Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect.  He was born in 1888 and died in1964.  He is one of the main pioneers of the De Stijl movement and the designer of the Red and Blue chair and the Rietveld Schroder house.

In 1917 he opened his own workshop and set up a business as a cabinet-maker.  Unlike the designers of the Art Nouveau movement, he aimed at designing furniture which will eventually be mass produced in factories.  He was not exactly a fan of decoration and craftsmanship.
in 1918 he started hi own furniture company and modified his 1917 design of the Red and Blue chair.  In 1919 he officially joined the De Stijl movement and became an architect in that same year.

"In 1923, Walter Gropius the head of the Bauhaus, invited Rietveld to view the exhibit at the Bauhaus.  In 1924, Rietveld designed his first building called The Rietveld Schroder house"(Wikipedia).  At a first glance one will already be able to tell that it is a house very influenced by the De Stijl movement.  Rietveld focused a lot of the functionality of the house.  For example, the bedroom can either be one big bedroom or it can be divided into two by a folding wall and the stairs can be closed off too by means of a folding wall.  He focused a lot on the practicality and comfort of the house.






















Fashion today is extremely influenced by the De Stijl movement.  Designers have literally translated Rietveld's Red and Blue chair onto their cloathing.

 

Theo Van Doesburg

Theo Van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, architect, writer, poet and designer.  He lived between 1883 and 1931 and is known to be the founder of the De Stijl movement.  Doesburg held his first exhibition in 1908 and from 1912 onwards he supported his works by writing in magazines. (Information taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/theo-van-doesburg)

The De Stijl movement was very particular as a style.  It made use of the primary colors and the non-colors (black, grey and white).  Works were usually done by putting together geometric shapes of different sizes and distinguishing them with a black bold outline and different vibrant colors.  The paintings that fall under the De Stijl movement and the furniture that falls under the movement are very similar.






Theo Van Doesburg's subject matter of his designs changed a lot over the years.  He regarded himself as a Modern artist and was very influenced by Vincent Van Gough.  After reading Wassily Kandinsky's 'Ruckblicke' he realized that there is a spiritual and abstract level in painting that originates from ones mind. 

Doesburg criticizes Futurism and the idea of speed and motion in design.  He realizes the importance of line and how line can make or destroy a design.  In 1922, Doesburg moves to Weimar with the intention of making an impression on The Bauhaus leader, Walter Gropius.  He tries to influence The Bauhaus and tries spread the De Stijl movement. (Information taken from Wikipedia)




Apart from being a painter, Theo Van Doesburg was also an architect.  He designed various houses for different architects.  Together with Georges Vantongerloo and Sophie Taeuber-Arp he designed the Café Aubette in Strasbourg (Image on the right).

Van Doesburg was also interested in the Dada movement.  He posted Dada poetry and Dada art.

Together with works of other designers of this style such as Wassily Kandinsky, many of his works can be found in the Guggenheim museums in Venice, New York, Bilbao and Abu Dhabi.

William Morris

Portrait, William Morris


William Morris was an English textiles designer, artist and writer who was very closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts movement.  He was born in 1834 and died in1896.
Morris founded a design firm with the artist Eduard Burne-Jones and the poet Dante Rossetti and was extremely influenced by the decoration of the houses and churches of the 20th century. 

Several years after Morris got married he challenged himself with two tasks.  The first was to design and build a house for himself and his wife Jane and the other to start a firm of decorators and reinstating decoration as a fine art.  The house he designed and named 'Red House' was designed for himself and his wife.  Inside everything was designed by Morris and his wife.  All ceiling paintings and wall paintings were done by himself and Jane.  His furniture was painted by Morris and Rossetti and the stained glasses was done by Burne-Jones.

Red House in Kent

The strange thing about this house is that it has no wallpaper or printed or woven fabrics or any carpets which Morris and his firm specialized in.

Morris firm,  Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, took on various skills like stained glass, glass-work, metal-work, paper hangings, murals and carpets.  The decoration of churches was the most important for the firm. 

Today Morris's works are still very influential.  We can see influences of his textile patterns in many houses.  He was all about craftsmanship and really tried to encourage people to move away from mass production.  He encouraged originality and hand made designs as to him they were much more valuable than those designs made by machines.



Emile Galle

Portrait, Emile Galle

Emile Galle was a French designer who formed part of the Art Nouveau movement.  He lived between 1846 and 1904.  He was one of France's most celebrated designers of the time.  As a furniture designer he worked most with glass however, he has other pieces made with wood.

Galle was the leading designer of the Art Nouveau style and of the modern renaissance of French glass-work.  Emile Galle stated out by working in his fathers factory.  His first works were made of clear glass and were carefully engraved in enamel.  As he proceeded he became better and better and started to work with colored glass.








Vase by Emile Galle showing
Japanese influences.

His glass-work was of great success in the Paris world exhibition of 1878.  Galle's originality in his works made a great impression in the Paris exhibition of 1889.  Over the years, Galle also became interested in Japanese art. 

Emile Galle was very experimental.  He liked to try many different techniques.  Infact his works are very versatile.  He uses methods like wheel cutting, acid etching, metallic foils and using air bubbles to create a certain effect.
When he returned to his home town his aim was to promote craftsmanship and try influence people to move away from the idea of mass production and machinery. 

As he grew in popularity, so did his company.  By the end of the 19th his workshop employed almost 300 employees.  He worked with other famous Art Nouveau artists like Eugene Rosseau.  His glass enterprise continued to flourish till 1913.  His works were very naturalistic.  Most of them were predominantly floristic and soft.  He aimed to depict nature and communicate a sense of utopia his audience.


















Emile Galle also conducted a study on botany and this was the main influence on his works.  Almost all of the time his works had leaves, ethereal flowers, vines and fruits.  Galle also created some furniture inspired by the Rococo style.  These usually had an organic feel to them.  They were made out of wood and still kept the theme of nature.

Today Emile Galle's works are still very popular, especially with collectors.  His works are very highly priced and valuable. 

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian architect and furniture designer.  He was a modernist.  At the peak of the 20th century, Marcel Breuer was considered to be one of the world's most popular architects.  Breuer was one of the youngest students at the Bauhaus being just 18 years old.  He was noticed by Gropius and made head of the carpentry workshop. 

Wassily Chair

He was fist recognized for designing bicycle handle bar-styled street furniture.  Breuer was highly inspired by Le Corbusier's designs and also those of Mies Van Der Rohe.  His Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer was thought to have been designed for Wassily Kandinsky however this was not the case.  Kandinsky was a mere admirer of the chair, so much so that Breuer made a copy of the chair for Kandinsky's home.  Breuer's Italian manufacturer gave the chair its name as he learned that Kandinsky liked it a lot. 



Frank House, Pittsburgh

Because Marcel Breuer was a Jew, he had to move to London in the 1930's due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. In 1937, Breuer teamed up with Gropius.  One of their most popular works that they completed together was the 'Frank House' in Pittsburgh.
Breuer also designed the Whitney museum for American art in New York city.


Some other works of Marcel Breuer include:








William Wardell

William Wardell was a civil engineer and architect who lived between 1823 and 1899.  He was notable for his work in Australia, England and Scotland. (Information taken from Wikipedia)

His most notable works include the St Patrick's cathedral in Melbourne, The University of Sydney and St John's Collage.  He worked in both Gothic and Classical styles.  Although Wardell built many public buildings, He also had a private practice building houses and buildings for individuals.  Many times he teamed up to work with his friend Augustus Pugin who was an English architect, designer, critic and artist and who simulated him to Wardell's interest in the Gothic Revival.




Between the years 1846 and 1857, Wardell designed close to 30 churches one of which being St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.  Wardell became attracted to the catholic church through its architecture.  He was not a spiritual person and Pugin often tried to inject interest in Catholicism into Wardell.  In the end he ended up converting to Catholicism, creating a new life and a new family for him.  He used his architecture and designs as a way of praising and thanking God.  His architecture and sculpture give us an insite to his beliefs and views on religion.

St Mary's Cathedral Sydney.

St Patrick's Cathedral Melbourne.

Wardell was responsible for the construction of all the public buildings in Victoria, Melbourne.  Some of these public buildings are attributed to him.  Wardell was also a member of the Central Board of Health.

St Patrick's cathedral is one of William Wardell's most famous and prestigious works. 






Wardell's interiors were very soft.  Light and tranquil pastel colors are used together with gold.  The gold gives the room a sense of richness and wealth.  The image on the left shows the interior of a government house in Melbourne.

William Wardell was on of the major pioneers in the Gothic Revival period.  He was fascinated by the style of the buildings and felt that his designs brought him closer to his new found religion.

Rene Jules Lalique

Rene Jules Lalique

Rene Jules Lalique was born in Paris in 1860 and died in 1945.  He was  French glass designer know for his perfume bottles, jewellery and chandeliers. (Information from Wikipedia)

When Lalique was younger him and his family moved to a suburb of Paris and travelled around France during the summer.  This had a great influence on his designs as they were very naturalistic.




At a point Lalique was working as a freelance artist and designed some pieces for French jewelers Cartier and Boucheron.  in 1890, Lalique opened his own business and designed his own jewellery and glass pieces.  His designs formed part of the Art Nouveau movement.  He became one of the most famous in his field. 

Horse by Jules Lalique


He also became noted for his work in the Art Décor style.
Lalique was responsible for the lighted glass and colored glass columns found in the dining room of the Ss Normandie.

'Le Grand Salon' Ss. Normandie



Laliques style:

Lalique was very inspired my nature.  For this reason he formed part of the Art Nouveau movement.  The Art Nouveau movement was all taking natural forms and injecting them into the designers work.  Most of the time Laliques work included insect or animal figures.  The colours were usually very soft yet rich.

As mentioned before, Lalique was very influenced by the French countryside and also by Japanese art.  He incorporated many details typical of Japanese art into his designs.  He used various materials in his works like for example, pearls, enamel, ivory, semi-precious stones and glass. (Information taken from http://rlalique.com/rene-lalique-biography)

Today the works of Lalique can be found almost all over the world.  There are auctions constantly being held world wide, selling his works.  Exhibitions are also constantly being held and many of his works can be seen in various museums.  The works of Lalique still flourish in the public eye.  His works are also being sold on Ebay.  Collectors say that his works are the most sought after and are the most valuable.   

Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius was born in 1883 and lived till 1969.  He was a German architect and was the founder of the Bauhaus school.  After completing his studies in 1907, worked for Peter Behrens who had a practice where the AEG Tubine hall was built.  In 1910 he started his own practice in Berlin and designed the Fagus works in Alfeld.

Fagus in Alfeld
Walter Gropius

Together with Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, Gropius is considered to be a leading pioneer in Modern architecture.  In 1910 he became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund  where both him and Henry Van De Velde tried to promote individual creativeness and not standardization.  Gropius hired Johannes Itten, Gerhard Marcks, Lyonel Feininger, Georg Muche, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, and László Moholy-Nagy.

The 'Bauhaus'

The 'Bauhaus' consisted of training and practicing different workshops.  Because of politics, the Bauhaus had to move and eventually shut down.  He then founded a joint architecture practice with Marcel Breuer.  Together, Breuer and Gropius built the Pennsylvania Pavilion for the 1929 World Far in New York City.
 


Walter Gropius Residence in Lincoln

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was and American born in 1867 and died in 1959.  He was an architect, interior designer and writer.  He believed that he was the best architect in the world as the architecture in the past 5oo years were not in harmony with nature and organic.  He believed a building should be natural and appropriate to the time and place.  His aim was to incorporate the building with its surroundings.  He was an organic designer who was working during the time of Art Deco.  His works are still extremely famous and popular today.

In my opinion his most well known and prestigious work is his 'Fallingwater' house which was built on a waterfall in 1935 in Southwestern Pennsylvania.   Today it is a Natural Historic Landmark.  The American Institute of Architects voted it the most significant building over the last 125 years.  It was designed as a weekend home for the Kufmann family and has now been turned into a museum where over 1 million people visited it as from January 2008. (Information taken from Smithsonian.com)

Fire place

Fallingwater By Frank Lloyd Wright

The Kufmann family wanted this house to be big enough to entertain large amounts of people and wanted to have 3 bedrooms plus one guest bedroom (making 4 bedrooms).  This created a challenge for Wright.  The house has a strong Japanese influence.  The fire place acts as the heart of the living room as it ties everything together and joins the outside and the inside together.



Another one of his famous works is the 'Winslow House' which was his first ever privately commissioned job.  It has walls made from roman brick.  His aim for this house was to eliminate a vertical motion and instead produce a horizontal motion.  The windows are big and long and they go from sill to soffit.

Art Deco

Art Deco was a movement that flourished between the 1920's and 1940's.  It borrowed elements from all the different styles in the past in order to create a new movement for the future.  The style owed most of its popularity to the great international exhibition in modern and decorative arts which was held in Paris in 1925.  The style embraced almost every aspect of decorative arts including, architecture, interiors, painting fashion, jewelry, book binding, costume, glass, silver and ceramics.  It was all about glamour.  In the beginning it was about simplifying forms and fitting it to suit function.  Architecture embraced all shaved, streamlined curved shapes that were sleek and highlighted with painted, vertical lines that pointed upwards creating an upward movement and new ages glamorous fonts for writing.

Chrysler Building
New York City

Many Art Deco skyscrapers had a stepped pyramidal shape like the Chrysler building in New York City,
Light and space were two very important elements in the architecture of the Art Deco movement.  Elements from around the world influence the architecture and interiors of the buildings of the time.  For example in Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Fallingwater' we can see some Japanese influence. 



Frank Lloyd Wright's
'Fallingwater' interior.

Art Deco was a movement that satisfied a particular need.  The need for a style that will not be changed because it is adaptable for every culture.  It was about combining contemporary art into a lifestyle.

The term 'Art Deco' was first used by the architect Le Corbusier who used the term in a series of articles in his journal L'Esprite Nouveau.  The term was used to distinguish the new style that had emerged during the Belle Epoque.  The roots of this style date all the way back to the period of the ancient Egyptians and greeks.  It was also influenced by cubism, functionalism, modernism, constructivism and Futurism. (Information taken from Wikipedia)

The fashion designer Holly Fulton based her whole Autumn/Winter 2013 collection on Art Deco and so did Herve Leger in his Spring/Summer 2013 collection.  As we can see the Art Deco movement is still very influential today.  The film 'The Great Gatsby' That came out in May 2013 is set in the 1920's.  The director of the film brings out the Art Deco elements very clearly.

Task 3 Part 2 - Individual Work: Norman Bel Geddes and Andy Warhol.

Streamlining, better known as Art Modern or Streamline Modern is an offshoot from the Art Deco design.  It began in the 1930's in America.  It was a movement that started because of the Great Depression of the 1930's.  Industrial designers took Art Deco designs however modified them.  The whole idea of this style was to create clean organic designs that most of the time evoked a sense of speed.

It is believed that this movement was influenced a lot by Constructivism, which is a philosophy that began in Russia in 1919. 

The 1930's was a decade packed with events.  So many things were happening due to the increase and fast growth in technology,  For example:

- 1931, The Empire State Building in New York City was finally completed.
- 1933, prohibition ends in the United States
-1935, social security enacted in the United States.
- 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge is opened.
- 1938, Volkswagen Beatle is created.
-1939, World War two begins and the helicopter was invented.

"The main characteristics of streamlining were: Horizontal orientation, curved edges, Glass brick walls, portholes as windows, chrome hardware, Stucco finishing on exterior walls, flat roofing and subdued colours." (Taken from wikipedia)

Some of the main pioneers of this style were: Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey and Raymond Loewy.

Norman Bel Geddes

Norman Bel Geddes

 Norman Bel Geddes was born in 1893 in Ohio and died in 1958.  His career started in 1916 when Bel Geddes began designing sets for Aline Barnsdall's theater in Los Angeles.  He later designed a scene for the Metropolitan Opera in New York.  Apart from these, he also designed costumes for different shows in America. 


"In 1927 Bel Geddes opened an industrial design studio and began to design many commercial products.  His designs were very much futuristic."

Taking 'Airliner Number 4' as an example, Norman Bel Geddes designed this in 1929.  His design for this aircraft included a solarium, deck-game areas, an orchestra and a gymnasium.

His designs were so extravagant and out of the ordinary that he became very well know.  His famous designs lead him become one of the key figures in first generation industrial design.

Bel Geddes's most famous achievement was the 'Futurama' that he presented at the 1939 New York World's Fair.  This was a model of how Bel Geddes imagined the post-war city to look like.  His ideas can be contrasted to Le Corbusier's plans for the way Paris should have looked like at the time.  Bel Geddes envisioned a city consisting  of tall towers, big buildings and an idea of movement.


He is still considered the father of the term 'Streamlined' .







Pop design is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950's in Britain.   Pop design was an immediate reaction to consumerism which was becoming more and more popular as it created a solution to the populations needs.  Unemployment in the 1930's was becoming more common and the second World War drastically reduced the populations spending's.  Companies were constantly trying to come up with new ways of getting people to buy things.  As a result discount stores began to target the middle class by selling good quality products for good prices.  In this way the middle class people began to afford things they could never have afforded in the past.  After world war two, more people began to buy things.  Advertising also increased spending rates especially since the invention of the television.  Consumerism is what brought about Pop design.

After the second World War people began to express themselves in different ways.  Pop design included items which were fun and exciting and also not so expensive.  Pop art involves a variety of different aspects from advertising to comic books.  It is a form of abstract expressionism very similar to the Dada movement.

Verner Panton

Verner Panton was born in 1926 and died in 1998.  He was born in Denmark and is considered to be one of the most influential furniture and interior designers yet.  He alway had very innovative design ideas and experimented with a number of different materials.  He liked to use plastics and used many different, vibrant colours.  Today he is still very influential and some of his works are still being mass produced.  With his designs, Panton sought to create magical,, unique, imaginative and fashionable interiors.

One of his most popular designs was the 'Panton Chair' (Figure one).  This design won several prizes around the world.  It is considered to be a design icon of the 20th century.  This chair was the first chair to be made completely out of plastic.  It cantilever base and its flexible material make it very comfortable to sit on.  The Panton Chair is still in product and is still used today.  Figure Two shows a newly constructed business cafeteria which makes use of the design.

Figure one

Figure Two

Because of the housing shortage, Panton was a big fan of high-rise way of living.  In the middle of this crisis he came up with the design of the 'Living Tower'.  This design was basically a seating area onto of another.  The idea was to create a 'multi-functional vertical unit'.  This seating unit is made from a wooden frame covered in fabric.  The right part can be separated from the left part to create two separate seating areas.






Both movements have been greatly influential on society.  They are both the result of social and cultural events and are still very influential today.

Referencing:

Paul Goldberger, 2013, Back To The Future, http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/10/norman-bel-geddes-designer-original-futurama, Accessed on 25/01/2014

Wikipedia, 2014, Norman Bel Geddes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bel_Geddes, Accessed on 25/01/2014

Jennifer Roseberg, 2013, '1930's Timeline', http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1930timeline.htm, Accessed on 25/01/2014

Wikipedia, 2014, 'Streamline Moderne', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamline_Moderne, Accessed on 25/01/2014


2011, 'History Of Consumerism Since 1865', http://conhistoryjp.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/1930-1960/, Accessed on 25/01/2014

Bonluxat, 'Verner Panton Panton Chair', http://www.bonluxat.com/a/Verner_Panton_Panton_Chair.html, Accessed on 13/03/2014