Bauhaus School of Design, 1919-1933

The origins of digital design may live in Weimar, Germany, but its new home is right here in America. This remarkable school of the arts was founded by Walter Groupius, in 1919 and crafted a new and unique curriculum for its students to learn. This included, "a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression" (Winton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Products that came out of the school included, furniture, jewelry, buildings, modern art and many more; the possibilities were endless. The Bauhaus changed the way the world saw art, all before the World War II era. From the Bauhaus emerged multiple well known artists, including Marcel Lajos Breuer, Herbert Bayer, and of course, Gropius. 

________________________________________________________________________________

Marcel Lajos Breuer

DOB: May 21, 1902

DOD:  July 1, 1981

Breuer's work was focused in modern furniture. His furniture is can be simple in its design, or complex. All of his work is architectural and he is best known for his furniture. He also focused on the theory or International Furniture, where his most famous design The Wassily Chair No B3 (shown on the left) came from. Breuer worked with bended steel frames, which had never been seen before in               the architectural world of furniture before; he also worked with wood, seen in the chair in the right, later in his career. One element that stands out to me the most in Breuer's work is the shape of his work. He made abstract looking furniture, which is interesting to me.

_________________________________________________________________________________
                                                         Herbert Bayer

                                                               DOB: April 5, 1900

                                                            DOD: September 30, 1985

   

Bayer's work is .my favorite out of the three artists that we are studying. His work has sharp and vibrant color mixed with his interesting images grabs the viewer's attention. He is well known for abstract images, but he was also skilled in architecture, painting, sculpting and interior design, to name a few. Much of his work can be seen in magazines.The element of design that I like the most in Bayer's work is by far color. His pieces has rich and loud colors, which makes his work have an attention grabbing appearance.Bayer was the latest living Bauhaus mentor.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Walter Gropius

DOB:May 18, 1883

DOD: July 5, 1969

 Finally, the mind behind the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius. Groupis was skilled in multiple fields, but his strongest was architecture and design. His focus was primarily on designing buildings and designing interiors. However, he did work with typography as seen in the photo on the bottom right, for Bauhaus. He too, like Breuer, were the architecture masters of their time. The element I like the most about Gropius' designs is the space he has and uses in his artwork. He uses a lot of positive and negative space in his work which is really interesting to me. 

-r.h.

The Big Three

Art can make an individual feel something; the emotion a piece of art may cause one to feel may not be uniform across the viewing audience. Not only can art make one feel something, it can also tell a story or deliver a message to an audience. The message art can display to an audience can be straight forward and convey a message that is the same for each viewer, or can convey a message that can be interpreted in multiple
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Paula Scher
 http://www.pentagram.com/#/home

Scher's work stands out to me because if you look closely, her artwork is made of text, and text only. What is most intriguing to me is that she makes her designs in the shapes of states, countries, and seen above, continents. The work is sophisticated, and it has a continuous nature to it because it keeps your eye moving all over the page. Not only is Scher's work map themed, she has also done work designing logos for CNN, Citi Bank and the New York Ballet; and designed album covers for artists such as Boston, Lady Gaga and the New York Philharmonic.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––





James Victore
http://www.jamesvictore.com
                                               

When I first saw Victore's artwork I felt a sense of sarcasm and wittiness in some pieces of art, such as the piece above. Some of his pieces are very scratchy and incorporates text in a free form. Other pieces of art Victore creates are touchy subjects that are usually censored in todays society, but he still does not disappoint to create them.  However, some of his works are related to current affairs including this work about nuclear warfare.

 Victore's work can vary from funny, to sophisticated, to witty and even serious. He captures the attention audiences with pieces that forces the question, "Why on earth did he create this?" to come up. His work can be simple, one line designs, or complex text and scribble designs. After observing and analyzing his artwork, I slowly catch myself becoming a fan of  his "against-the-grain" and sarcastic style.



–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Setphan Sagmeister
http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com

Sagermeister's work is unlike the other works observed because he incorporates all three elements of art the previous artists do not use. His work uses typography, design, and photography in creative ways. Some of his posters were made specifically for subways in NYC, but most of his work is design based and exhibited in museums and galleries. 

Most of Sagermeister's work has actual photographs with design edited onto it, but some work like

the work below is completely digital. His artwork portrays a feeling of seriousness but also some sophistication. His work is very well known, but like Victore's work, censored because of the nature of the work he produces.






~r.h.