Focusing on specific examples,
describe the way that Modernist Art and Design was a response to the forces of
Modernity?
‘From
the beginning, Modernism had the urgency of Utopianism: to make the world a
better place by design.’ (Massimo Vignelli, 1991)
To begin writing about modernist art and design, it is necessary to
define exactly what the notion of modernism means. Although partially
subjective, in its broadest sense, modernism is a set of cultural tendencies
and movements, especially within the arts, that occurred between the years 1750
and 1950. Focusing on the early nineteen hundreds in particular, throughout
this time the idea of progression proliferated and was inextricably linked to the process of industrialization and
urbanization. The west as a whole, relished the rapid growth of cities, modern
industrial society and the development of technologies that before seemed
ludicrous. ‘We
must press forward to find out best. There are no limits to future abilities,
just limits to what we can do now. We simply must keep shining the light of
knowledge on the darkness of ignorance, until we find our best.’ (Will, J.
2002, p124) Modernists embraced social morality, truth in design, new and
emerging technologies, function and progress.
Other cultural commentators have described Modernism as a
philosophy; a socially progressive thought process that puts human beings back
at the ‘centre of the stage.’ Human beings regained the power to create,
improve and reshape their environment. This came in many forms. With the aid of
practical experimentation, advancements in scientific knowledge and technology
were plain to see and as with nearly all art and design of this time, a re-examination
of every aspect of existence from commerce to philosophy was underway. The main
aim of this was to find ways in which progress was being hindered and replacing
it with new ways of reaching the same end. Passuth wrote in her essay Debut of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, ‘the turbulent events at the
end of the 1910’s led many European artists to orientate their efforts towards
constructing a new and better society. Though the visual language of earlier
Avant-guard movements were reworked, they moved away from futurist extremism
and Dada raillery. ‘Art for arts sake’ was thrown overboard; artists wanted
their art to be useful.’ (1999) Massimo Vignelli confirms this in his essay
Long Live Modernism, stating ‘modernism was and still is the search for truth,
the search for integrity, the search for cultural stimulation and enrichment of
the mind. Modernism was never a style, but an attitude.’ (1991)
Europe in the nineteenth
century was subjected to the modernizing forces that came to dominate society
at that time. The political systems promoted economical exchange to such an
extent it become global. This capitalist regime used new technologies and
rationalized management to introduce mass production. Day to day life became
marginalized as traditional values were dismissed, to be replaced by a popular
culture that was highly consumer focused. It was in the early nineteenth
century that the artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy arrived in central Europe, drawn
here by the art produced in cities such as Berlin, he would go on to take
inspiration from Germany’s highly developed technology and print industries. Petra Kayser states in her essay
Constructivism and the Machine Aesthetic, “Moholy-Nagy promoted the unity of
art and technology, and explored new techniques in the production of images.’(2000,
p163) This can clearly be seen in his Light Space Modulator, (figure 1) made
specifically to experiment with light projection, a technique indicative of the
progressive and technologically focused modernist era.
The terms ‘modern movement’
and ‘international style’ are still widely perceived to refer to the
architecture of simple, geometric forms and plain, undecorated surfaces that
are free of historical styles.’ (Koehler, K, p146)
With the focus on
drawing and emphasis on perfecting form, architects became frustrated with the
professionalization that began in the Renaissance, but reached its height in
the nineteenth century. As a response to the changing environment, by the end
of the century, architects had begun to look for ways to make their work more
responsive to life around them. To escape the rigid set of standards and forms,
along with artists and designers of the time, those architects who wanted to
create a modern architecture rewrote their own standards. To influence the development
of their designs, they looked towards areas outside of architecture, such as
functional preferences and construction technologies. Marcel Breuer, 1924,
designed a model for a project for an apartment house (figure 2) that
challenged, rather than avoided reality. In his essay Architecture, Building,
and the Bauhaus, Wallis Miller states, ‘Breuer’s design did not simply ignore
existing technology and conditions of practice, but anticipated what might- or
should- emerge in the future.’ (2006, p78) However, a contradictory example of
this is the Bauhaus building itself. From an aesthetic point of view, the grand
features and use of modern materials would suggest its technologically
advanced, but in terms of building technology, it seems to lack practical adeptness,
in indulgence of its scientific appearance. In his essay The Bauhaus and the
World of Technology - Work on industrial culture, Christoph Asendorf states,
‘the workshop wing, where the heart of modernism beat, could scarcely be heated
in winter and was intolerably hot in summer, thanks to its new-style glass
curtain-wall. Before long, there were also complaints about the poor acoustics.
Evidently no effort was made to solve these problems. In the Dessau building
practical efficiency was neglected in favour of the purity and smoothness of
its technological appearance.’ (2006, p80)
“From the dream of a new community centred on
building “cathedrals of socialism” to the search for an expressionist “new
man”; from the goal of uniting “art and techniques” by producing well designed
goods for the modern mass to the attempt to “put life in order”. (J. Schwartz,
F, 2006, p115)
This desire to produce well design goods for
the modernist mass can be seen in objects such as tea caddies, dishes, pots,
ashtrays, coffee and tea services and lamps. A famous creation of this can be
seen in Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s Lamp Thus, 1924 (figure 3). The table lamp clearly
illustrates the exposure of function in every part, a forceful use of
industrial materials, and an aesthetic of simple form and harmony. Wagenfeld
described the lamp as, ‘a model for machine mass-production - achieved in its
form both maximum simplicity and, in terms of time and materials, greatest
economy.’ (2006, p78) However, at the same time, institutions such as the
Bauhaus, who although were forward thinking, could be considered an insular
elite. The Building itself was bespoke and highly revered by the design
community. In her essay Bauhaus Objects, Bauhaus Visions, Karen Koehler states,
‘the Bauhaus was not a style – it was a place where some of the most important
artists taught and studied.’ (2000, p113)
The persisting impact of
the Bauhaus can be seen in the abstraction characteristics of the works of art
created by the students and teachers at the Bauhaus, they still appear to
represent rationalization implicit in industrialization, which is a central
fact of modernity. In 1923 the institute started to focus more towards
industrial rather than craft production. Walter Gropius recognized the
importance of mass production and wanted to apply this new philosophy to the
pottery workshop at the Bauhaus. On 5 April 1923, Gropius wrote to the head of
the pottery workshop: “Yesterday I had a look at your many new pots. Almost all
of them are unique, unrepeatable; it would be positively wrong not to look for
ways of making the hard work that has gone into them accessible to large
numbers of people. We must find ways of duplicating some of the articles with the
help of machines.” (1923, p70) An
example of this philosophy can be seen in the work of Theodor Bogler. The Combination
Teapot, 1923, (figure 4) was produced in several versions, with differing lids
and handles. The distinct parts could be combined variously to create different
products; this meant they could appeal to the modern mass.
Throughout the
nineteenth century visual imagery was mass-produced and escalated throughout
city spaces and in the expanding variety of communicative media. In terms of visual
images, international, national, regional, and local cultures increasingly
defined themselves, as did political parties and urban subcultures. Modernity
and its primary vehicles; advertising, entertainment, propaganda and fashion
were an imagery that celebrated the mass production process. Berlin was one of
the cities that quickly became a hub for artists, writers and people of
ambition. Social change and personal liberation brought about by modernity was
embraced within the city. However these agendas could be considered as negative
and destructive forces influencing the art and design at the time. This
couldn’t be clearer than in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis, 1927. Metropolis
depicts both a Utopian and Dystopian city that ultimately illustrates ‘a
terrifying machine founded on greed and as the cause of the repression of human
individuality.’ (Finch, M, p195)
A further example of
this is the lively figuration practiced by the Brucke artists that moved to
Berlin in 1911. Originally the artists concentrated on the energetic street
life in Dresden where they were based, depicting colourful city entertainment,
such as the circus, cabaret and vaudeville. However, once confronted with the
reality of big city life, their paintings depicted the simmering, destructive
forces that came as a result of modernity. Jill Lloyd states this in her essay
German Expressionism, Apocalypse, War and Revolution, ‘In comparison to the
elegant Baroque city of Dresden, Berlin was a fast-developing modern
metropolis, undergoing an explosion of modernization and industrialization that
eventually transformed it into the third-largest city in the world. Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner’s sequence of Berlin street scenes, including Five women on the
street, 1913, (figure 5) which show prostitutes stalking the city streets,
chronicle the artist’s response to the alienation and fragmentation associated
with big-city life.’ (2000, p33)
For some of Berlin’s
inhabitants in the 1920s, afforded a prosperous lifestyle. However, the large
influx of citizens within the metropolis resulted in wide spread poverty and
social alienation. This coincided with the increasing political and economic
instability. Using the visual language of new photography, artists began to
experiment with composition to convey a vivid and creative representation of
the consequences of modernity. One artist that observed these darker aspects of
city life, the effects of homelessness and unemployment was Margaret Michaelis.
She had moved from Vienna to Berlin in the late 1920s and was confronted by the
effects of the metropolis. Michaelis’s photograph ‘Column with Posters’ (figure
6) cleverly illustrates the struggle for survival going on at the time by
experimenting with perspective. ‘Michaelis has used the sharp angle of the
composition to draw our attention to a small, handwritten note adhered to the
pillar. The note reads ‘Notruf!’ (Emergency!) It is a plea for help and food -
a stark reminder of the darker aspects of city life and the tragic state of
poverty in the metropolis.’ (Finch, M, p196)
‘The true artist is the
grindstone of the senses; he sharpens eyes, mind, and feeling; he interprets
ideas and concepts through his own media.’ (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1947)
The underlying themes of
all of Moholy-Nagy’s works were in his ideas about space and time and the
impact this could have on the world in which he lived. He believed mankind was
heading towards a more frantic way of life that would induce a greater kinetic
relationship to space and time. His awareness of these forces that would come
to define everyday existence enabled him to explore his progressive ideas in
much greater detail. Dianne Kirkpatrick describes these ideas eloquently in her
essay ‘Time and Space in the Work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,’ stating that Nagy
promoted through his work, ‘the relativity of motion and its
measurement, integration, the simultaneous grasp of the inside and outside and
the revelation of the structure instead of the facade.’ (1988, p63) Kirkpatrick
goes on to say that ‘for Moholy, it was the artist who would create the visual
works that could train people to experience the world in this new way.’ (1988,
p64) Throughout his career,
Moholy-Nagy thought a lot about the kind of art that would be the most
appropriate for the time in which he lived. He wanted to create a new vision
concerning materials, energies, tensions, and their social implications. These ideas become visible to an observer when
his art is viewed in the context of the concepts he sought to express.
The modernist era was
defined by transition and the culture was in a constant state of flux. New
ideas about lifestyles and art and design were being formed by the masses and
Moholy-Nagy put the artist at the forefront of the stage. He believed, like
other artists of the time, that they had the power to influence these ideas at
a fundamental level, if they found a voice. On the 31st December
1936, Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, put on a one-man exhibition
for Maholy-Nagy in which he could showcase his new vision of space and time
within painting. Building from his elementary beginnings founded on light and
exploring the inherent, expressive properties of materials and media, he was
able to develop experimental and progressive techniques across a multitude of
platforms that included the interrelationship of ‘experimental painting,
sculpture, photography (camera, photogram, and photoplastic), film, theatre
design, product design, typography and exhibition design, and frequently
published his evolving views.’ (Senter. T, A, 2006, p85)
As discussed before, and
to extend the discourse, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy worked on his kinetic sculpture, ‘Light
Space Modulator’, throughout the 1920’s. Also referred to as Light Display
Machine, Light prop for an electric stage, and Space Kaleidoscope, Moholy’s
sculpture explores the relationship of different materials and how it affected
transformation of light, transparency and reflection through different media
and technology that were emerging as a response to modernity.
Moholy-Nagy describes a
Light Space Modulator as ‘a structure that is made to develop the sense of
space and explore the effective relationships which must be within the quality
range of any architecture - an ABC of architectural and projective space.’
(1947,p96) Within figure 1 both the sculpture and the photograph of the
sculpture, are both of equal importance to the overall piece as it is the
interaction between sculpture, light and shadow that is being explored. This
technique was an attempt to paint the penetration of lights through planes. It
is Maholy-Nagy’s belief that through this synthesis, a ‘fundamental
relationship is revealed that creates a deep and layered experience.’ (Rosen.V,
2007) Within the piece we see elements
of light, colour, objects and media working together to provoke the viewer to
experience both an intellectual and emotional response to its content and
context. Moholy-Nagy used these ‘light compositions’ to get people to look at
the world with a new vision. This can be seen in his film ‘Light Play
Black-Whit-Grey’, where the Light Space Modulator is used to capture the
motions and rhythm of light. Moholy-Nagy states, ‘the light reflections and
projections produced by this machine are more important than the device
itself.’ (1969) With this new vision, Moholy-Nagy’s optical synthesis, light
phenomena and display, documents the interplay between light and shadows and
the space with superimpositions of objects. This can be strictly linked to the
forces of modernity, due to the technological advances, new materials and
experimental and progressive techniques starting to be explored in more detail.
‘The end remains utopian, but the means are
futuristic-technological, not medieval-mystical, and ‘the whole man’ imagined
in this vision is remade for the future, not restored from the past.’ (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1938)
Therefore, with the examples explored in this essay it could be argued
that the art and design between the years 1750 and 1950 was a direct response
to the forces of modernity. Many cultural commentators coined this era as ‘the
modernist era,’ clearly characterized by designs’ ambition to make work useful
and to appeal to the modern mass. This is clearly seen in the evolution of
mans’ symbiosis with the machine throughout this period, experimental uses of
materials and a constant effort to move forward and progress, regardless of the
social alienation. Taken together, the examples explored above directly allude
to these responses to modernity, illustrating that a progressive approach was
taken to utilize the forces, industrialization, urbanization, technology and materials
that typified the modernist era.
Figure 1
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy-
Light Space Modulator
Figure 2
Marcel Breuer- Model for
Apartment House Project
Figure 3
Wilhelm Wagenfeld- Lamp Thus
Figure 4
Theodor Bogler-
Combination Teapot
Figure 5
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner-
Five Women in the Street
Figure 6
Margaret Michaelis-
Column with Posters
Bibliography
Strecker, J (2000) The
Mad Square, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Fiedler, J (2006) Bauhaus,
England, Konemann
Chakraborty, K.J. (2006) Bauhaus
Culture, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press
Stein, J (1976) Bauhaus,
London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Droste, M (2006) Bauhaus
Archive, Los Angeles, Bauhuas-Archiv Museum fur Gestaltung Klingelhoferstr
Will, J (2002) The
Ultimate Philosophy, New York, Publish America
Moholy-Nagy, L (1947) Vision
In Motion, Chicago, P. Theobald
Weibelm, P (2005) Beyond
Art: A third Culture: a Comparative Study in Cultures, Art, and Science in 20th
Century Austria and Hungary, New York, Springer Wien New York
Rosen, A (2007) Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy: Photograph and Sculpture, New York, Andrea Rosen Gallery Press
Release
Senter, T.A. (2006) Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy: The Transitional Years, North America, Yale University Press
Kirkpatric, D (1988) Time
and Space in the Work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hungary, Hungarian Studies
Review
Smith, T (2009) Modernity
and the Arts: http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?theme_id=10123§ion_id=T058790
(Accessed 02.01.2013)
Johnson, M (n.d) Modernity: How Has Culture Responded to the Modern Age: http://history.knoji.com/modernity-how-have-artists-designers-and-filmmakers-responded-to-the-experience-of-the-modern-age/
(Accessed 02.01.2013)
Passuth, K (2009) Debut
of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: http://iconofgraphics.com/laszlo-moholy-nagy (Accessed 02.01.2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment