This week, we covered many styles from cubism, futurism to something I’ve never heard of…vorticism. I did not like this style at all. It had a lot of spinning/moving abstract imagery in geometric form. There was some type of pattern treatment with strong lines in the works as well, which I found quite unappealing and a mess. I know that most everyone will agree or write about their favorite style and that is cubism. I have to agree though. That was my favorite style of the night. Cubism had a couple different versions, such as analytical and synthetic. Analytical cubism had sort of a monochromatic, grey and brown aesthetic that tiels to the natural world. I loved the color tones. It’s somewhat muted and sad/depressing. I wouldn’t say I’m a sad person, but I like the natural/textural/browns in this type of treatment. That’s why I chose cubism as the style I liked. For example:

Violin and Jug (1910) – Georges Braque (1882 – 1963)

Now for the other, synthetic cubism…this has a lot of texture. There’s usage of collages and much brighter colors. This style was probably more significant than analytical. Artists used more mediums, for instances, newspaper might be used as a way to make a collage. It has a flatter, richer quality to it as well…especially in the still life pieces that we viewed. One of the most colorful and vibrant pieces that caught my attention were by artists Robert & Sonia Delaunay. They had strong, bright and bold colors. It had lots of geometric shapes and it was very abstracted, compared to some of the other pieces that you could actually figure out to some degree (you might see a figure, face or movement of a body in a painting in an abstract style but still tell what it was without it being completely abstracted/deformed/distracted).

Cubism was significant in the history of art and graphic design because when photography came along it shifted the style of painting in a huge way. We started seeing this in terms of modern art in the world of graphic design. What else can paintings do? Artists started bringing out the emotions/feelings through this style, versus a more realistic approach in styles during the previous art movements.

Do I see the influence of this style in today’s graphic design? I would say, yes. I can’t think of an artist who might have been inspired by cubism and uses in in their work today, but I would definitely say they apply these characteristics to their own work in some way. Geometric forms/shapes and abstract art is very modern and timeless. I think this style opened a lot of doors as far as portraying emotion through a painting. When we look at it, it’s more than just colors and blocks. What is the artist trying to say? It’s quite influential.