Aeropittura which can be translated as aeropainting is very important for the era of Futurism that is the second generation, after 1926. Most of the painters who did aeropainting were very fascinated with the aerial technology, flights and for them aerial landscape and aeroplanes were very important subjects of matter to paint. However styles varied. Some paintings were abstract, even Mussolini portraits were painted, religious paintings were also done.
Futurism is a movement that is both social and artistic. It first originated in Italy during 20th century. It is a movement that is fascinated with future and its objects. Speed was a very important theme as was technology, youth, cars, airplanes, industry etc. Like I said it first originated in Italy but also it affected England, Russia etc.
There wasn’t a single medium in which the futurists practiced. There were futurist paintings, futurist sculptures, futurists theatere, futurist films etc. The movement also included graphic design, industrial design, fashion, textile, architecture and music. Gastronomy even was affected.
Natalia Goncharova The Forest, c.1913
The Futurist Manifesto was very important in defining the parameters of Futurism. It was written by Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The main points were that futurism rejected past, was fascinated with the future, technology, industry and technology. The contents of the manifestation were that; Italy is a present country and has an active industry. Here, while it is not openly said, nationalism is hinted. In another article, fascism is hinted. It is written that war is very important for the health of the human soul. This glorifying of war very much influenced the ideology of fascism.
Neville Brody is a typographer and after Macintosh computers emerged and is famous for being cutting edge and pushing boundaries. He is probably the most famous graphic artist of his generation. He worked for the Face magazine, and with his contribution the magazine was very influential and it was even called ‘Style Bible’ because most of the magazines worldwide was influenced by Neville Brody’s typographical approach which was very fluid and expressive. Around these times Neville Brody didn’t use any computer. First it was very difficult learning for him to play around with a Macintosh but then he was very inspired because he felt that he could delve into typography more since manipulating typography was very good for him. Traditional methods had outcomes that weren’t so much advanced as the computers’ results. Neville Brody was inspired by mainly punk style. Also he was very much inspired by Dadaism and Pop Art.
Emigre is a digital type foundry. It was founded by Zuzana Licko and Rudy VanderLans. With the arrival of Macintosh computers, there was this new medium and with this new medium you could design new typefaces digitally. Emigre took advantage of this new medium. Emigre is important for making fonts that are made on computer and that are going to be used on computers. It was the first company to do this.
Throughout most of eighties and nineties Emigre created lots of fonts. They were cutting edge. Also they were criticised a lot because of their standarts for graphic design. Some saw Emigre as opposite to Modernist ideals and that it was a mirror for our culture’s degradation. But mostly it was celebrated for its cutting edge and strong style.
Emigre also had a magazine. The real aim was to show these new fonts created. It also had a lot of essays on contemporary design etc.
Here are some pages from Emigre’s 70th issue which is a look back on older issues.
He was born in Cracow. He mainly designed posters, drew, painted, illustrated books and designed stages. He had mainly 2 styles. One was social realism that was the style of his early posters. The second style was more popular and was prevelant in his later posters. He designed this very colorful posters for Cryk.
Cryk means contemporary Polish art circus posters. The style is very characteristic. Lively and vibrant colors are used. The texts that are used are hand lettered. Linear design, humor, painterly gestures like brushstrokes are other characteristics. These posters are not advertisements, they are circus posters that are meant to interest the people passing by the street and interest them in the nearby circus. He designed 1 poster for Cryk, that is Homage to Picasso.
He was both a photographer and a graphic designer. He was Polish. He was the art director for Elle and Vogue. He designed posters which were exhibited in group exhibitions.
Below you can see a poster he designed for the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. The poster is very expressive and very fitting for a movie that is about the division of psyche.
There are many great details such as the texture of fingerprints used in the dress or the very interesting and limited use of color inserted inside the head, making it even more striking.
Art Deco as a term was not commonly used in 1920s. It was first called Style Moderne or Paris 1925. In the year 1925 there was an exhibition called ‘Exposition Internationale des Art Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes’. In the exhibition this new style of art and design was shown. After that in 1960s, this style was given the name ‘Art Deco’ and we still use it now.The aim of Art Deco was to distinguish between decorative and fine arts and giving the importance to the role of artist as craftsmen once again. Art Deco also was fond of machine technolohies, geometric materials and new materials as Bahaus if we were to compare them.Art Deco originated in France as this decorative, luxurious style and then spread to USA, and in the thirties it became more modernistic in approach. Art Deco was popular for its designers and architects but there were also many painters contributing to Art Deco. Tamara de Lempicka, Rene Buthaud, Raphael Delorme and Jean Dupas are examples.
Tamara de Lempicka is best known for her Art Deco style paintings. She was born in Poland in 1898. We can say that her subject matter is highly exotic. She painted elefantly dressed figures set to a backdrop of the Paris high society. Her paintings are very stylish and really one of a kind. The style is very geometrical and defines the Art Deco period. It shares some elements with cubism, but with a softer approach. It is also very clean and slick.
Her approach is like this because she really disliked Impressioist paintings as to her they painted very bad and the colors they used were dirty. So the style Tamara de Lempicka used was very elegant as was her subject matters.
The painting above is a self portrait and done for the cover of a fashion magazine in Germany.
Auto-Journal in 1974, “the self-portrait of Tamara de Lempicka is a real image of the independent woman who asserts herself. Her hands are gloved, she is helmeted, and inaccessible; a cold and disturbing beauty [through which] pierces a formidable being—this woman is free!” ( Quote taken from Wikipedia)
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