Researched Blog of Art-Contextual and Cultural Referencing in Art and Design
- Joe Kelly
- Apr 4, 2017
- 14 min read
BRIEF EVALUATION ON 2015-16 ASSIGNMENT PROGRESS
In 2015, I was assigned to do an assignment based on Contextual and Cultural Referencing in Art and Design as part of my Graphic Design course, understanding the meaning of social, psychological, cultural, historical and commercial factors that underpin visual arts theory and practice across the spectrum of subject specialisms.
The outcomes of this unit was to take up in-depth research into art movements such as the Weimar Republic, Bauhaus and Pop Art as well as write up an illustrated essay on the Weimar Republic, this is where it all went wrong for me in this unit.
Over the few years before I was assigned to do this project, I carried out research on many tasks and was accepted with the flying colours, but this research that I had to carry out in this assignment was to be taken to a whole NEW level for me, it had to be backed up by a style called Harvard Referencing, which was completely and utterly new to me at that stage, I did not know how to have gone about it there and then.
This in my opinion was how I ended up getting a pass for this unit as most of the research carried out was the fact that I referenced the unit with shit loads of web addresses, to which I and most of my group were told that that was NOT referencing in the way that they had wanted it to be carried out, which made me feel vexed to say the least that I made this error of judgement in my work. Here is an image of what Harvard referencing should look like:
In 2017, as of today's date (04/04/2017), I've learnt of this interesting new website called citethisforme.com which is a Harvard reference generator or any other reference in general, I might not have made this mistake had I even heard of this site at the time, so as of now I am going to undertake the research again using the work I've set aside from over a year ago and see how I go this time. So here goes:
BAUHAUS
This is a blog of all the stuff I have been researching on the Weimar Republic, Pop Art and Bauhaus Art movement. Here are some examples of artworks created during the Bauhaus movement and works influenced by Bauhaus:
Construction Z 1 created in 1922/3 by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
New in October by Paul Klee
Mondrian Wood created by Unknown
Swinging by Wassily Kandinsky
Composition by Mondrian
The above pieces I found from either Bauhaus or work inspired by Bauhaus, I liked very much for their main uses of flat colors and less color blending, which has inspired many of my color techniques for my designs over the last couple of years. Also for their compositions, hierarchy and so on.
POP ART
The first Pop Art picture I came across was of Andy Warhol’s most famous rendition of the Marilyn Monroe painting he did. Here are some examples I found of his rendition of the Marilyn Monroe piece he created. The painting’s title is actually Marilyn Diptych.
Monroe died in August 1962, in the four months after her death, Warhol created around 20 silkscreen paintings of her. The above is a few nice renditions of the Marilyn Monroe piece he created. over the years since Monroe's death there have been many pieces of Pop Art that have been inspired by this, both by Warhol and work that has been created to his style. Here are a few that I have found that match this description greatly that are just as effective as the Marilyn Diptych work:
Each piece is more effective than the other colorwise. I can even see hints of the Marilyn work in the two women surrounding her.
In 2013, Beyonce paid homage to the late great Andy Warhol by allowing Pepsi cola to promote their product via celebrity endorsement with her as the subject, so in honour of the great Mr Warhol's work, they created this advertisement of her in Warhol style work to promote the Pepsi product below:
This advert got it’s inspiration from the image of Warhol’s picture collage above this picture and the Campbell’s soup can below it as this piece of work created was based on the same subjects i.e. famous people and product packaging which Warhol was famous for.
It is also in my view an inspiration of the above Marilyn Monroe painting created by Warhol, only with Beyoncé’s image created digitally as opposed to the old style painting of the Marilyn piece by Warhol.
Andy Warhol also made art of product packages as well, here is one example of the Campbell’s soup that he had created:
and just like Marilyn Monroe, he created this in different colour combinations as well as his way of experimenting with different colours. Here is an image of other colour combinations of the above can of soup he created
I like his uses of colours he used to create these tins of soup and the fact that he made product packaging works of art. By looking at these cans of Soup, it makes the product packaging in question look a lot more visually interesting to look at, especially if I was to purchase this product at a supermarket, it would look a lot more eye-catching than the normal bland Red and White that is originally on the can.
By saying that, I recently discovered an image of realistically looking Campbell's soup cans that have a Warhol piece of work on it that look more visually interesting that must have been done in honour of Warhol himself:
This was created in honour of 50 years of art according to the product packaging above. It is very effective looking and done to a good standard that would attract the consumer to buy this product.
Other product work of Warhol also entails:
Andy Warhol wanted to make product packages such as the Campbell’s Soup Can and Coca Cola bottles works of art, as well as many others.
Warhol’s biggest rival in the Pop Art world was a man called Roy Lichtenstein, an American Pop Artist, lithographer and sculptor from New York. Most of Lichtenstein’s work differed from Warhol’s work as Lichtenstein based a lot of his work on Comics.
One of his most famous pieces he created was taken from a comic book called All American Men of War back in 1962 called Whaam! which was created in 1963. Here it is:
I find it intriguing that Lichtenstein made a work of art out of a comic book page. Here are other comic book pages or strips designed by Lichtenstein himself that I found that sound interesting:
in order from L to R on the top and R to L on the bottom, their names:
1. Drowning Girl (image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drowning_Girl), 2. Masterpiece (image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpiece_(Roy_Lichtenstein) ), 3. In The Car (image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Car), 4. Hopeless (image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopeless_(Roy_Lichtenstein) )
Comic books in general should be for kids, especially when in the days that these above 4 were created, the action in these books are more suited for adults rather than kids and I like these for Lichtenstein's inspiration for Comic book for art.
Lichtenstein was even inspired by Disney for his works of art as shown below in his renidition of Look Mickey:
Which I think looks amazingly cool, in terms of it's minimalist color use as the same blue is used for elements as well as the Yellow and White and Red, which I myself think is important for art in general.
The work I have got on here, I like so far. In terms of colours and compositions, the picture to me is kind of ‘in your face’ so to speak and is genuinely eye-catching, like in the Whaam! picture, the explosive way it looks as opposed to Lichtenstein’s other pieces he created above me here. I like also the colour combination on the Drowning Girl, interpreting that someone is calling for help and is drowning and is also crying, so to me the colours give it a bit of a sad look so to speak. The others however are more colourful, indicating Lichtenstein liked to use different colour combinations.
Now let me talk about Weimar and Bauhaus Art, first let me talk a little bit about Otto Dix, a veteran of the first world war made his subjects in the beginning with crippled soldiers. Even this did not stop him from his artistic talents, one of the most well known pieces of work he had created in his artistic career was a painting called The Trench. Here it is in it’s splendour:
The Trench, shows the viewers as well as myself here that he showed the horrors that he had experienced in the war and he wanted to express this in his earlier artwork pre Nazi regime.
It also shows the horrible mark that the war had left i.e. mutilated bodies, fragments of skulls etc. Here is a complete description which I found as out of all the artworks researched I found this one interesting the most, found from: http://www.ottodix.org/catalog-paintings/page/3/
"This was the painting that made Otto Dix famous. In 1931, Alfred H. Barr referred to it as "perhaps the most famous picture painted in post-war Europe. Presumably destroyed during the Nazi era, it receives far less attention now.
The artist began work on The Trench in 1920 while he was still in Dresden. It traveled with him to Dusseldorf where he completed the work in 1923. The painting depicts a German trench in the aftermath of an artillery assault. It is filled with mutilated bodies, fragments of skulls, torn limbs, shred intestines and tattered uniforms.
The controversy began that year when it was acquired by the Wallraf-Rchartz Museum in Cologne. Apart from its abhorrant depiction of war, the work drew controversy from the political right which claimed it dishonored the men of 1914.
Since public money was used to acquire the painting the dispute was sharp and loud. There were few in Cologne without an opinion. It was finally settled in 1925, when The Trench was returned to Karl Neirendorf, Dix's dealer.In the 1930s, The Trench was seized by the Nazis and included in their exhibitions of degenerate art. Nazi records indicate was it sold for $200.00 in 1940. It is presumed destroyed."
Other paintings I think that would have matched the subject of what ‘The Trench’ is about is a painting called ‘The War Cripples, also painted by Dix. Unlike ‘The Trench’ also the subject of ‘The War Cripples’ matches, as they are both based on the aftermath of the war, except the soldiers in this painting are left unscathed, but look as if they’re paralysed or incapacitated after their wartime experiences. Here is the picture:
A million miles from the doom and gloom of his experiences in the war, Dix also incorporated more livelier subjects into his artwork, such as this one below here called Metropolis:
designed around 1927 to 1928. This to me, looks as if that there are people more or less enjoying themselves as opposed to the above pieces of work that Dix had created, people look to be having fun on this picture i.e. cabaret, dancing and showing off trying to outdo the other so to speak.
On the other hand, Bauhaus was not all about paints and paper, I discovered that Bauhaus also created furniture and made that works of art as well, for example this photo of the cantilever chair here, created in 1928
by a guy called Marcel Breuer in 1928, during the time of Bauhaus. For more information why this chair was created, please click on the artist’s name to check it out. Another modern day design I found which looked rather interesting, but a little more modern in terms of late to early 1970’s style is this eyeball chair, also done in the style of Bauhaus.
This is called The Eyeball Chair, which is a slight replica of the chair that Mrs Alexander sat on in a movie called A Clockwork Orange.
Mrs Alexander’s chair was not the same as the Bauhaus chair above, but the style’s match, but in my view, Mrs Alexander’s seat would be a bit too low for my liking, whereas the Bauhaus chair has a leg on it and I would benefit better from sitting on that as opposed to Mrs Alexander’s chair.
In addition to this, a couple of years ago I visited the Tate Modern with my group to visit the Pop Art Exhibition in order to assist with the research that I was along with my group assigned to carry out. Here are some snapshots of the exhibition that I took with my phone:
It was not all art on paper I saw at this exhibition, I also saw sculptures as well, which looked nicely done and effective and minimal in color use. I like the uses of flat colors in these works, and for their minimalistic approach. Others seen of interest were:
Another more interesting designs are above here, wood and clay as well as paper. Good interesting techniques and hierarchy. I prefer to use digital software for most of my designs as to me it is far more easy for me to use and neat in contrast and composition. I would not be able to do a design with wood to save my life.
The 10 images above I took as to be more eye-catching rather than inspired by them for their effectiveness and useful of colors and whatnot. It was an interesting afternoon at the Tate Gallery and has inspired a lot of my projects in my GD units.
Another beautiful painting that caught my eye upon visiting the National Gallery last July is Lorenzo di Credi's The Virgin and Child as shown here below:
This painting tells the story about the archangel Raphael appearing in the distance with Tobias. Raphael was venerated as a saint and may have been added to what was a popular composition at the request of the patron. Credi was much influenced by Leonardo daVinci who had been with him in the workshop of Verrochio. Painted 1480-1500. I like it for it's gentle nature and it's religious and loving background behind it.
Another artist I wish to talk about briefly is Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was a man of many different colours and shapes, as depicted here by this piece of work that he created
The name of the piece of work here is unknown, but it caught my eye immediately and I liked the shapes and the way that they are positioned here in the picture above.
I like the use of the color of the one that went in above. This piece of fine work is called I'm Blau (In Blue) and I like the use of the blue color inside it. It also has a hint of many emotions in it in terms of it's colors, blue for it's powerful background and for it's natural, calm and faithful nature. Red for it's love, energy and passion and black for it's bold and powerful nature and strength. Found from a good sourceful infographic below here:
Another interesting painting done on a canvas by the looks of things also done by Kandinsky is the above painting based on a street above here.
Additional information found from https://www.dma.org/collection/artwork/wassily-kandinsky/murnau-burggrabenstrasse-1-1908
"In the spring of 1908, Wassily Kandinsky discovered Murnau, a village located at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. He lived in Murnau from 1909 to 1914, crucial years in his evolution toward abstraction. The pristine beauty of this landscape apparently exerted a liberating influence on his work, which shortly thereafter made a radical shift toward abstraction. Kandinsky's ultimate goal was to invest his paintings with spiritual meaning but without representational subject. In "Murnau, Burggrabenstrasse 1, 1908," Kandinsky both abstracts from nature and tests the expressive possibilities of color. Although the village is recognizable, Kandinsky has not depicted the scene literally but rather decoratively."
A painting I've very recently talked about which I found interesting to put into this blog is The Guernica painted by Picasso.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE GUERNICA PAINTING:
The scene overall is in a room where there is a bull that stands over a woman who is grieving the loss of her child in her arms.
The bull which is the symbol of Spain looks victorious as this means that Spain is still standing.
This is occupied by a horse falling over in agony as if it has been run through by a spear or javelin.
Under this horse a man who was a soldier and is now dead, has a shattered sword where a flower grows, signifying life and hope.
On the palm of his hand a stigma, which means a symbol of martyrdom derived from the stigmata of Christ, signifies religion.
The light bulb blazes in the shape of the evil eye over the suffering over the horse’s head, this could signify torture and anguish over someone’s suffering and could be a hint of further warning and trouble to come.
The frightened female looks horrified to the scene unfolding right in front of her very eyes.
In addition to this, she carries a flame lit lamp, the lamp positioned close to the bulb, symbolises hope to the people tortured in the room clashing with the evil eye as this signifies the opposite.
The daggers suggest that screaming replaces the tongues of the bull, grieving woman and horse signifying that the damage has been done.
A dove is then seen holding an olive branch scribed on the wall behind the bull.
Part of it’s body comprises a crack in the wall with a bright light shining through. This signifies that there is hope outside for all these people suffering inside.
This is the overall message Picasso wanted to tell in this painting, that there is a replicance of hope and fear, a matter of life and death and depicting chance of good over bad.
Another fine artist I've discovered was a guy who painted art for movies, like this promotional artwork for Conan The Barbarian below here:
This was used for the movie poster for Conan The Barbarian as stated above. This was painted by a guy called Renato Casaro and since I did movie poster design during my Graphic Design course, I thought it handy to incorporate some of his work in my harvard referenced blog sketchbook of art.
Here are some more of Castro's designs for the same reason as he did the Conan The Barbarian poster for:
And in no particular order, here are their URL's as to say where I found this information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(film)#Release
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire,_Ice_and_Dynamite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesh_and_Blood_(1985_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_an_Invisible_Man_(film)#Reception
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Nobody
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Top_(film)#Release
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo:_First_Blood_Part_II#Release
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sonja_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_(film)#Reaction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_II:_The_Next_Chapter
Here are some other works of art that I found today whilst doing my Weimar Republic Essay.
This believe it or not was done by Adolf Hitler in the 1910's. It looks very much like an English farmhouse. Quite nicely done inspite of the fact it was painted by a total bastard.
Hitler approved of serene artworks such as these. So do I for their landscapes and serenity. Good uses of color and warmth all the way. Not that I agree with Hitler though.
Other styles that I am working on at the moment are color techniques for my Flavia app for the restaurant. So far during the last few days, I've taken photographs of Italian Restaurants and cafes outside in several different parts across London, and here are a few that I've taken which will appear in my evaluation for App Prototype.
These images are primary research, they will not be referenced Harvard style.
Italian restaurants I've discovered in several locations this week that it doesn't have to be Green, White and Red like most of them are.
Some like this restaurant here can look Urban in contrast:
Yep you can see it, Italian Street Food, mainly White and Red are used as well as the steel outlook from the outside. Except that an Urban Outlook does not match the name Flavia in my book.
Something like this for instance:
This coffee shop looks OK, a creamy white and brown, representing the Coffee, which Italy is known for i.e. Coffee and Croissants for breakfast in Milan, except that this color combination would make it look more like a Coffee shop as opposed to a trendy Italian Restaurant, so this color scheme is to be rejected, must plow on.
Another good choice of color is this one above here, which is brown, white and green and looking very minimal in contrasts. Good looking calligraphic font use, but OK for a backstreet Italian restaurant like this one above is.
This one above now, looking very trendy and more the style I want to use for the design, good White and Black color scheme, no Green or Red in this case, I might work on this one further.
The design up though, a great big fat NO NO way!!! looks more like a McDonald's type of a restaurant or any other takeaway restaurant in the backstreets and not fit in anyway for a trendy Italian restaurant.
The only thing good about the design above is the font, the color combination looks a bit gross and a bit of a stomach turner. The brown is alright though, maybe if the font was a bit lighter in color, it would look OK, but not OK for my trendy restaurant design I'm afraid. So far I will be sticking with the Isabella one.
Like Isabella, I like the design for it's color scheme as they reckon that Black is supposed to represent elegance, and that is what my design for my restaurant is going to be, so this will also stay on the backburner.
Another fine combination is the Caffe Nero, but this would be far too obvious for my color scheme and more like a replica of the Caffe Nero in general, must motor on as they say.
Carluccio's now for instance makes the color mood look cold in contrast i.e. snow and ice over a blue background, good font though, poor color choices.
Talking of poor color choices, this one really does take the biscuit. The design looks quite dated in addition.
So far it is the black and white color combination that is appealing the most to me, for it's elegance and power and trust. It is an Italian restaurant with a difference rather than using Greens, Whites and Reds all the time. So far I will be sticking with this scheme.
To be continued up to assignment deadline. Please delete this line upon handover of assignment.
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