The Development of Abstruct Art

The earliest style of abstruct art was found in signs, markings even pottery, textiles and inscriptions and paintings. These were simple geometric and linear forms which might reveal a symbolic or decorative purpose. It was this type of art which began visual abstruct art, for example; you can enjoy the beauty of chinese calligraphy and Islamic Calligraphy without being able to read it.

There are three art movements which contributed to the coming of abstruct art, these were Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism.

Some of the abstract artists are; Kazimir Malevich and Henri Matisse.

Malevich was a russian painter and art theoretician, in 1913 he start to create some of his first geometric patterns in a style he called suprematise. He later began painting in a post-impressionist manner with a hint of cubism as well as futurism in his art work.

Malevich's black square was one of his most bold and striking art piece's, below you can see the ark work.

My thoughts on this are that I believe he was try to be daring and it worked, this was daring not just for him but also for the public.

Henri Matisse is a french painter known for his use of colour, he was a master draughtersman, printmaker and sculptor. Matisse is regarded, with picasso as the greatest artist of the 20th century. He was concided to be part of the fauvism movement. However, in the 1920s he was hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in french painting.

One of his most famous paintings is called 'The Dance', Below is the art work.

Art Deco

Art Deco was introduced in the 1920's and reigned through the 1930's, encompassing both the roroaring twenties and the great depression. It was and elegant style of decorative art and acrhitecture, you could say that they improved the idea of Art Nouveau with more modern sophistication. Art Deco focus's on sleek straight lines and an element of boldness so there decoration and architecture would stand out, however, some people felt that this was a bit too alraming espiecally through the great depression. The Art Deco movement affected city styles, architecture like I've already mentioned, high fashion jewelry and interior design.
The term Art Deco was not created until the 1960's by Bevis Hillier a british historian.

Some Art Deco architecture you would recorgnise would be the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building.

From Left To Right: Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building:

Some artists who were part of the Art Deco movement were Jean Dupas and Raymond Hood.

Born in 1882 in bordeaux, Jean Theodore Dupas was a French painter, designer and decorator whose work is considered the utmost example of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Dupas worked in various exponents of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco areas. His famous qoutes writes "The greater if my, the happy I am", he collaborated in the decor of famous steamships during the 1930's where he emphasized the Art Deco style of that time. Some of his work would have been seen on the SS lle-de-France and the SS Liberte, these two ships were among the first to have him design the interiors, Dupas later went on to design and decorate the grand salon on the Normandie.

Here is an image of the first salon of the SS lle-de-France.

Here is and exterior of the SS Liberte as I couldn't find an interior of the grand salon but you could image that it wouldn't be to far from what the SS lle-de-france would look.

Reymond Mathewson Hood was an early-mid twentieth century architect who worked in the Art Deco style. He was educated at Brown University, MIT and the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in paris. He met a one John Mead Howells, with whom he would work with in later years.

Some Of His works were the Tribune Tower in Chicago, the Daily News Building in New York (this building is also a model for the 'Daily Planet' where Clark Kent AKA Superman worked) and also the Rockefeller Center in New York as well.

From left to right, Tribune Tower, Daily News Building, Rockefeller Center:

Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau movement occured in that late 19th century from about 1894 to 1914, and was represented in Europe as well as in the United States. In Each Continet "Art Nouveau" had a different meaning and identity, artists were often piqued against each other in defing the art period. Art Nouveau is the avant-garde movement of the period.

Art Nouveau artists wished to blur the lines between famous and minor artists, and unifying all arts and also unifying art with everday human life, in essence, the art of the period became part of the architectureand jewelry in an attempt to combine life and art.

One artist who was part of the Art Nouveau movement was Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt was a Austrian symbolist painter. Klimts primary subject was of the female body, he explored the themes of beauty, eroticism, life and death through his subjects. He was one of the most innovative and controversial artists of the early 20th century.

Here are some of Klimt's works of art:

This Piece of work by Klimt is called 'Beethoven Frieze' as you can see Klimt focus's on the female body, this painting was displayed in 1902.

This is klimt's works of art, this painting is called 'The Kiss', yet again we can see that Klimt is focusing on female as well as the male figure in this artwork, he is also focus's on human emotions as we can clearly see.

The Arts & Crafts Movement

The arts & crafts movement was a British, Canadian, American and American aesthetic movement occuring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Inspired by the writer John Ruskin who idolized craftsmen and how they would make something so authentic and pure with there own two hands with no machines used in the process.

The arts & crafts movement was a reformist movement which brought about architecture, decorative arts and cabinet arts. The movement also influenced likes of William Morris, Frank Lloyde Wright and also The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which was also part of the post-impressionism movement.

William Morris was an English architect, furniture, textile designer and also a writer, he was also part of The Pre-Rapaelite Brotherhood. Morris wrote as well as published his own works, his most famous book is called 'The Defence Of Guenevere And Other Poems" and his other book was called "The Earthly Paradise". Although Morris was part of the Pre-Rapaelites in his college years he was greatly influenced by them before he joined their brotherhood, he was also in fluenced by John Ruskin, Thomas Marloy and by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Morris letter started to develop his philosophy of rejecting industry manufactured decorative art he won't art to be hand made.

Here are two images of his fabaric works:

This First image is of Morris's 'Cabbage and vine Tapestry' this was one of the first tapaestries woven at kelmscott house in the summer of 1879.

This is his fabric woven design, it was a 'Tulip and Willow' design it was printed in 1873.

As you can see from the William Morris ark works he put in a lot of detail and time into his works.

African Influences on modern artists

Today I will be talking about how african art influenced some the late and modern artists of today.

During the early 1900's, the aesthetics of the traditional african sculpture became a powerful influence among european artists who formed an avant-grade in the development of modern art. In France, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and their school of paris friends blended the highly stylized treatment of the human figure in african sculptures with painting styles derived from the post-impressionist works of Cezanne and Gauguin.

Here are some of Matisse works:

This Painting is called 'The Young Sailor", its an oil painting and as you can see matisse exadurated the eyes which african sculptures would have influenced him to do this.

This Painting is called "Snow Flowers" Matisse used watercolour and gouache on cut and pasted paper. As you can see this he may have tryed capturing the image of a snowflake.

Here are some of Pablo Picasso's works which where influenced by african art:

This painting is called "Gertrude Stein" Picasso started painting this in 1906 and as you can see from the eyes being dispropossioned he decided to paint the person as they where, so which ever angle he look at them from would be the angle he painted.

This painting is called "Bust Of A Man" Picasso worked on this from 1908, yet again you can se the resemblence from the african art works from the way he painted the eyes to mouth even the nose you could really sence the remblence in this piece of work.

Here we see another example of Picasso's attempts to capture in his own minds eye the african art form. as you see in the sculpture above Picasso chose to sculpt a woman from this wood. He named this piece "Womans Head".