While “design history” did not begin as a subject until the 1970’s, we can go back to the 1800’s to observe the emergence of industrial design and design practice. Beginning in the 1800’s the Industrial revolution created a new need for designers as engineers. It also created a new division between the hand made and the mass made.
Art Nouveau was a reaction by artists during the industrial revolution from 1890-1905 with illustration continuing longer in the style. Machines were dominating and producing a new machine aesthetic. Art Nouveau was an international movement that aimed to include representations of the natural world. Important to Art Nouveau included drawings, objects and architecture which is why it is an important starting place for what we now know as design.
Art Nouveau drawing, George Barbier, apx. 1905
Victor Horta, Hotel Tassel, Belgium, 1894
Just following the European trend of Art Nouveau many creators were also part of what was called the “arts and crafts movement” from 1905-35. American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in a relationship to the natural but favored geometrics and rectilinear forms. The low ceilings and mid-west location was called the Prairie style.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Kauffman House, “Falling Water,” 1935
According to Peter Bürger's now classic book, Theory of the Avant-Garde, between 1915-1945 there were avant-garde movements with artists who rejected machine production as well as the academic “fine arts.” They aimed to create new art. While we now use the word avant-garde to describe any progressive art, the historic avant-garde includes specific European artsits like Marcel Duchamp and his readymades was part of the group of Dada, and the Surrealists created everything from rare objects to clothing.
Marcel Duchamp, LHOOQ (Elle a chaud au cul) 1919
Man Ray, Object to be Destroyed, 1923 (destroyed, replica as Indestructible Object, 1958)
Meret Oppenheim, Object, 1936
Salvador Dali and Edward James, Lobster Phone, 1936
Constructivism was a Russian art movement that rejected art for arts sake. The intention was to create sculptures, photos, and communication design that advanced the ideology of Communism.
Unknown poster design and Alexander Rodchenko, photo 1924
De Stijl was a Dutch movement meaning “the style,” founded in 1917. It included painter Mondrian, designer Theo van Doesburg and others. Their goal was to create a utopian ideal in harmony and unity of all things. But rather than represent the natural appearance of things, the goal was to perfectly represent the abstraction. The creators often used reductive geometric forms and primary colors.
The best known movement of this era however was Bauhaus led by Walter Gropius in Germany from 1919-1933. Bauhaus just means “building school” and was a technical teaching or trade school. The main idea was for “people's necessities, not luxuries,” for the “total work of art” bringing all aspects of design together. The school included art, architecture, interior design and communication design. Many important designers taught at the school but due to the war it was forced to close.
•1919, Founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimer based on Marxist principles
•1925, Bauhaus moves to Dessau and Swiss architect Hannes Meyer takes over, emphasizing architecture and communism
•Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe takes over in 1930, and prevents followers of Meyer and moves school to Berlin
•Nazi regime closes school in 1933
•In 1937 Maholy-Nagy starts the “New Bauhaus” in Chicago which becomes the Illinois Institute of Design
Walter Gropius, Bauhaus building, 1919-1925
Marcel Breuer, Wassily Chair, 1925
Herbert Bayer created Universal font with no upper case for use by all Bauhaus, 1925
The last leader of the Bauhaus was Mies van der Rohe. Mies (as he was best known), pushed for an architectural revolution of exterior and interior design that he called “skin and bones.” He aimed for a perfectly clean and vacant space that has come to dominate the collective consciousness of what modern design should look like. He was known for the mottos “less is more” and “God is in the details.” Mies was especially influential because he worked both in Europe in the US. After the war he re-located to Chicago. His significant projects in the U.S. include the residential towers of 860-880 Lake Shore Dr, the Federal Center, the Farnsworth House, Crown Halland other structures at IIT, all in and around Chicago, and the Seagram Building in New York.
Above Barcelona chair, photo by Carlos Lorenzo
German Pavillon in Barcelona, 1929
Another person very important to early 20th century design and idealist movements is Le Corbusier. Unlike the other designers, Corbusier was very independent and worked alone. He was a Swiss designer who worked with architecture, interiors, the arts and urban planning. There are many structures in France designed by Le Corbusier, such as nearby Villa Savoye. Smilar to Mies, Corbusier concentrated on the minimalist functional aesthetic to an extreme degree. Corbusier was known for the motto “begin again at zero,” and suggesting that the entire world should be re-designed. He was guided by very specific personal principles for architecture and furniture.
Villa Savoye, 1929
Continue reading Design History II
No comments:
Post a Comment