Before, after and during the First World War there was a revolution brewing across Europe and Russia. There was a need to break away from reminders of the war and it was led by a new generation of artists who brought about major changes. Revolution shaped the way for new art styles to emerge, following the devastation of the war.
In Europe…
In 1917, the De Stijl movement was beginning in the Netherlands by designers who sought after the universal laws of balance and harmony, while working in an abstract geometric style. Europe was coming into the post-war era and this geometric abstraction was attractive as it didn’t suit just one country, but could be linked to any. This removed the feeling of nationalism in the art, which people didn’t want to associate with following the conflict.
Theo van Doesburg (1884-1931) was an Amsterdam impressionist who had a very flamboyant personality and was heavily influenced by van Gogh. He is considered the founder and guiding spirit of the de Stijl movement. Everything suddenly changed with paintings now originating from the mind rather than the surroundings. Van Doesburg explored colour and grids and taking high detailed images and simplifying them down to simple shapes, a prime example is his abstract cow studies. He also designed a full typeface based solely off the square, Stedelijk.
Van Doesburg was joined by the paint Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) who had returned from fighting in the war to Paris, which was the epicentre of where art was flourishing after the war. Mondrian limited his colour palette and used grids which led to some interesting results. He moved from the traditional landscape painting to a symbolic style. By this point, abstract paintings were being composed using only horizontal and vertical lines, and the colours red, yellow and blue.
Meanwhile in Russia…
Russian constructionism had a profound impact on modern art. Many artists started to look at abstract colour and geometric shapes as tools to build with.
Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) was a post war, avant-garde artist who founded a painting style of basic forms and pure colour, which he called ‘suprematism’. With past experience in futurism and cubism, he created an elemental geometric abstraction which was new and completely non-objective, which people were looking for after the war.
“Expression of feeling…no practical values, no ideas”
El Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a painter, architect, graphic designer and photographer. No one realised the potential of the constructionist ideology like Lissitzky. He created experimental and abstract imagery, based off the knowledge he had of the mathematical and structural properties of architecture. Lissitzky developed a painting style which he called ‘PROUNS’, which is an acronym for ‘projects for the establishment of a new art’. He is perhaps best known for his 1919 poster called “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”, which was a propaganda poster that still influences designers today.
“An interchange station between painting and architecture”
Alexander Rodchenko was one of the original founders of constructivism and was a strong influence for a lot of designers who followed after him. Rodchenko focused on photomontage and photography after originally training in the disciplines of painting and graphic design. He called for artists to stop producing useless things and turn to poster. Rodchenko’s intention within his work was to shock the viewer by using high and low angles, while also being informative with multiple perspectives.
“Art for art’s sake”
Introducing blue, yellow and red…
From 1919 to 1933, the Bauhaus combined crafts with the fine arts. The movement was led by Walter Gropius, beginning with his manifesto which was published in German newspapers, which attracted a new generation of artists and teachers to “breathe life into an old machine”.
It was the house of construction and school of building based on the idea of painting a total piece of art with all areas of art brought together. The Bauhaus continued to influence all industries up until the Nazi’s came to power. In 1933, one of the most important design schools of the twentieth century was forced to close its doors.
There’s always a silver lining…
The growing cloud of persecution by the Nazis led a lot of Bauhaus staff and students to join the flight of creative intellectuals and designers to the West. As a result, this broadened the influence of the Bauhaus movement, as a lot of the faculty members took up posts in American universities, influencing a new generation on the other side of the world.
Over a short timespan, the Bauhaus created a modern design movement in architecture, product design and visual communications, whose influence is still visible in design all around us today.
MEGGS’ History of Graphic Design by Meggs & Purvis