Blog #8: A Tribute to Past Art Styles

As we all know, the past makes the future and so it has to me when it comes to art. In Graphic Design I prefer to refer to the past for inspiration since I see the past as an exiting life I wished I could live. From the past the 20th Century is one of the most advancing influential century's in world history with many events in art and culture. As the 20th century rolled in, many world events made dramatic changes in life and eventually led to great developments in art. From the 1900's to 1920's a form of art came called the Arts & Crafts style which emphasizes the idea of deconstructionism creating various geometric shapes and sizes to be applied in an orderly fashion. It also brought the crave of using various tones and shades of many colors designed with elegance and clean finished lines to create a contemporary look. Another style of this era was the Art Nouveau as of "New Art" to represent improved design ideas used by graphic designers, architects and applied artists like Picasso. In the first half of the 1920's the influence of Gothic design was popular. However it was used in a modern fashion using black and white simplifying design. In the second half of the 1920's and throughout the 1930's and early 1940's Art Deco and Streamline Modern design became a major thrill in art to relate to the times. The poster above is a personal favorite it gives a sense of clean and simple design to attract people. As Americans were eager for a new modern life after World War I they felt that modernism was a great way to represent that. Art Deco used black & white colored graphics with clean typography. This method was applied to all types of art. cities were built and scattered with the movement including fashion and transportation design. As we know here in New York we see that the largest building the Empire State Building was built using this style censoring that Art Deco is powerful and dominant. However, after the end of World War II designers began searching for new ways to express post-war America. This introduced the use of new machines and methods to make art more realistic and much more simpler. By the 1970's Brutalism a major Cold War era design became popular and by the late 70's design influenced by the disco crave rolled in with nocturnal colors streamlined typography with shiny gleaming lights and sexual appealing art. The 80's intoduced the use of computers to introduced a new of design making art a oasis of galaxies and neon colors to represent the times. Velvetant.net shows a great example of how modern art has become compared to the start of the century. These styles have influenced the way artist including myself to make extravagant artwork to build a good future for art.