Political, economic, and cultural upheaval marked the beginning of the 20th century. The devastation wrought by World War I played a major role in the turmoil, as did the emerging doctrines of democracy, socialism, and communism. As often happens with social unrest, artists began challenging existing art and design norms.
The evolving art movements challenged long-held creative traditions with revolutionary ideas for art and design. These ideas grew as artists and designers injected personal expression into their work, instead of simply documenting subjects.This heightened emotional component promoted the artist's role in society. The birth of Cubism, Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism exerted considerable influence over the artists and graphic designers of the day and subsequently those who followed.
Cubism
Abstracting subjects into geometric planes defines Cubism, the art style made famous by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in the early 1900s. Picasso, influenced by Iberian and African art, broke from traditional rendering techniques. Instead, he fragmented figures and shifted two-dimensional planes, creating simultaneous viewpoints. The real subjects of his creations became color, value, texture, and shape. With its bold approach toward composition, Cubism encouraged designers to explore unorthodox solutions for dividing pictorial space.
An indigenous form of graphic design in Trinidad and Tobago is the event promotion poster. Hand-rendered on cardboard, brightly colored with large lettering, the folk-art quality seems to mimic the inspiration of tribal art in Picasso’s early work. Contemporary incorporation of Cubist style can be seen in some of the poster art created by Peter Doig, a Scottish artist living in Trinidad and Tobago.
Futurism
In 1909, Italian poet Filippo Marinetti published his Manifesto of Futurism, voicing enthusiasm for war, machines and modern life. He encouraged poets to break the rules of grammar and free type from the customary horizontal/vertical grid. Undulating letterforms, no punctuation, and inconsistent word spacing created Futurist visual poetry, effectively allowing typography to “speak.” The Futurist style of typographic "explosion" aptly expressed noise and speed, two dominant forces of the early 20th Century.
For graphic designers, the Futurist idea of creating visuals with type is an important one, as is permission to work “off the grid.” Much of graphic designer Ed Fella’s work evokes the Futurist concept of expression through hand-drawn letterforms. Energy is suggested by flipping type, or placing it randomly around the page, and using diagonal configurations.
Dada
Strong reactions to World War I and European decadence created Dadaism, the movement stressing total freedom by self-proclaimed "anti-art" artists. The Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, opened by poet Hugo Ball in 1916, was Dada’s birthplace. Here, artists exchanged creative ideas and railed against the “Great War.” The war, in fact, is seen as the catalyst for Dadaism, and the denizens of the Cabaret viewed their antics as no more absurd than the war itself.
The cynical Dadaists rebelled against emerging technology and favored provocative art. Marcel Duchamp, Dada’s most prominent artist, contributed The Fountain, his infamous urinal “sculpture.” The idea of absolute freedom fostered the creation of ready-made pieces by incorporating found objects and calling them “art.” Transforming detritus into art objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and furniture, abounds today. Designers’ use of photomontage (the juxtaposition of found photos to create a new image) is a nod to the Dadaists.
Surrealism
Founded by French poet André Breton in 1924, the Surrealist movement advocated the subconscious, dreams, and the freeing of intuition. Heavily laced with psychoanalytical concepts, the Surrealists believed that dreams can be directly transposed from the unconscious mind to the canvas while bypassing the artist’s conscious awareness. Clearly, this did not work in practice: some degree of control was simply unavoidable.
Nevertheless, Surrealism stimulated several novel techniques, especially within illustration and photography. Max Ernst ’s collages and the ambiguous scale and dreamscapes of René Magritte’s paintings are often encountered in design and photography. Illustrations in many children's books, featuring overblown scale, strange proportions, and peculiar creatures evoke a dreamlike quality common to Surrealist imagery.
Social Commentary by Design
As long as societies exist, so do the issues they engender, providing artists and graphic designers ample opportunities to comment through art. Visual expression continues to highlight critical concerns like war and poverty. Current technology and evolving events such as the green movement also invite creative input. However, the influence of art and design exists everywhere, even in the things we take for granted, from mundane objects (chairs) to daily tasks (organizing our work spaces).
- AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Design Archives. http://designerarchives.aiga.org
- Janson, H.W. 1991. History of Art. Vol. 2. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
- Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis. 2006. Megg’s History of Graphic Design, 4th ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Michelle Yadoo - Michelle Yadoo is a freelance communications professional, with experience in editorial production, proofreading, marketing, publication ...
