Visual Culture Studies: art

Task

Analyse three key Art Deco posters looking at political or commercial context and stylistic influences of illustration or typography.

The 1930's in the USA were a decade of glamour and high class. However it was also a time of extreme economic difficulty after the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Art Deco was influenced by a number of things- cubism and constructivism were two sources, along with Bauhaus modernism and even ancient Egyptian and Aztec designs. Art Deco featured powerful imagery and strikingly bold lines and colour, combined with a penchant for the masculine power of new machinery and tecnhology.

"The Art Deco poster artist took inspiration from many of the movements in avant-garde painting of the early years of the century. Cubism and Futurism, in particular, provided powerful new advertising tools. Cubism added fragmentation; abstraction and overlapping images and colour. Futurism contributed the new century's preoccupation with speed and power, translated brilliantly by poster artists into potent images of the era's new giant oceanliners and express locomotives." 1

Advertisement for transport, especially transatlantic travel, was huge. In the Art Nouveau era, poster advertisements tended to be limited to theatre and music shows, however this all changed with the emergence of new up-and-coming graphic designers such as Cassandre, one of the biggest artists of the time. He produced a number of iconic travel posters, an embodiment of the Art Deco movement.

Figure 1, Normandie Poster, Cassandre, 1935

The above poster for the Normandie liner was one of the most iconic of all Art Deco posters. New and improved manufacturing techniques created a huge surplus of products which meant that design became an important medium to persuade consumers to buy or use a particular product. Designs were simplified, which is obvious in the Normandie poster in that its simple symmetry is a powerul symbol. A limited range of colours are used and the type is bold and masculine, speaking volumes about the immense power of this new transatlantic liner, the fastest ship of the day, a French product that was an Art Deco tour de force in itself due to the pure artistic interior design by Jean Dunand, one of the most gifted interior designers of the time.

"Sharp linear compositions, floating on flat areas of background colour, quickly drew the eye. Other gimmicks helped to gain attention, such as aerial and diagonal perspectives. New sanserif type faces streamlined the message." 2

This is clearly seen in the Normandie poster, and in many others of Cassandre's advertising work. The wealth and luxury of the time lent itself to the travel industry, which is why the advertisement of travel was so popular and important.

Figure 2, Nord Express, Cassandre, 1927

Above is an earlier travel advertisement poster by Cassandre for the Nord Express, a new transcontinental railway. Again it shows the same power and elegance of the Normandie poster, and shows the diagonal perspective typical of Art Deco poster design at the time. Cassandre used a sleek sanserif type, another modern element of design, and the poster emphasised the importance of this new train which was the pride of its company.

"As with most regional railway companies, its star locomotive, in this case the Nord Express, was the flagship for the company, emphasizing its speed and transcontinental credentials." 3

Another area where graphic and poster design was evolving was in fashion. Vogue magazine began in the late nineteenth century but it was due to the publisher Condé Nast that it became one of the most read fashion journals both in Europe and America.

Figure 3, The Wedding March, cover of Vogue, March 1929, Georges Lepape

Here in the March 1929 edition of Vogue magazine, there are all the elements of high fashion and extreme wealth displayed in the design. The colours of red and gold are historically regarded as royal colours, signifying prosperity and regality along with elegance and, again, wealth. The symmetrical composition of the design is also a staple of the graphic design in this era, a powerful, bold layout exuding fashion and fortune. Even in the Great Depression Vogue was popular, with sales rising as the public sought to escape their own dismal realities.

"Even though America and Europe were entering the period known as the Great Depression, sales of Vogue increased dramatically as people sought refuge from the traumas of their own existence, finding solace in fashion and celebrity." 4

List of Illustrations

Figure 1 Normandie Poster, Cassandre, 1935, ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art and Illustration, 2013, Flame Tree Publishing, p.145
Figure 2 Nord Express Poster, Cassandre, 1927, ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art and Illustration, 2013, Flame Tree Publishing, p.140
Figure 3 The Wedding March, Georges Lepape, Vogue, March 1929, ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art and Illustration, 2013, Flame Tree Publishing, p.141

References

[1] DUNCAN, A. Art Deco, p.p. 150-151
[2] DUNCAN, A. Art Deco, p. 150
[3] ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphics and Illustration, p. 141
[4] ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphics and Illustration, p. 126

Bibliography

DUNCAN, A. Art Deco, (1988), Thames and Hudson, London
ROBINSON, M. & ORMISTON, R. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphics and Illustration, (2013), Flame Tree Publishing, London

Task

Research surrealism and sexuality in 1920's art, photography and film.

After the Dada art following the first World War, realism went out the window. The movement started in Paris (the center of Surrealism) and from the 1920's it spread across the globe.

The art of surrealism featured a lot of sexual connotations, with basic human fears, motivations and instincts being the focus. These emotions and desires were almost animalistic and these were the parts of the brain these artists were trying to access.

"Eroticism is the force majeure that drives Surrealism. It is the great liberating power. It is always present, wether overt of hidden- a constant sourse of disturbance..." 1

One of the most well-known and popular artists of the surrealist art movement was Salvador Dali, a Spanish artist born in 1904. Towards the late 1920s Dali had fully embraced Surrealism and his works were focused on his own sexual fears and eroticism.

Figure 1, The Great Masturbator, Salavador Dali, 1929

This was one of Dali's earliest surrealist paintings. It was an expression of his anxiety, again related to his sexual fears, especially of women and their sexuality.

"Dalí himself described it as "the expression of my heterosexual anxiety". In 1929 he was still a virgin, inhibited by deep-seated fears of female sexuality and anal obsessions." 2

Dali also made a film along with director Luis Bunuel, Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). It was a hit when released, being shown for over 8 months, and uses dream logic and a disjointed timeline to further the surreal experience. It was based on supressed human emotions, featuring scenes from dreams of Dali and Bunuel, including a moon sliced through by a cloud 'like an eye with a razor'.

Figure 2, A still from Un Chien Andalou showing a woman's eye being sliced open.

One of the biggest surrealist photohraphers of the time was Man Ray, who was introduced to surrealism by artists of the Dada such as Marcel Duchamp and Jean Cocteau. The women in his life were usually the subjects in his work, and he showed them off to the world whereas most artists would rather have kept their sexual partners to themselves.

Figure 3, Violon d'Ingres, Man Ray, 1924

In Paris Man Ray met one of his most prominent muses, Kiki de Montparnasse, and the images she inspired him to create were possibly the most openly erotic ever produced. Violon d'Ingres is probably the most famous, and the title is a mischievous play on words, with the 'f' shaped violin holes adding the famous final touch.

"The woman's back is in itself an instrument, and one that the skilled player (the lover) can coax into life with his (or her) hands. ... Ray formed a link between "two distant realities", a game the Surrealists loves to play. The suggestive title implies that, by transforming his model into an object, Kiki has become a toy or plaything for Man Ray..." 3

This is again an example of the prominent sexual themes in Surrealism, prevalent throughout both the photography and art of the movement, while the film produced in this era had obvious themes in the human subconcious and dream logic.