been quicker to buy everything ready made or from a factory, but this wasn’t the point. He wanted satisfaction that he had created everything using skill and time.
Industrialisation conditions were horrendous working conditions. Therefore, he wanted to show that creating everything personally and using the new arts and craft movement the working conditions could be much better, and the works would get a lot more satisfaction from it. This ideas meant that he would have to create his business, setting up a elegant and quality over quantity products that were all hand made through skill.
William Morris’s business encountered a problem; The industrial revolution. Mass production was created meaning that other factories were creating quicker products at a lower price. This was because the work wasn’t produced to as good of standards and didn’t need the same personal skill.
Th just price: if customers are willing to pay for good quality hand made items.
Morris believed consumers needed to understand what they wanted and how they expected to care for it.
He believed you should have nothing in your house you don’t believe you need to be beautiful, and that hand made products should be bought sparingly.
26.01.2021
Contextual studies: Design issues by exploring the Bauhaus
Bauhaus was a German art school, that run from 1919 to 1933. The Bauhaus influenced individuals for its modernised architecture and creative studio spaces.
Design in a Nutshell Bauhaus YouTube Video
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Bauhaus means house of construction translated from German.
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Bauhaus school was revolutionary for art schools, as traditionally during the period the school was running, art schools focused on one typical component of art for example: fine art, design, architecture. Where as Bauhaus, allowed students to explore various during their time studying, allowing variety.
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The Bauhaus was shut down by the Nazis.
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Before being shut down the school was credited to be one of the best art schools in the world, it created minimalist thoughts and processes innovated by their students, which was something new during this time. Simplicity and geometric purity was largely used.
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Influenced pieces of work originally from Bauhaus can be seen today, some examples include road signs, large buildings, graphic design and more.
My thumbnail sketch:
Whilst looking at images of the great architecture involved in the process of building Bauhaus, number of things stand out to me.
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The simplistic and minimalist colour scheme used of the body of the building, light monochrome tones such as grey and white are used with black detailing for the windows, this makes the building complement its size and emphases some features.
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The large scale of windows: My initial thought when seeing Bauhaus, was how many windows are built into the architecture, allowing as much natural light in as possible, which is a important feature for art studios. But in a design perspective, the windows detailing draws attention, the black framing, emphases this more.
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The minimalist design of the buildings layout is also beautiful, the long rectangular buildings all aline to a central point.
Bauhaus Design is Everywhere but its roots are political Quartz YouTube Video
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Typefaces were considered a bold political act originated from Bauhaus.
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Bauhaus wanted to transform German society after the war left Germany In ruins.
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Th Nazi party used a typeface with in their messages called: Fraktur ‘ the true German font’. Therefore, this became a recognisable for of Nazi messages.
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After the war Bauhaus wanted to start from scratch for German society. A group of German citizens created a association, of which the Bauhaus was created from.
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Their idea of starting fresh for German society began with creating a new typography font, a more simplistic and visually clean font.
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The Nazis hates their new products and fount it untraditional which it was. Bauhaus was politically charging, so the Nazis shut the school down.
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The legacy of Bauhaus then fled Germany and spread the legacy and idea around the world, which was very successful.
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Bauhaus’s new typography began to be used for commercial adverts, all around the world. Enhancing the impact of capitalism.
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The Bauhaus’s ideas were meant to be interpreted and reinterpreted.
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The concept of Bauhaus, wasn’t about the design or fashion it was about the renewal and philosophy.
The research of typefaces was conducted by Herbert Bayer in 1927, at Bauhaus.
The typeface was created to take the traditional aspect from the original German typeface ‘Fraktur’ and create a new fresh font. Not only was the revolutionary and went on to be used commercially and still be used today. But at the time it was also politically charging. As changing Germanys traditional font was seen as disrespectful and resulted in Bauhaus being shut down by the Nazi’s.
The fonts design is geometric and simplistic. In order to make the letter forms geometrical the creator used a compass, as you can see, some were retouched (g,k).
02.02.2021
Art Deco and Popular modernism
Art Deco initiated as a attempt to reinforce French culture, and restored goods after the effects of World War 1. The name came from ‘International Exhibition of modern Decorative Arts’ which was held in Paris in 1925.
Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby 2013 YouTube Trailer
The Great Gatsby is a popular example for the style of art deco and the particular genera it was partaking in (1920.)
Example of art Deco styling: Graphic design
L’Atlantique ship poster, created by Cassandre.
The style of Art Deco, was to use a geometric style and pattern, utilising parallel lines and using symmetry.
Visually I think this ship poster is simplistic to look at, and instantly you know what is being communicated, through the use of block tones, and a small colour pallet. The angle that the ship is captured at created one bold vertical line, which is the main focus of the poster, due to its off central positioning and large scale in comparison to the rest of the posters components. Additionally the block black tone used on the ship, adds a sleek component to the poster.
Research of Tamara Lempicka
Tamara Lempicka is a artist who explores the style of Art Deco. One of her art works was a self-portrait, which was later commissioned to be the cover of a German magazine, and it symbolises women’s liberation. The media Tamara de Lempicka worked was paint, she was a traditional easel painter through out the whole of the art deco style.
The main concept of her work was to capitalise any social connections and desire from her paintings, which she aimed to create a niche effect.
09.02.2021
Surrealism
What is surrealism?
Surrealism was a movement influences by cultural values. It explored the matters of the unconscious mind, in some states juxtaposing images. Surrealism also contradicts dream like art and the reality, making it super- reality.
Andre Brenton was a French writer and poet. He was also a trainee, treating soldiers from WW1, with shell shock (post-traumatic stress disorder.) During his time of treating the soldiers Brenton became familiar with Sigmond Freud’s ideas.
Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, which was a way for treating mental illness, and it was also a theory which explained the process and reasoning for human behaviours. Freud thought that behaviours can be taught through nurture and childhood, which then have a impact on our adult hood.
Salvador Dali Images:
Salvador Dali was one of the most famous members of the surrealist movement.
The Persistence of Memory 1931 (MOMA New York)
Painting by Salvador Dali.
The concept of ‘persistence of memory’ Is thought to be about a dream he had. He used methods of symbolism to portray aspects of his dream and possible fears of his own.
The painting shows distorted clocks, a hard object that has become distorted through appearing to loose their solid state. This is thought to show a sense of time passing. There are also ants in the images that portray a fear of Salvador Dali’s subconscious mind.
The Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937 (Tate)
Painting by Salvador Dali.
This painting depicts the idea of a Greek myth ‘Narcissus’. The myth was initiated from the son of God Cephissus. The son was noticed for his beauty, and he was later told that he would have a long life if he recognised himself. Salvador Dali painted Narcissus, viewing his self in a reflection, which was a punishment inflicted by a god for Narcissus’s ways. The context behind Salvador Dali painting this was for him to explore the psychoanalytic theory, through Narcissism, and the theory of Paranoia.
What is Surrealism? Art Movements and Styles YouTube Video
Surrealism began in Literature in 1924.
Surrealism rose from the movement of the Dada.
The surrealism movement was about the ideas of unlogic natures, and a psychological idea of the mind.
Decalcomania was used by George Hugnet, revealing images that could be read in multiple ways through the way a person mind views them.
Toyen was a surrealist, who explored gender as she wore men’s working clothes and is still a massive leader of this idea. She explored fragmented female ideas.
Automatism is a word which refers to beliefs of the unconscious mind and behaviours. These are though to last for several minutes.
Surrealists believed, Art should come from the unconscious mind.
11.02.2021
Modern Masters: Salvador Dali YouTube Video
Modern art influences a lot around us within todays culture and day to day industries: architecture, books, literature, fashion and more.
The persistence of Time: Is currently in New York, in the modern museum of Art.
Salvador Dalis Early life
Dali was born in Spain, in 1904. His father was very disciplinary, therefore wasn’t supportive of his like for art. Where as his mother encouraged it, as she saw it as a interest and skill.
Dali’s was a very extravagant loud character, who liked attention. His childhood paintings show true talent, his talent is thought to be influences from the beautiful environment he grew up in, around amazing coastal beaches and architecture.
Looking at Dali’s life, I wasn’t until a little later on that the anxieties he was facing and felt became apparent in his work. His later paintings show a darker side, with a emotive timid theme. His painting show themes of being lonely and fear of his mothers illness.
Dalis Later Years
He moved to Madrid to study art, where he grew out of his shell and wasn’t shy any more. Giving him lots of self belief.
Dali was in his early twenties when he heard about a group in Paris, creating experimental work. Who later began the Surrealists, creating the surrealism movement, launched by Andre Breton. It began in response to WW1, and the psychological theories based on our subconscious mind.
Dali wanted to express fears, desires, anxieties and obsessions. An example of his work include ‘ The persistence of time.’ Through out the process of Dali exploring Surrealism he discovered a technique, ‘ The paranoic critical method.’ Which was based on Sigmund Freuds psychological theory.
What does the paranoic critical method mean?
Paranoia. Dali saw paranoia as a mechanism with in the construction of normality. Exploring perception and distortion, exploring illusion. Which he then manipulated this concept and created are that had two way of being perceived (with two different images.) Therefore, he way trying to interpret what is the correct way to view art? Emphasising interpretation in different ways, and how the world around us is interpreted. Commonly Dali drew landscaped in coastal areas, observing rocks and the sea, he used these landscapes to create these illusions. With the help of angle, light, time and interpretation.
‘The Great Masturbatory’
Is a very famous example of Salvador Dali using his method of the paranoic critical method to interpret the world around us.
The painting was inspired by a rock. The painting depicts the insecurities, sexual desires and phobias Salvador Dali was facing. Overall the image is initially interpreted to be surreal but still make visual sense, but the closer you look the more it starts to become less ordinary and contains more the what first meets the eye, in a complexed way.
The perception of the painting is almost dream like. With the use of imagery displaying all of his anxieties and phobia, manipulating scale, and colour. Some of the depicted theme include, a grass hopper, ants, a dragons face, a sexual theme of male and female interaction.
The original painting is currently in Madrid.
In Dali’s reworked his paintings and his interpretations of his own mind and created a film. Called Un Chein Andalou, translating to An Andalusian Dog. The short film is silent, and was produced to have a surrealist effect, leaving no story or concept for the viewers. The short film was very gruesome. After being released the film was widely enjoyed.
Dali met his wife ‘Gala’ in 1929. Gala became Dalis manage and later became the subject of many of his paintings. In Salavador Dalis home he used very particular tools, and a large scale easel used against the wall that allowed Dali to paint his large scaled, some being even as tool as the walls in his home. His home studio gave his art the energy it needed, the large scale windows enable mass light to enter the room and allowed Dali to view the beautiful landscapes from all around his studio.
1930- Salvador Dali’s interest in surreal object
Dali began to experiment with surreal object and structure and he created some unual sculptured by combining two contrasting every day objects. An example of one of these creations was the ‘Lobster Telephone.’
Edward James was a patron for Salvador Dali, and other surrealist artists. Therefore he commissioned many of Dali’s artworks. This telephone was made to be working, and Edward James had it in his room and it was used.
New York
During Dali’s later years he visited New York, which is where a lot of his art work is displayed, along with Dalis ideas for multiple shop windows and making a surreal instillation called ‘The dream of Venus’. Therefore he wanted the publicity to showcase his ideas and work.
New York is where Dali discovered his love for attention, and he loved being in the publicity and audience eyes. He became subject of Times magazine while in New York, and he also created his own magazine called The Dali News.
Dali later worked with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Where they both explored unconventional designs and playing with the concept of convention.
With in todays world, surrealism is something that has become vastly used with in fashion and high street shops. Celebrities such as Lady Gaga still present surrealist fashion highly.
After exploring fashion Dali went onto manipulating jewellery, creating broaches with visually creative ideas. Some representing bodily features using different gems. One of with represented lips, using ruby stones for the red plump lips and pearls for the teeth.
Salvador Dali’s impact on Surrealism
Despite Dali’s huge impact on the Surrealism movement and his explorative master pieces in fashion, jewellery, interior, design and painting, Aundre Bretton. Founder of the movement wasn’t convinced by Dali’s contribution to the movement. He believed Dali’s intentions to be fake and his interest to really lie with the money his work was making him. So much so Bretton created an anagram station ‘Avida Dollars’ transformed from ‘Salvador Dali’ with the concept stating greedy for money.
After Dali’s banishment from the surrealism moment by owner Andre Bretton, Salvador Dali didn’t care. Therefore, he continued creating obscure work, even illustrating Hitler which caused great offence. Continuing with his ‘natural’ surreal nature he then moved onto Hollywood, where Dali wanted to approach mainstream creative platform which was the cinema.
Dali produced the surreal backdrops and helped illustrate the nature of dreams and their vividness. Additionally, he also achieved great promotion for the publicity of new releasing film.
02.02.2021
Abstract Expressionism: Introduction
The Art Assignment- The Case for Abstraction YouTube Video Notes
Abstract expressionism was a art form recognised in the 1940’s in New York City despite many artists painting in a abstract way before this. The aim of the movement was to express emotion and a unfamiliar creative art. (Oxford Languages, https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+abstract+expressionism&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB935GB935&oq=what+is+abstract+expressionism+&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l9.12423j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 .)
When the industrial revolution began and artists started perceiving normal objects as unrecognisable object, abstract expressionism began.
In the 1920’s ‘Matisse’ began to pain familiar things but in unfamiliar ways, by using bold colours and expressive brush strokes.
‘Wassily Kandinsky’ “…what the sector lives or feels while under the effect of the form and colour combinations of the picture.” ( Wassily Kandinsky, YouTube, July 29 2016.)
Kandinsky’s description of abstraction, he believed abstraction was realism.
Despite abstraction not being officially recognised until 1920s to the 1940s, artist ‘Hilma Af Clint’ was painting in a abstract style from as early as 1905, her inspiration cam from communicating with spirts and exploring science.
‘Robert Delaunay’ wife ‘Sonia Delaunay’ combined abstraction and typography.
After the outbreak of WW1 many artist styles changed, artist Paul Clays work began to be more abstract and he said as a soldier serving “…the more horrifying this world becomes the more abstract art becomes.” (Paul Clay, YouTube, July 29 2016.) Following on from the War artists including Paul Clay taught at the Bauhaus School.
Abstraction is still a productive method of artists style today, but with a different approach. Artists of today work in recycling and reinterpreting forms of the original state, but it still questions ‘What is classed as art?.’
Barnett Newman produced a series of paintings presenting bold colours and vertical lines. Called ‘Zip Paintings.’ The images above is a example of his ‘Zip’ series. The combination of the two contrasting colours, which are of similar tones create intense power and emotive communication. Personally I think the contrast of each colours portion of the painting is conceptually powerful, and portrays the composition as bare and vastly open to negative space. ( Ideel Art, November 25 2016 https://www.ideelart.com/magazine/barnett-newman .) (Art Wizard, 02.12.2019 https://artwizard.eu/the-zipper-colors-of-barnett-newman-ar-49.)
During the time of Barnett Newman producing his art, critics did not like his work.
The case for Jackson Pollock- The Art Assignment You Tube Video Notes
In 1947 Jackson Pollock, started being expressive with paint, by dripping and splatting paint all over the canvas.
In 1930 Jackson Pollock went to New York to pursue his interest in art, and studies art. During this tie Jackson Pollock studies native American art, along with European modernism and Picasso.
In 1940’s Pollock began to make paintings with the concept of the unconscious mind, where he first began to experiment with drip art.
Pollocks first big break was in 1942, where his work was selected for a show in the New York, Arts of the centre. From this show Pollocks art created a positive effect, and many loved his work. Pollocks work was described as tribal and rhythmic.
9.03.2021
Contextual Studies: Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol- Marilyn Diptch 1962
To produce this repetitive selection of portrait illustrations Andy Warhol used Ink, with the method of silk-screening and acrylic paint. This method of medium is very popular for Andy Warhol. ‘Marilyn Diptch’ as a piece of art is visually busy and contrasting The balance of positive and negative space creates a balanced and flat surface for the audience to observe, allowing them to choose their visual pathway personally. Additionally, the contrast of left and right colour and two tone illustrations, creates a busy composition. I feel this works well, because as a overall piece the work naturally appears flat, due to the block colours and segments created through silk screening. My favourite aspect of ‘Marilyn Diptch’ is the natural imperfections to the work that Andy Warhol has left in, leaving the process and expression in the work has created texture and enhances the interest I have personally in the work. This is shown mainly on the right black and white side. From the method Andy Warhol used the individual portraits hold different emotion and expression due to the contrast in tones and the volumes of negative and positive space.
The Case for Andy Warhol: The Art Assignment YouTube Video Notes
After living with His family until his late teenage years, Andy Warhol moved to New York where he began his art career being a illustrator, during this time he perfected his style of ‘the blotted line technique’ while tracing and copying drawings for illustrations. After his time working with illustration, he wanted to work on something more interesting and eye catching, so he started making advertisement art, and using daily objects to create art, which is how ‘pop-art’ began. Warhol started playing with colour and contrast, repetition, and series to later be the reason for his most famous pieces of art today. Warhol began by using rubber stamps and stencils, but soon after began using silkscreen, as this allowed him to reprint one images as many times as he liked.
One concept that Andy Warhol focused his work on was the culture around him, and then environment of New York. This concept included, Fame, commercialisation and uniformity.
Reference:
The Case For Andy Warhol, The art Assignment, Youtube. ( May 28,2015.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VH5MRtk9HQ [ Accessed 09.03.2021]#
