Victorian Design

 The early part of the Victorian period [which was around the 1830s-40s]found itself intrigued and revived medieval or gothic aspects of architecture and design. After 18 51, after the great exhibition, preferences of these designs ended up spreading to every Victorian home.

Furniture was mainly wooden and extremely detailed that gave a sense of elegance. Like art nouveau, it had a lot of floral carvings not just on the oak wood but on fabrics used for cushions.

Wallpaper was also mainly floral designs as it made a nice design for high class homes. Sticking to the basics, the designers of  the wallpaper used natural colours like green and cream as well as blue and red.

 

Iron chandeliers also are made detailed to suit the style and used shades and/or crystals to add to the design.Lamps were also made in this style from cheap oil lamps to floral lamp shades.

Grandfather clocks are also inspired from the Victorian style with their detailed columns and long, sometimes designed on, chimes inside.

Examples of furniture of the Victorian period is proudly shown at the 1851 crystal palace exhibition.

Starting from the 1880s, a mass of different art styles like art nouveau, japonisme, arts and crafts movement, art deco and a few others that where against the high Victorian taste and wanted to be more unique in style.

Personally, i like this style  due to the elegant look it has and the details works especially in the wood. Carvings being so delicate yet seemed to be done so smoothly.

The Victorian Era | Graphic Design History. 2013. The Victorian Era | Graphic Design History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/the-victorian-era/. [Accessed 20 May 2013].

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that began in Britain in the 1950s and by the 1960s reached the United States.
Pop art is based on the use of already well known images and culture from billboards, magazine adverts to famous peoples images and supermarket products

“Consumer boom” in the 1950s, after the end of war time, people had an optimistic outcome and influenced the creation of pop art.

Pop art was amazingly enough inspired by comics, which is understandable due to the bold outline and flat colours. 

Pop art grew hand in hand the youth and pop music of the 1900s and 60s and even was used to inspire a fashion style.

I rather like the style due to my love for comics and this style reminds me of them.  The bright colours and bold lines are done so simply yet everything seems to be done so well.

Pop Art. 2013. Pop Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/pop_art.html. [Accessed 19 May 2013].

Art Nouveau

Meaning “The New Art” in French, it is an international art movement/style of decoration as well as architecture. The term first appeared in the 1880s that was used to describe the work of LesVingt which was a group of twenty painters and sculptors trying to find new inspiration.

Mainly inspired by organic and geometric forms especially the curves and basic aspects of leaves and flowers as well as the veins of them and are then given the flowing form of vines and whiplash curves.  Other aspects are of deep see organisms.

Art nouveau was started from Romanticism, symbolism and the Arts&crafts movement as well as Ideas from William Morris.

Art Nouveau reached its peak in popularity around 1900 but then got overtaken by the popularity of art deco in the 1920s and other styles yet found a revival in the 1960s.

Some artists used the natural world as a primary source of inspiration due to wanting to break away from styles of the past.

Examples of these are “The Grammar of Ornament[1856] by Owen Jones and Floriated Ornament[1849] by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

Other artists like Gustav Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley and Antonio Gaudi were familiar with this art movement.

Art Nouveau aimed at modernizing design that preferred function over form, trying to escape the historical styles. Even though it was a short-lived movement, its influence has been reaching across different movements and is noticed in styles like art deco furniture. The designs of these furniture show clear designs inspired by Art nouveau with the “exotic wood veneers and ornamental inlays”

Extra: Abit of Art Nouveau inspired image of modern times

 

dat ironman. 

The style is rather creative and to me seems like alot of work but worth it. It sort of reminds me of greek art. The flow of the vine like structures are done in a way that shows detail yet doesnt make  the  viewer lose focus on the main subject

 Art Nouveau | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Art Nouveau | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm. [Accessed 20 May 2013].

Art Deco

 Art deco product of new modern decorative styles and ideas that are mainly of the 1920s and 30s. Art deco was created with the idea of  Cubism, russian constructivism and italian futurism. 
Simple. Distorded. Abstract.

 Art deco has elements of elegent style being in architecture and applied arts. Things like artworks of images to furniture can be made from different materials to mass production.
Buildings took on the art deco style in main citiesin the mid to late 1920s and because of this it became known as the Skyscraper style. 

Examples of Art Deco Furniture: 

 

Art Deco Buildings:

 

 

 
ArtLex on Art Deco. 2013. ArtLex on Art Deco. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/artdeco.html. [Accessed 18 May 2013].

Cubism

In the 20th century, cubism was one of the movements that influenced most artists and whole different movements. It was a style that revolutionised modern art.
In 1907 and 1914 it was invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris.

Key note of cubism is that the artist must create a painting or sculpture of this movement by ignoring the traditional approach of perspective and make it more abstract and done from multiple view points.

Cubism is responsible for the development of other art styles like Orphism, futurism, vorticism and expressionism.
A basic thought wen looking at a cubism painting is that its mainly made up of shapes.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon  -Pablo Picasso

                                                              

This painting was what started off this Cubist movement and ended up being the most important of the century. These figures are prostitutes. Painting over the figures he had already drawn, he made the figure stare out at the viewer with their rather strange looks.
This painting indeed brought out a new way to look at reality.
Picasso ignored all the artistic rules of being exact and  proportion and used distortion to guide him.

                                              Viaduct at L'Estaque - Georges Braque 1882-1963









Done on Braque's second visit to L'Estaque in 1907. This painting shows the fast development of his style influenced by cubism.
The image shows it was influenced by cubism as its painted from different view points and mainly made up of shapes. Narrow rage of colours and strong use of line.







Cubism - the first abstract style of modern art. 2013. Cubism - the first abstract style of modern art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm. [Accessed 18 May 2013].

Abstract expressionism

Started off in the 1940s  ahd 50s in America and is also known as Action painting.
Active new york artists in the 1940s viewed abstract expressionism as a joined style of Barnett newton ['s unspoken fields of colour] and Willem de kooning ['s Violent handeling of the figure]

                [Barnett Newton]













                      [Willem De Kooning]











 These artists were able to relate with a level of abstraction used to portray strong emotions or expression.

Most abstract expressionists denied critical labels and shared the mutual sence of moral purpose and the alienation from society.

Abstract expressionism was the first american visual art to get international status and has been used to influence other artists.

Examples:

 

                                                                   Jackson Pollock.

.

Double Elvis, by Andy Warhol, 1963 

The strobe effect was created by using two images of Elvis joining each other by overlapping. There is an oppositte shilouette effectdue to the fact that the background is silver and most features in the subject are black.It kind of reminds me of a film real. This orinigally was part of a longer series of Elvis on canvas however it was later seperated into multiple paintings.

2009 Oxford university Press
http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10051
Accessed 17 May 2013

Abstract art

Abstract art isn’t only the simplification of an object or form but can also be the object blown out of proportion, or exaggerated, being a painting or sculpture.

There are three main forms of abstract art which are Cubism, Neoplasticism and abstract expressionism.
This art compromised various popular artists as it was a stepping stone that lead them to develop the style they are known for like Picasso and Georges being famous cubists, Piet Mondrian being a famous neoplasticist and Jackson Pollock being a famous artist of abstract expressionism.

Abstract art began in 1911
Mainly being an art constructed from vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines or simple shapes in a certain pattern so its simple yet still has a feel of movement . If not constructed from harsh lines they are hinted by elements like colour and  softer lines.

Examples:

 

 Has one shape in the center and hints of square like shapes with soft colours in the background.

Has no specific shapes but a flow of different colours with hints of some forms making it abstract. 

Abstract work that has bold shapes that clearly make up most of the image. Different colours seperating each part. Construction of shapes to create a scene.

 

Picture with a circle by Wassily Kandinsky,  one of the first works to start off this movement.

His theory was that colours make certain emotions come out, and its true. Many different artists use specific colours on their works to encourage a certain emotion from the viewer.

Abstract Art - Definition of Abstract Art - Glossary of Art History Terms. 2013. Abstract Art - Definition of Abstract Art - Glossary of Art History Terms. [ONLINE] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_a/a/a_abstract_art.htm. [Accessed 16 May 2013].