History Sketchbook, Narrowing Down to One

Art Nouveau

Qualities of the Art Nouveau Style

• Asian influence




• Large animated figures




• Unity of images, words and space

I enjoyed the works of Jules Chrett and Eugene Grasset. Chrett is known as the "father of modern poster" for his works, and I believe that name fits. I enjoyed to look at Orphee Aux Enfers (1879, fig 11-8) There is alot going on in this poster, it keeps my eyes busy, however it is not too much. The first thing I see is the person on the left and then my eye follows through the rest of the poster. Grassets work of the chapter title page and text page from Histoire Des Quatre Fils Aymon (1883, fig 11-13) interested me as well. I like how he made the image seperate the text, it is a new take on something that has been done. It also shows a different take on Art Nouveau, in my opinion.

Example of Art Nouveau

(outside the book)

Poster for "Paris Dances" at the Joyous Moulin Rouge, Paris
Giclee Print

http://artfiles.art.com

Victorian Era

Qualities of this Style

• Theme of religious beliefs


• optimisim


• Gothic


• Prints of children, maidens, puppies, and flowers


• Nostalgia


• Traditional values

Impetus for this Design Movement

• The Victorian designers wanted to find a way to show their "epoch" through design. A new consciousness during the Industrial Revolution portrays the traditional family values of that time.

Example of Victorian

(Not from the book)

ca. 1890 --- Trade Card of a Terrier Photographer --- Artist unknown

http://www.pictopia.com/

Responce to 3/26 Class Discussion

This, I thought, was influenced by the Arts & Crafts Revolution., Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers by Frank Lloyd Wright. It has the handcrafted, intricate detail that the Arts & Craft movement valued. Also it is stained glass.

One of the interesting topics we discussed was about the Luddites. It was interesting to see that there were people against the Industrial Revolution. Luddites were anti-technology, wanting things to stay as they are. These people would beat the machines with a bat, which now sounds absurd and almost funny. Thinking about today and how we are always making advances in technology, its hard to think that people were actually against this because the Industrial Revolution brought inventions that we still use today.

One question I had was about the public at this time. Did they prefer what the Industrial Revolution gave them or the products of the Arts & Crafts movement?

Arts & Crafts Movement

Qualities of the Arts & Crafts Movement

• Legibility



• Brings back the Gothic style



• Symbols were printed with bright colors using wood blocks



• Intricate



• Disgards mass production



• Hand made

Impetus for Design Movement

• Because of the Industrial Revolution the quality production and design were replaced by mass production. William Morris saw the problem with "tastlessness" of the mass produced and wanted to bring back the craftsmenship and combine once again the craft and art.

2 Important Designers

• William Pickering- The Element of Euclid (1847) This was important to geometry with his use of color coding.



• Arthur H Mackmurds- Wren's City Churches (1833) High quality in design

Example of the Arts & Crafts Movement

(Outside the book)

This picture is of a wallpaper design by William Morris. This is an example of how the concentration of Arts & Crafts was in the intricute detail, floral forms, and this was done by hand, not machine.

History Sketchbook Assignment

Industrial Revolution

• The Industrail Revolution (1760-1840), starting in England, was a time of "radical" process of social and economic change. This revolution started with the perfection of the steam engine, by James Watt. Steam power was replacing engery perviously done by using human and animal power. As materials such as iron and steel, factories became more machine driven. Cities were expanding and as a result more people were looking for factory jobs. Costs were lowered by mass production and the demand rose as a result. People now wanted material goods made in factories and the want for handicrafts disappeared.


• 2 Typographical innovations during the Industrail Revolution were, the innovation of the "fat face" and the Sans-seriff. The "fat face" was introduced by Robert Throne and Thomas Cotterell. The innovation was in the contrast in the weight, it was changed in the thickness of each stroke. Sans-seriff was the second innovation. This later became important to graphic design in the 20th century.


• Most types were made from metal, which was not practical. Darius Wells started to make the types from a wood cut, which is now known as Wood Type Poster. These were less expensive, easier to move and just as strudy as the types made from metal. The public could create their own font, give it to the printer since new fonts could easlity be done with the wood cut type. However, posters that were created with the wood type had mixed fonts because they had a limited amount of letters in the font.


• Applegath and Cowper were one of the first printing presses to use a steam press. Newspapers and magazines began using the steam powered press because it was more efficiant than a hand press. The steam powered press could make 32 prints for every 1 done by a hand press. The cost of printing was lowered and speeds increased.


• Joseph Niepce was the first to produce a photographic image. He was looking for a way of putting drawings onto a printing plate. Niepce coated a pewter sheet with bitumen of Judea and placed it in the back of his camera obscura and pointed it towards nature. He left it exposed all day and then washed the pewter sheet with lavender oil, which showed a captured picture, which was blurry or hazy. The first photograph was in 1826, it was a picture of Niepce's house.


• At the end of reading this chapter I thought that image 9-34 was the most intreiguing. It is the picture taken by Julia Margaret Cameron, "Sir John Herschel" (1867). The detail of his face is amazing considering that photography was still in its infant stage. Looking at this picture, the viewer can see all the wrinkles and small hairs on his face.


• This picture, taken by Peter Bower, shows good quality. The foreground is in excellent focus, while the sunsetting in the background is as well.