February 10, 2010. 20th Century Art.

Key Points:

• “Plakastil” or “Poster Style” emerged in Germany early 20th century.
• “Sachplakate”, “object poster” developed in Switzerland, had a reductive “flat color” design.
• Cubism made things more unrealistic
• The use of symbolism in cubism, rather than actual object rendering, was what made cubism special.
• Lucian Bernhard set the ground work for distinct professional identities such as logos.
• Automobiles became popular
• “Plakastil” developed into a tool for propaganda, especially during WWII.
• Allies focused on mythical realism and unity through effort, Axis was more focused on direct, simple, shapes and patterns for symbolism.
• Ludwig Hohlwein was skilled at expressing emotions through a natural style, plakastil master.
• Futurim was a nehilistic form of communication. 
• Semiology was put in the social sciences.
• Lewis Carol’s book, Alice in Wonderland (1886) worked with experimental typography to convey the story.
• Simulteneity -- text playing several roles at once. Both visual and verbal.
• Anta Karl made a very experimental and expressive piece called The Bats Meow, in which the letters for ‘Meow’ were used to form the shape of a kitty.
• Iconoclastic -- Attacks settled beliefs or institutions. 
• DADA developed iconoclastic imagery, which was vert experimental in the sense that they used mediums such as photocollage to convey their messages.
• Fine artist Duchamp was very influential in the world of graphic design because his art encouraged graphic designers to become experimental with different mediums.
• DADA despised conventions and traditional role of art.
• John Heartfield and Kurt Schwitters produced many photocollages, even though Heartfield was more political, and Schwitters saw the concept as simply art.
• MERZ generated much interest in emerging Holland and Russian movements.
• Avant Garde, Surrealism developed, and was more a visual expression of emotions and thoughts of the subconscious than actual portrayal of normal objects.
• Automatism -- A pure psychic exercise often used by surrealists.
• Man Ray was influential in the area of modern photographic expression, and created surreal art with photography.

The lecture today was primarily focused on 20th century art and uses, and their influence on graphic design. The designs shown from the WWII era were useful in the sense that they portrayed a lot about the cultures themselves -- their preferred communication. This teaches that simply looking at contemporary propaganda art and design can convey a message about the culture it’s created in, and therefore provides a powerful tool for cultural awareness. The Axis powers were mostly concerned with the direct portrayal, and strong, bold, symbols and shapes, the Allies were more concerned with ideological portrayal -- I thought this was very interesting. It also taught how modern art has developed into its liberal expression it conveys now, rather than following exact structures as it has in the past centuries. What else can we learn about other cultures and history through the examination of their art?