Lecture: Design and Modernity

Post WWI - Russian Revolution and rejection of history and design ornament

Baroque 1600-1700 emotionally expressive. dramatic curvilinear forms. faith, power and prestige. ornamental and lavish.

Industrialisation
1712 Steam Engine
1775 James Watt
1840 Manchester - First industrial city in the world.
1851 - Crystal Palace - Joseph Paxton. Design synonymous with decoration.
1840 Dilemma of style.
1900 Arts and Crafts Movement. 1834 - 1896 William Morris “utility is just as important as beauty”. Simple forms and good quality
1889 William Morris. Carpet design and wallpaper. The social function of design.
1894 Luois Sullivan “Form [ever] follows function”.
1903 (1900’s) Frank Lloyd Wright - emphasis on primary forms coming through.
Werkbund (German Work Federation). 1895 Henry Van de Velde

Factory
site of production
worker
honest
pragmatism
opposite of art

1908 Peter Behrens - designer and consultant for AEG.

28 July 1914 - WWI 20 million military and civilian deaths. Loss of Rationality. Utopian fervour for a more rational world.

Russian Constructivists
1915 Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism.
1920 Alexander Rodchenko - Construction no. 127
1920 Vladimir Tatlin - Monument to the Third International
1925-30 YakovChernikhov - Fundamentals of Modern Architecture
1928 Katarzyna Kobro - Spatial Composition No. 4

Post-war health concerns. Metaphor for a bright new future.

Italian Futurism - SPEED
1913 Umberto Boccioni
Eintseins Theory of Relativity. Body and Space become one.

1914 Antonio Sant ‘Elia
de Stijl - Netherlands
1911 Piet Mondriam

The social aspects of design. Design has a socialist function: to make you a better person.

Internationalism of the Arts
The new, the social spirit of technology to transform the way people live.

Bauhaus
1919-1925 Weimar
1925-1932 Dessau

Ethos:
work
creativity
value

combining to make a total work of art.

Design as a collective process. Fine Art being the individual against the collective. Emphasis on craftwork.

1921 Marianne Brant
1926 Grete Lihotzky “Frankfurt kitchen”. The kitchen as a production line. An efficient kitchen.

Modernism starting to become a style (International Style) rather than a movement.