English Reader for Designers

Transcription

Ôåäåðàëüíîå àãåíòñòâî ïî îáðàçîâàíèþ
Òóëüñêèé Ãîñóäàðñòâåííûé Óíèâåðñèòåò
Àâòîðû:
Âàëèóëèíà Ò.Í.
Ãðå÷èõèí È.Å.
English Reader for Designers
Õðåñòîìàòèÿ äëÿ ÷òåíèÿ ïî àíãëèéñêîìó ÿçûêó
ÒóëÃÓ 2005
1
Ñîäåðæàíèå
Ïðåäèñëîâèå ............................................................................ 3
Art Styles ................................................................................... 4
Bauhaus ..................................................................................... 6
Art Deco ................................................................................... 1 4
Pop Art ..................................................................................... 2 2
Home furnishings .................................................................... 2 9
Gustav Klimt ............................................................................ 3 0
Art ............................................................................................. 3 2
Haitian Art ................................................................................ 5 2
The Definition of Design ........................................................ 7 4
Typography .............................................................................. 7 8
Career Management for the Independent Graphics Professional .................................................................................... 8 0
Tessellations ........................................................................... 9 5
Ceramic Design Group ......................................................... 103
Journalism ............................................................................. 106
Photography .......................................................................... 108
Home decor ........................................................................... 113
Arriving in Vienna ................................................................. 120
Definitions for the Elements and Principles of Art ........... 128
Cultural Entomology ............................................................. 130
2
Ïðåäèñëîâèå
Êíèãà äëÿ ÷òåíèÿ íà àíãëèéñêîì ÿçûêå Reader for Designers
ïðåäíàçíà÷åíà äëÿ ñòóäåíòîâ, îáó÷àþùèõñÿ ïî ñïåöèàëüíîñòÿì
«Äèçàéí», (ïðîìûøëåííûé äèçàéí, ãðàôè÷åñêèé äèçàéí, äèçàéí
êîñòþìà, èçîáðàçèòåëüíîå èñêóññòâî, èñêóññòâî èíòåðüåðà) è
øèðîêîãî êðóãà ÷èòàòåëåé, çíàþùèõ è èçó÷àþùèõ àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê.
Êíèãà âêëþ÷àåò â ñåáÿ òåêñòû ïî èñòîðèè ñîâðåìåííîãî
èñêóññòâà è äèçàéíà, áèîãðàôèè õóäîæíèêîâ è äèçàéíåðîâ, à òàêæå
ðåêëàìíûå è ïîçíàâàòåëüíûå ìàòåðèàëû. Â íåé òàêæå èìååòñÿ
áîëüøîå êîëè÷åñòâî èëëþñòðàöèé.
Ñîâðåìåííûé, æèâîé è âûðàçèòåëüíûé ÿçûê òåêñòîâ ïîìîæåò
÷èòàòåëÿì ðàñøèðèòü è îáîãàòèòü çíàíèå àíãëèéñêîãî ÿçûêà.
Òåìàòèêà êíèãè ðàñïðåäåëåíà ïî ðàçäåëàì. Ïîìèìî ðàçäåëîâ,
ïîñâÿùåííûõ îòäåëüíûì íàïðàâëåíèÿì èçîáðàçèòåëüíîãî
èñêóññòâà è èõ íàèáîëåå âûäàþùèìñÿ ïðåäñòàâèòåëÿì, â êíèãå
èìåþòñÿ òàêæå ðàçäåëû, ñâÿçàííûå ñ ñèñòåìîé õóäîæåñòâåííîãî
îáðàçîâàíèÿ â àíãëî-ãîâîðÿùèõ ñòðàíàõ, èçäàòåëüñêèì äåëîì è
ìèðîì ìîäû.
Àâòîðû êíèãè íàäåþòñÿ, ÷òî ïðåäñòàâëåííûå ìàòåðèàëû
ïîìîãóò ðàñøèðèòü è óãëóáèòü ÿçûêîâîé êðóãîçîð ÷èòàòåëåé.
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Art Styles
Pop Art
Although thought of as distinctly American, Pop Art actually began in London during the
mid-1950s. Nevertheless, the central figures among the Pop artists are all Americans, and the movement reached its zenith in New York during the 1960s. Marcel Duchamp was still active at this time
and exerted strong influence on the new gereration. Pop derives much from Dada, born from a
similar period of frustration. The term Pop Art was first used by English critic Lawrence Alloway
in a 1958 issue of Architectural Digest to describe works celebrating mass production, advertising
and consumerism. The leading Pop pioneers include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy
Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and, of course, Andy Warhol. Warhol (1930-87), perhaps the greatest Pop artist, specialized in the boring and everyday. He burst upon the public consciousness with
meticulously painted Campbell’s soup cans and three-dimensional Brillo boxes. His innovations
have greatly affected art in the 90s.
Impressionism
As a major movement in art history, Impressionism followed the Realist movement and the
invention of photography. The movement developed primarily in France during the mid 1860s and
throughout the 1870s. Although it lasted only about fifteen years in its purist form, it determined in
one way or another nearly every artistic manifestation that has taken place since. Impressionist
artists became fascinated with the transformation light brought upon natural objects and surfaces.
Color is no longer seen as the property of the object itself but of the moment of perception of light,
and thus changes with the time of day and density of the atmosphere. The Impressionists were the
first to render the full intensity of natural light and the glow of natural colors. To quote Paul Signac,
a painter of the nineteenth century who helped transform the Impressionist style in the 1880s, «the entire
surface of the [Impressionist] painting glows with sunlight; the air circulates, light embraces, caresses and
irradiates forms - it penetrates everywhere, even into the shadows it illuminates.» The princlple Impressionist
painters were Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot.
Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne also painted in an Impressionist style for a time in the early 1870s.
Dada
Attacking every cultural standard and every form of artistic activity, the roots of Dada can be
traced to the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916. Dada, a name which was intended as nonsense,
soon became international. The movement sought the discovery of authentic reality through the
abolition of traditional culture and aesthetic forms. A group was quickly organized in New York by
Marcel Duchamp, centering around Gallery 291, which had been founded by photographers Alfred
Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. The ferocity of the Dada offensive unleashed a tremendous amount of
creative activity. The leading spirit of Dada was Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). His greatest work, The
Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even executed between 1915 and 1923, is a nine foot long
construction of superimposed plate glass layers. This creation has exercised enormous influence on later
art, up to the present time.
Abstract Expressionism
Perhaps America’s greatest contribution to the history of modern art is Abstract Expressionism, which dominated the New York scene for a decade and a half subsequent to World War II. Though
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less cohesive as an art movement, its common thread centered around an opposition to the strict formalism
characteristic of much of abstract art at the time. The movement, which owed its existance to a new
evaluation of the individual, spread quickly following the defeat of totalitarianism in the Second World War.
The founders of Abstract Expressionism include Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Willem
de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko.
Futurism
Futurism developed in Italy during the first decade of the Twentieth Century. The movement
emphasized the energy and speed of the machine and was strongly opposed to existing notions of
Italy as vast museum of times past. As early as 1909 Futurists launched a program advocating the destruction
of academies and monumental cities as impediments to progress. The rhetoric was intended to inspire
public anger and to arose controversy. The members of the Futurist group included Carlo Carrà and
Umberto Boccioni. One of the last Futurist artists was Joseph Stella, whose Brooklyn Bridge series pays
homage to a structure that had become a symbol of industrial achievement.
Surrealism
As the nihilism of Dada gradually lost favor, Surrealism took the next step - that of exploring
the workings of the subconscious mind with free association of imagery and juxtaposion of subject
matter. The French author Andre Breton published «The Surrealist Manifesto» in 1924. Initially a literary
movement, artists were quick to see the possibilities afforded the emphasis on subconscious association.
The first Surrealist exhibition took place in 1925 at the Galerie Pierre in Paris. The painters most closely
associated with Surrealism were Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Rene Magritte, and Salvator Dali.
Art Deco
Art Deco refers generally to the decorative arts of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe and America.
The style derived its name from the Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in 1928. With an emphasis
centered around individuality and ornate workmanship, the movement rebelled against the contemporary
doctrines of the Bauhaus and the prototypes for machine production which were the ideals behind the
Deutscher Werkbund. Art Deco, known for its streamlined style, was hailed as the ultimate in modernity
during the 1930s. It drew inspiration from eclectic sources including Art Nouveau, Cubism, and fashion
design. The style reached its greatest heights (literally) in New York’s Chrysler Building (1928-1930) and
in the drawings of Erte, who has since become known as the “father of Art Deco.”
5
Bauhaus
Wassily Kandinsky
(1866-1944)
Born in Moscow in 1866, Kandinsky spent his early childhood in Odessa. His parents played
the piano and the zither and Kandinsky himself learned the piano and cello at an early age. The
influence of music in his paintings cannot be overstated, down to the names of his paintings «Improvisations», «Impressions», and «Compositions».
In 1886, he enrolled at the University of Moscow, chose to study law and economics, and after
passing his examinations, lectured at the Moscow Faculty of Law. He enjoyed success not only as
a teacher but also wrote extensively on spirituality, a subject that remained of great interest and
ultimately exerted substantial influence in his work. In 1895 Kandinsky attended a French Impressionist exhibition where he saw Monet’s «Haystacks at Giverny.» He stated, « ...it was from the
catalog I learned this was a haystack. I was upset I had not recognized it. I also thought the painter
had no right to paint in such an imprecise fashion. Dimly I was aware too that the object did not
appear in the picture...»
Soon thereafter, at the age of thirty, Kandinsky left Moscow and went to Munich to study lifedrawing, sketching and anatomy, regarded then as basic for an artistic education.
Ironically, Kandinsky’s work moved in a direction that was of much greater abstraction than
that which was pioneered by the Impressionists. It was not long before his talent surpassed the
constraints of art school and he began exploring his own ideas of painting - « ...I applied streaks
and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife and I made them sing with all the intensity
I could... « Now considered to be the founder of abstract art, his work was exhibited throughout
Europe from 1903 onwards, and often caused controversy among the public, the art critics, and his
contemporaries.
An active participant in several of the most influential and controversial art movements of the
20th century, among them the Blue Rider which he founded along with Franz Marc and the Bauhaus
which also attracted Klee, Geiniger, and Schonberg, Kandinsky continued to further express and
define his form of art, both on canvas and in his theoretical writings. His reputation became firmly
established in the United States through numerous exhbitions and his work was introduced to Solomon Guggenheim, who became one of his most enthusiastic supporters.
In 1933, Kandinsky left Germany and settled near Paris, in Neuilly. The paintings from these later
years were again the subject of controversy. Though out of favor with many of the patriarchs of
Paris’s artistic community, younger artists admired Kandinsky. His studio was visited regularly by
Miro, Arp, Magnelli and Sophie Tauber.
Kandinsky continued painting almost until his death in June, 1944. His unrelenting quest for
new forms which carried him to the very extremes of geometric abstraction have provided us with
an unparalleled collection of abstract art.
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History
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by an architect named Walter Gropius. Gropius came from the
Werkbund movement which sought to integrate art and economics, and to add an element of engineering
to art. The Werkbund movement was unable to achieve this integration, but the founding of the Bauhaus
saw the solution that had previously been overlooked. The Bauhaus was founded by the combining of the
Weimar Art Academy, and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School. Students at this new school were trained
by both an artist and a master craftsman, realizing the desires of Gropius to make "modern artists familiar
with science and economics, that began to unite creative imagination with a practical knowledge of
craftsmanship, and thus to develop a new sense of functional design," (Bauhaus 1919-1928 p. 13).
Ideologies
The school had three aims at its inception that stayed basically the same throughout the life of
the Bauhaus even though the direction of the school changed significantly and repeatedly. The first
aim of the school was to "rescue all of the arts from the isolation in which each then found itself,"
(Whitford p.11) to encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills. Secondly, the school set out to elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps,
teapots, etc., to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc.. The third aim was to
maintain contact with the leaders of industry and craft in an attempt to eventually gain independence from government support by selling designs to industry. With these at its basis the Bauhaus
began and influenced our lives immensely in ways that most people probably take for granted.
Innovations and Acheivments
Since the school tried to combine art with engineering and craftsmanship, innovation ran
rampant through the Bauhaus resulting in a multitude of advances affecting the most basic aspects
of life. "Everyone sitting on a chair with a tubular steel frame, using an adjustable reading lamp, or
living in a house partly or entirely constructed from prefabricated elements is benefiting from a
revolution in design largely brought about by the Bauhaus;"(Whitford p.10) getting up from this
chair looking at the lamp on my desk, and the dry wall in front of me, I feel a new respect for the
work of the Bauhaus. The practical innovations developed by the Bauhaus have profoundly effected designs favored by industry as shown by the desks and chairs that fill offices, lobbies, and
lounges across America, not to mention the portable classrooms that seem to be favored today,
delivered on trucks, propped up and bolted together and filled with those ubiquitous tubular steel
and plastic chairs. The effects of the Bauhaus stretches beyond our furniture and light fixtures, into
the realms of architecture, theater, and typography. where the designs and style of the Bauhaus are
still spoken of today.
7
The New Man
The New Technigue
A seat of learning in modern art, industrial art and architecture is restored to life in
Dessau, Germany.
Staatliches Bauhaus, the institute for experiments and education of German architecture,
industrial art and handicraft was founded in Weimar by the architect Walter Gropius in 1919. In
the middle of the 1920s Bauhaus moved to Dessau into a radically modern edifice designed by
Gropius. The new Bauhaus art institute was inaugurated on 4th December 1926. The building
complex was made of steel and glass. It was considered an architectonic wonder.
The origins of Bauhaus were far from the earlier methods of education in industrial art, art
proper and architecture. Its programme was based on the newest knowledge in pedagogy. The
idealistic basis of Bauhaus was a socially orientated programme. An artist must be conscious of his
social responsibility to the community. On the other hand the community has to accept the artist
and support him.
But above all the intention with Bauhaus was to develop creative minds for architecture and
industry and thus influence them so that they would be able to produce artistically, technically and
practically balanced utensils. The institute included workshops for making models of type houses
and all kinds of utensils, and departments of e.g. advertising art, stage planning, photography, and
typography. The neoplastic and constructive movements of art did to a great extent steer the form
lines of Bauhaus. Teachers were such masters of modern art as Kandinsky and Klee. The Bauhaus
idealogy was spread by periodicals and a notable book series called Bauhausbücher.
New Direction
Walter Gropius (1883-1969) came from the school of industrial art 'Grossherzoglich-Sachsische
Kunstbewerbe' founded by Henry van de Velden in 1906. The influence of artists on the German
industrial produce had remained rather modest and the forces had to be united.
At the beginning of October 1907 a hundred architects, designers, factory owners, and friends
of art met in Munich. They together founded the 'Deutscher Werkbund'. Its aim was to improve the
form and quality of utility wares.
Werkbund had partly got its influences from the English movement of Arts and Crafts. It was,
however, more open to machine production; but at the same time it had almost a missionary character. The openness to the industrialized society still was one of the mainstays of Werkbund's
success. Nevertheless, there was no real break-through before World War I.
Deutsches Werkbund arranged a large fair in Cologne in 1914. Instead of new ideas there were
many variants of old solutions. Gropius saw the situation.
The Influence of the War
After World War I industrial art was not any longer an individualistic phenomenon. Goals for
the activities were set collectively inside industrial art and at the same time there was an endeavor
to give new arguments for the necessity of a change. Naturally, the opposing forces had also been
strengthened by the upheavals caused by the first world war. On the other hand quite unpredicted
forces were turned free. Thus the twenties were full of contrasts, both fruitful and destructive.
The move from abundance to poverty - especially in the subdued Germany struggling with
great economical problems - created a new kind of consciousness. To begin with it appeared in the
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late expressionistic emotional manifestations and before long also in a formal asceticism. Bauhaus was a
reaction to these social changes. Social starting points and new esthetic goals were not easy to combine
with the new human being. The result was sometimes a puritanism that emphasized squareness.
On the other hand smooth, tensely stretched or softly flowing forms could be combined with brilliant,
pure colours. After the mid 1920s a certain hygienic freshness also filled the furnished rooms, and all kinds
of abundance had to step aside. No wonder, then, that the shining tubular steel was invented as furniture
material.
The education of art proper and applied arts had to be reformed. You had to have the courage
to tackle the problems of technicality and machination. And at the same time, as Henry van de
Velde pointed out, 'In his inner the artist is a glowing individualist, a free spontaneous creator'.
Startling Goals
On the basis of the experiences gained at the Weimar Bauhaus, Gropius summed up his central starting points in 1925:
'Bauhaus wishes to serve the actual development of housing, from simple utensils to the complete dwelling house. Convinced of the fact that a house and the utensils have to be in a sensible
relation to each other, Bauhaus tries to find the form of every object in its natural functions and
presuppositions by systematically experimenting in theory and practice - in forms, in the technical
and economic spheres... a subject is defined according to its being. In order that it - a dish, a chair,
a house - could be designed in such a mode that it will function well, you have to study its nature to
begin with... the study of this nature results in ?; when all the modern production means, construction, and material are strictly observed, the result are forms that - differing from the common ones
- often feel strange and startling'.
To Gropius changing the form of a product also meant a new definition of the requirements
presented to the designer: 'Bauhaus wishes to... educate a new type of worker for industry and
handicrafts, so far missing, who simultaneously has the command over techniques as well as form...
in the future, handicraft will show in a new function unit as a supporter of industrial experimental
production. Speculative experimentation in laboratory workshops create models - types - for the
production to realize'.
By the mid 1920s Gropius had defined more exactly the starting points of modern design and
its doctrines. Thus the Bauhaus curriculum combined theoretic education (a primary course and
composition theory) and practical training in the educational workshops. As teachers, Bauhaus Masters,
Gropius engaged among others Lyonel Feininger, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Oscar
Schlemmer, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
The Preliminary Course Most Important
In the focus of the basic education that everybody had to attend was the Preliminary Course.
It was the Swiss painter Johannes Itten that brought the idea and method of a preliminary course to
Bauhaus. Hungarian Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and German Josef Albers developed the preliminary
course further. Only after having passed the Preliminary Course successfully, a student was accepted to
professional studies in the workshops.
The basic education was also supported with some obligatory courses in which - for instance
the ones held by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky - the emphasis was merely on pictorial questions. Model drawing was also included in the basic education. The Bauhaus method of preliminary courses was adopted by art and design schools all over the world.
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Johannes Itten had the idea of preliminary courses with him from Vienna. He had developed it in his
art school there. He let the students take into their hands wood, bast, glass, wire, plate, and coal - often.
The material characteristics of the stuffs were studied together. The materials that were considered suitable
for it were formed into plastic figures, often works reminding of Dadaistic art, that was modern at the time.
The characteristics of the different materials, their suitability or unsuitability for artistic use were discussed
during the practical adaptation.
Works by old masters were analyzed. Their structure, composition, colour, and use of light
became objects of study. The study of colour yielded particularly essential knowledge. Itten's colour theory was based on physics as well as psychology. It was the colour theory of a sensitive artist.
Its most important aspects were the complementary and contrary effects. In these respects Itten has
remained exemplary up to present times.
Own Responsibility
The Preliminary Course aimed at removing the limitations of professionalism. Having passed
the Preliminary Course the students were ready to choose the main lines of their studies. They
could choose the workshops they wanted. In this way, the best possible starting point for progress
along the student's own capacities was given. At the same time a path was found to their own
necessary specialization, development of their own skills, and adaptation of an innovative hold to
their work. It was noted that removing the limitations of professionalism was not in conflict with
the claims for specialization. The Bauhaus system allowed for a work practice built on varied
social, technical, and methodical basic knowledge.
Specialization together with solid basic knowledge was not a risk when the students were
employed by the production. They were able to follow the changes in technology and society in a
flexible manner. Homogeneous professional roles started to dissolve in practice, or at least to change
radically. At the same time it seemed necessary for the student to take personal responsible for his
studies and the development of professional skill.
This new pedagogic approach did, of course, motivated both in vocational subjects and practical workshop work. The Bauhaus workshops were the birthplaces of new industrial designs. First
of all an industrialization of the handicrafts was realized. The results also showed in the field of
textile art. Thousands of experiments with textiles were performed. Many of them were adopted by
the factories for production, and they were also eagerly copied. Likewise photography was taken
more seriously into the curriculum at the end of the 1920s. Oskar Schlemmer lead the work of the
exhibition department. He trained painters, technicians, actors, dancers, and directors. One of the
main goals of Bauhaus was to renew architecture. The leaders of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, Hannes
Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were architects.
The Bauhaus Master Josef Albers taught in the Preliminary Courses 1923-1933. Before this
he had been a pupil of Itten. To begin with he lead the work instruction, the special aim of which
was to instruct in the use of tools. From 1928 onwards the responsibility of the complete two-term
course was Albers's. Kandinsky's part of the preliminary education was a seminar on analytic drawing
and colour. Kandinsky was one of the central personalities of Bauhaus.
Problems Ahead
Personal relations in Bauhaus were not as harmonious as they may seem half a century later.
Itten left after strong disagreements. Moholy-Nagy quit in 1928, Klee in 1931. Some, for instance
Kandinsky and Albers, stayed loyal until the closing of Bauhaus in 1933.
It was not easy to get general allowances for the new type of art education. A political pressure
was felt from the beginning. In 1925 the Thuringer government withdrew its economic support from the
10
education. Bauhaus found a new location in Dessau. The city gave Gropius building projects: a school,
workshop and atelier building (1925-1926) has remained in history by the name 'Bauhaus Dessau'.
To the Bauhaus building also belonged dwellings for the Masters. They were planned to be models
for a way of living along the style of the new machine era. On the other hand they were built in a very casual
manner. These appropriate houses that have received much praise, could be used as models for similar
projects only in a limited sense - their cost of building was very high. Oskar Schlemmer wrote petrified to
his wife:
'I was frightened when I saw the houses! I imagined how homeless people would stand here
some day while the Master Artists were sun-bathing on the roofs of their villas'.
In spite of the successes, Gropius left the Bauhaus leadership in 1928. His successor was the
Swiss architect Hannes Meyer. He promoted the scientific development of the design training with
vigour. However, Meyer failed as leader due to political disagreement inside Bauhaus. He was
dismissed in 1930.
The German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was invited as director. He was compelled
to cut down on the educational programme. Practical work was reduced. Bauhaus approached a
type of 'vocational university'. It began to loose the splendid universality that had made it so excellent. Training of vocational subjects started to dominate the initial steps of education. As a matter
of fact this tendency became stronger after that Mies van der Rohe had transformed the school into
a private institute in Berlin in 1932.
The Nazi majority of Dessau suspended the seat of learning. Bauhaus was even as private
institution so much hated by the National Socialist government that the police closed it up on 11th
April, 1933.
Work Goes On
Bauhaus radiated its effects outside Germany already in the 1920s. The significance of Bauhaus
was perhaps greatest in the United States. In Finland its direct influence between the wars does not
seem to have been very great in the light of present day research. Not until after World War II the
Finnish industrial art education has taken more impression of Bauhaus.
For the purpose of a critical evaluation of the Bauhaus ideology and its influences, an archive
and museum were founded in Darmstadt in 1960. It was moved to the western zone of Berlin in
1971. An initiative was taken in 1986 for creating a new, independent Bauhaus-Dessau. The New
Bauhaus has approached art and technology from the ecologic angle. The questions of environment
and dwelling and problems connected with them have been taken up for development in cooperation with the inhabitants of Dessau. In the town surrounded by gravely polluted industrial areas the
school to begin with is looking for new solutions of the environmental problems and redevelopment of the worn-down dwelling areas. This autumn the theatre is in turn, and next year design.
Through the reunion of Germany Bauhaus is again beginning to open up windows towards the rest
of Europe and to the New World.
ILKKA HUOVIO
University of Industrial Arts Helsinki, UIAH
11
Josef Albers
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Study for Homage to the Square, Early Diary
1954, oil on masonite
15 by 15 in.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Nebraska Art Association Collection - Thomas C. Woods Memorial
1963.N-151
The Artist:
Josef Albers (1888-1976) was born in Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany. As a young man, he
taught the primary grades in Bottrop; then, following study in Berlin, received certification to teach
art. During this time Albers began to think of himself as an artist. In 1920, at age 32, he enrolled at
the newly-formed, progressive Bauhaus school in Weimar. (The Bauhaus, a design workshop formed
by architect Walter Gropius, was "dedicated to merging the traditionally separate disciplines of the
fine and applied arts in an effort to improve the quality of modern life in all its aspects and, ideally,
at every social level. At the Bauhaus, the design of a teapot was as important as the architecture of
a building, and the craft of furniture making as serious an undertaking as mural painting."1) After
finishing his studies there, Albers joined the faculty to teach the preliminary course on material and
design. It was during his time with the Bauhaus that Albers came into his own as a creative talent.
Eventually becoming Assistant Director and Director of the Furniture Workshop, he retained his
position with the Bauhaus until it was forced to close, under Nazi pressure, in 1933.
In America, the organizers of Black Mountain College, a utopian experiment in education in
the mountains of North Carolina, asked Philip Johnson, then director of the department of architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to recommend an art teacher. He suggested Albers, who,
though he did not speak a word of English and did not know where North Carolina was, accepted.
(Albers's wife, Anni, thought perhaps North Carolina was in the Philippines.) According to Marcia
J. Wade, "His [Albers's] influence at Black Mountain was seminal. He emerged there as one of
America's most important and original teachers of art--a reputation solidified by the publication
decades later of Interactions of Color, the definitive work on color theory."2 Albers remained at
Black Mountain until 1950 when he became head of the Department of Design at Yale University
School of Art. He remained there until 1958, when he assumed the position of Visiting Professor
until 1960.
As a teacher, Albers influenced many younger American painters, among them Robert
Rauschenberg and Neil Welliver, whose work has been included in past Sheldon Statewide exhibitions. Albers lived a highly disciplined life, always at work. He seldom socialized--much like a
cloistered monk; he simply worked. In 1971 he was the first living artist ever to be the subject of a
solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Albers died in 1976 at the age of 88.
Albers's earliest works were figurative drawings and paintings. His style became increasingly
abstract at the Bauhaus where he began to explore abstraction and color, his primary lifelong preoccupations. He was fascinated by the ambiguities of visual and spatial perception. This preoccupation is central to his famous Homage to the Square series begun in the 1950s and continuing until
his death. In this series, color assumes the main role of producing deceptive and unpredictable
effects, causing multiple readings of the same hue depending on what colors surround it. Albers did
not mix colors, putting the colors on the painting right out of the tube. He forced his viewers into a
12
changing and dynamic relationship with his work, rather than accepting one visual truth.
© Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Mies, Politics and the Bauhaus Closure
Abstract
Berlin police taking Bauhaus students to headquarters, April 11th, 1933.
Mies's main task was clear. He had to restore the reputation of the [Bauhaus] school in the
eyes of its opponents and that meant, above all, freeing it from the taint of politics. To do this, he
was forced to keep the more radical students under control, to introduce a degree of authoritarianism that was quite foreign to the original Bauhaus idea.
Frank Whitford
Mies, Politics and the Bauhaus Closure
The turmoil of the Bauhaus' final years under Mies van der Rohe's direction and the school's
ultimate collapse at the hands of the Nazis are well known. Mies, consummately "a-political" in
outward appearance even as he busily curried Nazi favor throughout his final years in Germany,
took immediate steps upon assuming control to cleanse the school of political factions, both left
and right. After having the school briefly cleared and locked, he called each student into his office
individually and threatened expulsion if the rules were not adhered to. A follow-up letter informed
each student "to not stay late in the canteen in the evening, to avoid political discussions, and to
take care not to make any noise in the town and to go out well dressed." Hannes Meyer, Mies'
immediate predecessor, somewhat sadly described these changes thus: ". . . the Bauhaus, under the
direction of the architect Mies van der Rohe, is characterized by the return to the school of instruction. The influence of the students over the way life was lived at the Bauhaus was wiped out." Mies'
approach seemed to work for a while, until the police trucks appeared on the morning of April 11th,
1933, for loading.
What is less well known is the exact nature of the changes in actual pedagogy that Mies made
during his time as director. What were the specific steps toward a "school of instruction" in contrast
to a school rife with political activism? And what ramifications did these changes have, or not
have, for the aesthetics previously taught and practiced at the Bauhaus?
As Mies seemed to continue, at least to some degree, the Bauhaus' emphasis on modern spatial principles--even in the face of Hitler's and Rosenberg's obvious preferences for monumental
historicism--was he trying to save the aesthetics of Modernism as a style even while jettisoning its
political content? And, if so, did this nonetheless leave clear and identifiable traces in the character
of the work itself? Was a political hollowness of the work now apparent? This paper is a study of these
questions, and their potential relevance for the interjection of, or--as some might have it--the eradication of
political content in design education today.
13
Art Deco
Credits
George Gershwin. Rhapsody in Blue: Earl Wild (piano), Pasquale Cardillo (clarinet), and
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Copyright, BMG Music, 1987.
Ella Fitzgerald. Someone to Watch Over Me (George & Ira Gershwin), with Ellis Larkins
(piano), Copyright MCA Records, 1994.
Ella Fitzgerald. Star Dust (Mitchell Parish/Hoagy Carmichael), with Ellis Larkins (piano),
Copyright MCA Records, 1994.
Ella Fitzgerald. Photo, Frank Driggs Collection,as reproduced in "Ella Fitzgerald's 75 Birthday Celebration, Copyright MCA Records and GRP Records, 1994.
Billie Holiday. Swing! Brother, Swing! (W. Bishop/L. Raymond/C. Williams), Copyright,
Sony Music Entertainment, 1991.
Billie Holiday. Pennies From Heaven (A Johnston/J.Burke), Copyright, Sony Music Entertainment, 1991.
Billie Holiday. Photo, Copyright, Sony Music Entertainment, 1991.
Fred Astaire."Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" (Irving Berlin), from the 1935 RKO film "Top
Hat." Copyright, Turner Entertainment Corporation, 1988).
Busby Berkeley. Excerpt from the "Gold Diggers of 1933," Copyright, Time Warner.
The Chrysler Building. Photo, Ronald Grant Archive, as reproduced in Klein, Dan, Art Deco
(London: Octopus Books, 1974).
The Empire State Building. Photo, Jeff Bleckman, as reproduced in Weber, Eva, Art Deco in
America (New York: Exeter Books, 1985).
The Collins Park Hotel. Photo, Steven Brooke, as reproduced in Capitman, Barbara Baer,
Deco Delights (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1988).
Art Deco District of Miami Movie. From the TV series "Great Drives." Copyright, Public
Broadcasting Corporation, 1996.
Walter Dorwin Teague. Photo, Balthazar Korab, as reproduced in Art Deco Calendar, 1988
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987).
Raymond Loewy. Photo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as reproduced in Bayer, Patricia,
Art Deco Interiors (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990).
Eliel Saarinen. Photo, Balthazar Korab, as reproduced in Art Deco Calendar, 1988 (New
14
York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987).
Henry Dreyfuss. Photo, as reproduced in Klein, Dan; McClelland, Nancy A.; and Haslam,
Malcolm, In the Deco Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1986).
Kem Weber. Photo, as reproduced in Art Deco Calendar, 1988 (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
Inc., 1987).
Fada Radio. Photo, as reproduced in Weber, Eva, Art Deco in America (New York: Exeter
Books, 1985).
The Nord Express. Photo, as reproduced in Kery, Patricia Frantz, Art Deco Graphics (New
York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986).
Normandy Poster. Designer: A.M. Cassandre. Copyright, ADAGP, 1985.
Normandy Movie. From the film "Floating Palaces." Copyright, A & E Entertainment, 1996.
The Flying Scotsman. Photo, as reproduced in Kery, Patricia Frantz, Art Deco Graphics
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986).
Fiat Automobiles. Photo, Peter Roberts, as reproduced in Sparke, Penny; Hodges, Felicia;
Coad, Emma Dent; and Stone, Anne, Design Source Book (London: QED Publishing Ltd., 1986).
Dancing figures. From an enamel cigarette case, c. 1931, as reproduced in Klein, Dan, Art
Deco (London: Octopus Books, 1974).
15
ARCHITECTURE
From the tiered skyscrapers of New York to the hotels of Miami Beach, the architecture of the
period contributed to the language of Art Deco design. Crisp geometric patterns, surface ornaments
and exotic materials were present in many of buildings of the era. New York’s Art Deco skyscrapers are more than buildings; they are monuments to the technology and financial power that created
them. The buildings of Miami’s Art Deco district, on the other hand, reflect the Hollywood style,
with their striking facades and colors.
Continue your tour of Art Deco architecture through the images above.
THE CHRYSLER BUILDING
The Chrysler Building is considered an archetypal American Art Deco
skyscraper. Designed in 1930 by William van Alen, the exterior of the building
reflects the Chrysler automobile. The building is faced with Nircosta metal, which
resembles platinum, and is decorated with sculptural ornaments similar to hood
ornaments. The radiating curves on the building's dome mimic giant sunbeams,
a popular Art Deco theme.
THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
The Empire State Building, finished in 1931-32, ended the era of Art Deco
skyscrapers. The building's tiered structure, reminiscent of the Egyptian and Aztec
pyramids, reflects the popular skyscraper style of the period. The building is
topped with a mast for mooring dirigibles, an expression of the machine age and
its focus on transportation.
THE COLLINS PARK HOTEL
The Collins Park Hotel is one of the many fine buildings in the Art Deco District of Miami Beach. Designed by
Henry Hohauser in 1939, the building's circular entry is
dramatized by the vertical columns, chevron designs and
vivid colors characteristic of many buildings in the district.
Visit the Art Deco District of Miami Beach in this
QuickTime movie.
16
ART DECO
During the period between the two World Wars, an eclectic design style
developed that later became known as Art Deco. The name was derived from
the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes,
held in Paris, which celebrated living in the modern world. Today, "Art Deco" is
used to refer to a mix of styles from the 1920s and 1930s.
The Art Deco era was one of contradictions. Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Art Deco style infused the everyday world with an elegant style of cool sophistication. Singers and songwriters
entertained audiences through the new medium of radio, and Hollywood musicals offered the hope of better times and a temporary escape from daily troubles. Travel was in the
news with ocean liners racing the Atlantic and trains crossing continents, as speed became a metaphor for modern times.
What characterizes Art Deco design? The architecture and applied arts of the period reveal a
varied mix. However, most share the hallmarks of geometry and simplicity, often combined with
vibrant colors and simple shapes that celebrate the rise of commerce and technology. From luxurious objects made from exotic materials to mass produced, streamlined items available to a growing
middle class, the world of Art Deco represents a "graciousness of form" from a simpler time.
Explore the world of Art Deco by starting your guided tour below.
FILM
Dancing was a mainstay of Hollywood musicals during the 1930s. The syncopated rhythms of
tap dancing, popularized by Fred Astaire and others, mimicked the asymmetric geometry of many
Art Deco designs. Busby Berkeley's geometric patterns created by large ensembles of dancers were
popular with audiences and are clearly related to the formalism of Art Deco design.
Sample two of the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s in these QuickTime movies.
Fred Astaire performing
"Top Hat, White Tie and Tails"
from the 1935 RKO film "Top Hat."
Busby Berkeley's
"Gold Diggers of 1933"
17
GRAPHICS
Art Deco graphics are a product of their age, and reflect a spirit of modernity and industrial
ingenuity. The graphic style of the period often used geometric formality and simplicity to transform or distort reality, reinterpreting the world in the Deco style. Elements of Cubism and Futurism
are apparent in many works, and travel and transportation are popular themes.
The posters above will lead you to more information.
FIAT AUTOMOBILES
This Fiat Automobile poster was designed by Riccobaldi in 1928. Hard
edges, slabs of color and undulating curves emphasize the car's maneuverability
while echoing the Art Deco theme of speed and transportation.
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN
Leo Marfurt's poster for the Flying Scotsman was designed in 1928 to
advertise a train in the London Transport system. Marfurt helped revive Belgian poster art through the work of his graphic design studio. The influence
of Cubism is clear in this poster, whose fragmented figures evoke the hustle
and bustle of one of London's busiest train stations.
THE NORD EXPRESS
This Nord Express poster was designed by A.M.
Cassandre in 1927. One of the great poster artists of
the period, Cassandre won several awards for his posters and later designed magazine covers for Harper's
Bazaar. This poster reflects Cassandre's mastery of type
and perspective. Focusing on the train's wheels and
rendering them in a fragmented style, Cassandre reflects the train's power and speed.
A. M. Cassandre also designed this famous poster for the Normandy, a transatlantic ocean
liner. Learn more about the ship in this QuickTime movie.
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INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Industrial Design made a name for itself during the Art Deco era. During the 1930s, industrial
design consultants were commissioned by manufacturing companies to produce variety of goods.
Influenced by efforts to develop a more aerodynamic automobile, industrial designers adopted
streamlining for a number of objects. Made from the latest materials, such as plastics, chrome and
aluminum, domestic goods had a modern, high-speed look and were available to everyone due to
mass production.
Learn more about Art Deco industrial design by continuing your tour through the images above.
KEM WEBER
Kem Weber, a native of Berlin, visited America in 1914 and settled in
California after the outbreak of World War I prevented him from returning to
Germany. He established his studio in Los Angeles in 1927, where his approach to design was "to make the practical more beautiful and the beautiful
more practical." This clock designed for Lawson Time, Inc. in 1933 was one
of Weber's many distinctive designs epitomizing his approach, resulting in a
streamlined object that is both elegant and utilitarian.
HENRY DREYFUSS
Henry Dreyfuss was one of the pioneer American industrial design consultants. Engaged by a number of companies to design everything from telephones to locomotives, Dreyfuss was inspired by the machine aesthetic.
This water cooler and tray designed in 1936 combines streamlining and the
use of metallic finishes, popular touches on mass-produced products in the
1930s.
FADA RADIO
The Art Deco era was an age of mass production, with a number of new
consumer items, such as radios, being produced in large quanities. During
the 1930s, radio manufacturers took advantage of several new synthetic materials, including plastics, which were cheap to use, easy to mold into attractive shapes and available in a variety of colors. One such material, bakelite,
found wide application in a number of objects, including this popular radio
by Fada.
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INTERIOR DESIGN
Interior Design during the Art Deco era reflected a unified approach. Indeed, the line between
Art Deco interior design and industrial design is often difficult to distinguish, with many of the
era's top industrial designers and architects often designing interiors as well. Many of the furnishings incorporate industrial materials such as glass and metal and were designed to create a cohesive
environment reminiscent of a fine-tuned machine.
The images above will guide you through several Art Deco interiors.
WALTER DORWIN TEAGUE
Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960) was one of several versatile
industrial design consultants in the United States. Teague designed
cameras for Eastman Kodak, glassware for Steuben and Texaco gas
stations, among other things. In addition, he was known for his interior designs. Designed in 1938 for the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, the Modern Room is an excellent
example of Teague's combined use of metal, wood and leather and a
good example of the period's unified approach to interior design.
RAYMOND LOEWY
Raymond Loewy was an industrial designer well-known for designing the Coca Cola bottle and several advertising icons. His work
in interior design also earned him a reputation for dramatic but practical interiors. This mock-up of an industrial designer's office was put
together for the Contemporary American Industrial Art show of 1934
at New York's Metropolitan Museum. Loewy's use of streamlined
chrome furniture and sleek black surfaces gives the office an efficient
look.
ELIEL SAARINEN
Eliel Saarinen left his native Finland for the United States in 1923,
after gaining attention for his work in a design competition sponsored
by the Chicago Tribune. A few years later he became the first director
of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, an
influential artistic community and school of design. As chief architect
of the school's buildings, Saarinen was aided by his wife, Loja, who
designed its carpets and other textiles, and his son, Eero, a furniture
designer. This interior from Saarinen House, his residence at Cranbrook,
exemplifies his unified approach to design. The room is simple and
airy, using clean, straight lines and complementary colors to create a
harmonized interior.
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MUSIC
America contributed jazz and swing music to the Art Deco era, and many songwriters and
singers became household names as their music became available to millions through the new
medium of radio. George Gershwin, who, alone or with his brother, Ira, wrote some of the most
memorable music of the era. Singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday not only popularized the works of others but developed their own recognizable styles.
Sample some of the music of the Art Deco era below.
George Gershwin’s «Rhapsody in Blue»
Ella Fitzgerald
· Someone to Watch Over Me (George & Ira Gershwin)
· Star Dust (Mitchell Parish/Hoagy Carmichael)
Billie Holiday
· Pennies From Heaven (A. Johnston/J. Burke)
· Swing! Brother, Swing! (W. Bishop/L. Raymond/ C. Williams)
Norwest Collects Modernism
The Norwest Corporation, one of the nation's largest mortgage companies, has a large collection of 20th Century art and industrial design objects. This site offers information about the company's collection and exhibitions at the corporate headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa.
Russel Wright was one of the premier American industrial designers. Starting his career in the
1930s as a set designer, he quickly moved into designing furniture and other items for the home.
Deco Echoes is a site for collectors of 1930s-1960s style and design. The site offers online
shopping for collectibles and information about publications by Deco Echoes.
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Pop Art
The Styles of Pop Art
Pop Art reacted to the phenomenon of depersonalization in mass society with styles which
were equally impersonal, with pictures which had an equally objectivizing effect. The media had
changed the relationship between individual subjectivity and mass consciousness, and Pop Art
therefore also wished to redefine the role of individuality in art.
Pop Art conceptions of style stem from one of art’s central themes, namely its concern with its
own medium: l’art pour l’art, the work of art as an object, the image, the act of painting, the
painting itself, painting materials, packaging, art history, parody, abstraction, composition. Pop
artists saw their work as anti-art, at least in relation to traditional notions of art.
The styles of Pop Art were the product of the artists’ development of technique and choice of
subject matter. Their stylistic subjectivity and individuality, however, were neutralized by the anonymity of the environment to which their art responded. Pop Art followed various paths, some of
them leading in opposite directions. The following were particularly significant: work whose forms
and subject matter referred to the structures and methods of the mass media - by actually using
mechanical techniques of reproduction, or industrial methods of manufacture; or paintings in which
the reference to the media takes place primarily through an analysis of their content, and the formal
reference is simulated by means of various painterly techniques. Both these methods exemplified
the intellectual, objectivizing side of Pop Art.
The Signs of the Time
The «myths of everyday life» which surface in consumer culture, in the mass media and in the
euphoria surrounding technology are ambivalent: they express the general syndrome of decay; a
belief in progress, but also a fear of disaster - they stand for both dreams and traumas, luxury and
powerty. Civilizaton has come to feel the nightmare of its own destruction. The total availability of
consumer goods has turned into the waste-disposal problem of a throw-away society in which the
desires and fates of individuals disappear in the mass. The New Wave, the idealism of the Kennedy
era, had stood for a belief in the future which now had to be measured against hard facts. Reality
had come unexpectedly, and in a form which was not easily digested: the assassination of John F.
Kennedy in 1963, the outbreak of the Vietnam War in 1964 and the race riots in the USA revealed
the vulnerability of what had purported to be the perfectly calculated affluent future.
The star cult of the era was also a sign of its sufferings; made-up faces, adapted to their
functions as the icons of the sixties, were a source of compensation for the feelings of frustration
and impotence of consumers suffocating in their anonymity. The image projected by these stars,
the personal element feigned in their facial expressions, hid their real fragility and vulnerability to
the hard realities of everyday life. Liz Taylor’s depressions, Marilyn Monroe’s suicide in 1962 and
the loneliness of Elvis Presley are features in the true face of an era permanently running up against
the boundaries of its supposed «boundless possibilities».
The Mass Media and the Arts
«The medium is the message» - this was Marshall McLuhan’s diagnosis of the psychological
and sociological consequences of the mass media. In the sixties his thesis became a slogan. A
generation later, McLugan took this analysis a step further. His investigation of the signs of the
times describes the birth of a new media landscape. He found that the mass media industries changed
22
the culture, art and behavioral norms of a society by changing the consciousness of the people.
Media dependency produces externally controlled human beings who can be shifted around like
chessmen on the great chessboard of society.
The manner in which art was transformed by the mass media is worth mentioning here. Pop
Art influenced advertising, design and bric-a-brac industry and was therefore returned to the everyday world in the form of seedy, secondhand junk produced by a parasitic mass comunication industry. The image of the mass media, of the newspaper, the radio and television, was itself a theme of
Pop Art. Pop artists thus developed their own extensive, contemporary iconography. In their paintings and sculptures they show that the media have become an ominous and unavoidable reality
which has radically changed our consciousness and our perceptions, our sense of values and our
relationship to the world and to ourselves.
Pop Art Design
One sign of the times with far-reaching consequences was design: consumer goods design,
media design and fashion design. Various branches of business expanded, creating their own «types»
in acccordance with the patterns of taste and norms dictated by demand - advertising stereotypes
engineered in close cooperation with marketing departments, statistical research and behavioral
science. These «types» were then portrayed in relation to certain accessories, to things they (supposedly) loved. They were shown applying make-up or perfume, doing their hair, reading, driving,
smoking, eating, drinking and travelling, shown surrounded by the objects of their preference.
They were, in fact, shown just as they really were - externally controlled human beings caught up
in the image-dependent web of a perfectly functioning, integrated system of brand names.
In the course of the sixties - with America well out in the lead - design was professionalized
and perfected in such a way that it became no longer necessary to link specific characteristics with
a product in an obvious way. Instead, the creative aspirations of designers were applied to forging
such links psychologically at a subconscious level - to making inroads into the private sphere of the
addressee at a sublimal level. This exploitation of depth psychology - though difficult enough to
grasp in any concrete sense - enabled design to out-manoeuvre the consumer’s freedom of choice.
The «unlimited freedom» of the consumer society was thus built upon the seducability, lack of
independence, lack of freedom and indeed addiction of the consumer. Many artists were stimulated
to take on work designing requisites for domestic, enviromental and consumer product promotion;
the homogeneity this process encouraged, the loss of everything personal and vital, was felt as a challenge
to their whole sense of being and art. For their part, the artists were able to perfect certain aspects of
consumer goods design, of layout, and of the adaption of subjects to the photographic process, thus
acquiring techniques of communicating the more suggestive and brash elements of trivial behavior. This
development in the language of images corresponded to a similar development in vulgar colloquial language,
whereby advertising slogans were viewed as a kind of literature and ghostwriters’ and copywriters’ texts
assumed the status of art. Similar reactions occured in the cinema, in music and in other art forms.
Pop Art in the Continent
In England and America, Pop Art had been articulated with great vitality by a whole generation; fine art, music, literature and popular and mass culture had become intermeshed. Elvis Presley and the
Rolling Stones, the beatniks and the hippies had started a «cultural revolution». The European mainland
stretched out its cultural antennae as far as possible to pick up these new signals.
European Pop Art tended to be a heterogenous and intractable affair. Its iconographical aspects, its formal techniques and, more especially, the quality of the latter, varied quite considerably.
As a result, the struggle of the artists to impose their own originality upon the (art-)historical traditions
23
within which they were working also varied in intensity. By the end of the sixties, pluralism in Europe had
led to a fashionable Pop internationalism whose reflections of commonplace subject matter and styles had
degenerated into formalistic attitudinizing.
Nouveau Realisme brought together artists of quite different backgrounds and direction. The theoretical
foundations of this movement were formulated by the Frenchman Pierre Restany. During the New Realists
exhibition in New York in 1962 Restany grouped European and American artists along with the Italians
Enrico Baj and Gianfranco Baruchelo, the Swede Oyvind Fahlstrom and the English Peter Blake and
Peter Phillips under the term «popartistes». Nouveau Realisme can therefore be seen as a parallel
development of Pop Art in Europe in as far as it also included popular culture, junk, technology, the world
of advertising and consumer goods and the notion of the object in its general concept of art. In the Continent,
Pop Art may be understood as a synonym for certain phenomena of the sixties, but not as a period style.
Continental Pop Artists: Arman, Christo, Raymond Hains, Richard Lindner, Gerhard
Richter, Wolf Vostell.
Pop Art in Britain
British Pop Art arose of a new understanding of contemporary life. It was intellectual, interdisciplinary and programatic in character.
In the early fifties artists and intellectuals began to realize that their culture was increasingly
determined by the mass media, by new technology and by social change, and that this process was
also leading to the increased Americanization of Europe. This cultural transformation was not
reflected in the introverted, expressive, abstract-figurative art of the older generation of British
artists, such as Henry Moore or Graham Sutherland. It was, however, with these new conditions in
mind that the Independent Group was convened in 1952 to hold informal discussions and cultural
events at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
The topics discussed at their meetings can be listed as follows: the expansion of artistic techniques beyond traditional forms of representation, action painting, helicopter design, car-body design, nuclear biology, cybernetics (a new science at the time), folk culture, the mass media and
municipal culture, machine aesthetics, advertising, the cinema, comics, science-fiction, pop music,
fashion and the theories of Marshall McLuhan. These themes were indeed remote from the preoccupations of the cultural establishment of the time!
The influence of Pop Art spread quickly, both in geographical terms (Cambridge University)
and among the younger generation. It was due to young painters’ influence that British Pop Art
responded with such intensity to American imagery and the early phase of American Pop Art. This
phase of British Pop Art developed and made its presence publicly felt for the first time at the
exhibition Young Contemporaries in 1960 - the first exhibition to provide a general survey of the
new art movement. British Pop Art stepped outside the traditional boundaries of artistic development to tread the path of self-analysis within a consciously perceived and reflected present-day
existence.
British Pop Artists: Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Patrick Caulfield, Richard
Hamilton, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Phillips, Richard Smith, Joe Tilson.
American Pop Art was a child of the newly found self-confidence with which American art
had asserted itself in the fifties against European influence. The subject matter which provided the
initial impulse was Americanism itself. The idea of progress, the media industry and the star-cult
were experiencing a boom in Hollywood and, more especially, in New York, the cultural center of the
USA. During the upheavals of the forties and fifties, the generation which preceded Pop Art brought forth
24
a new tendency in realism using contemporary subject matter, which paved the way for the American art of
the sixties.
The development of American Pop Art occured in several phases, marking different responses
by artists to the challenge of their times. The first was the pre-Pop phase, in which the painters took
their leave of Abstract Expressionism. Then came the heyday of Pop Art: this phase saw the emergence of a numer of important artists whose work was rooted in the fifties and partly founded on
experience acquired in commercial art, design and poster-painting. With the sponsorship of certain
committed and experimental New York galleries, this phase of Pop Art quickly - despite clearly
voiced protest - achieved success and recognition as a new art movement. The exhibitions were accompanied
by Happenings, theater performances, counter-demonstrations and street actions.
By the middle of the sixties Pop Art was widely known. During this phase, American Pop Art
spread from New York to the West Coast and Canada, and later to Europe and Britain, which had
already had its own Pop Art for some time. The last of the phases was characterized by an acerbic,
radical realism, largely of American origin, whose subject was urban social relations.
Outside New York, the earliest exponents of American Pop Art were from California. The
center of West Coast Pop was Los Angeles, a city whose sub-culture not only had an enduring
influence on this variant of Pop Art, but which was later to conquer the world in the form of the
hippie culture and lifestyle.
American Pop Artists: Richard Artschwager, Billy Al Bengston, Allan D’Arcangelo, Jim
Dine, Joe Goode, Red Grooms, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson, Howard Kanovitz,
Edward Kienholz, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert
Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Edward Ruscha, George Segal, Wayne
Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, H. C. Westermann.
25
Popart
Erte
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Throughout a long and distinguished career, Erte had a major influence on the style and
design of the 20th Century. While designing at Harper’s Bazaar, the artist created sets of
costumes for extravagant silent films including Ben Hur and went on to create sets and costumes
for theater and opera. These achievements earned him the title «Father of Art Deco.» In 1967
the Mertopolitan Museum of Art purchased and exhibited some 200 Erte gouaches. Shows
in London followed, bringing more recognition. His success was summarized by the noted art critic John
Russell who wrote, «If Michelangelo were to come back from the dead he could hardly have greater or
more eulogious publicity than has been afforded to Erte.»
Bacchante
Bronze sculpture wIth polished
embellishments 21 x 6 x 6 inches
© Chalk & Vermilion and
Sevenarts Ltd.
No. 1
Bronze sculpture with white gold
and polished embellishments
20 x 8 x 6 inches
Sevenarts Ltd.
Mermaid
Bronze sculpture with gold
and yellow gold leaf
20 x 9 x 8 inches
Sevenarts Ltd.
Andy Warhol
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Clearly the most important and influential artist of the past quarter century, Andy
Warhol, the master of Pop Art, maintained a level of creativity which is already legendary. In the early 1960s Warhol adapted the commercial process of silkscreening to
the world of fine art, creating masterpieces such as 210 Coca-Cola Bottles. It was also
at this time that Warhol first painted the Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can, which was to
become his most famous image. Warhol matured into Modern Master status with major works of art such
as Myths, Cowboys and Indians, and the Campbell’s Soup Box paintings. Throughout his life, Andy
Warhol was truly the artworld’s greatest celebrity.
26
Mickey Mouse
Screenprint on Museum Board
38 x 38 inches
© 1981 Andy Warhol
Ingrid Bergman
38 x 38 inches
© 1983 Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe #28
36 x 36 inches
© 1967 Andy Warhol
Mark King
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mark King, a champion of Impressionism and the Ecole de Paris, was born in
Bombay of British parents. He is the product of an exotic upbringing in India, where
he lived until the age of sixteen during the last days of the British Raj. After spending
seven years as scenic designer at the Oxford Playhouse Theatre, King decided to concentrate on painting and moved to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beauxs-Arts and the
Louvre. King meticulously layers colors, as substrata for the small percent of the acrylic paint that
floats on top and forms the finished composition. The underpainting filters through to the surface
creating depth and texture. King is the rare artist who is able to meld the traditions of Impressionism with a myriad of subjects, isolating the elements of a scene with dramatic waves of color on
canvas.
The Old Mill Garden
Serigraph, 34 x 42 inches
© 1996 MLLE, Inc.
Augusta #12 in Fall
© 1991 MLLE, Inc.
Waterlilies
© 1997 MLLE, Inc.
Mark Kostabi
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mark Kostabi is one of the world’s most controversial artists, making no secret of
the fact that he neither paints most of the works that bear his name nor conceives all of
them. Generally, they are designed by Kostabi or one of his idea people, executed by
painting assistants, titled by poets, approved by committees and then signed by Kostabi.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Groninger Museum in Holland.
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The Mitsukoshi Museum held a 100-painting retrospective of his work in Tokyo. Kostabi has been featured
in The New York Times, People, Vogue, Playboy, Forbes, New York magazine, Domus, Artforum, Art in
America, ARTnews, Arts, Flash Art, and Tema Celeste.
Cellist
Screenprint, 20 x 15 inches
© 1998 Mark Kostabi
The Early Nerd Gets the Worm
Conversation Pieces
Thomas McKnight
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Thomas McKnight is one of the most accomplished artists of this century. His
instantly recognizable images, phenomenally popular with the public, have placed him
in an elite group of contemporary artists. Gene Thornton, noted critic for The New
York Times, called McKnight’s stylistic representation «Visions of earthly happiness
that are almost celestial.» Over the past twenty years McKnight has exhibited his work in over one
hundred and fifty one-man shows throughout the United States, Europe and Japan and has received
numerous distinctions including White House commissions.
Ravello Balcony
© 1999 Thomas McKnight
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Stockbridge
Tropical Gazebo
Home furnishings
FROM THE HISTORY OF FURNITURE STYLES
by Russell Bienenstock, Editor
Copyright 1998 Towse Publishing Company
ART DECO
STYLE INFLUENCE
ART DECO (1920)
French style originating in the 1920’s, the rise of Art Deco marked a departure from
the ornate, asymmetrical, curvilinear ornament which characterized the Art Nouveaux style (1900-1910).
Art Deco has a neo-classical flavor, using disciplined decoration within the outlines of a piece of
furniture. Art Deco draws on Egyptian and Mayan art, Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism using exotic
looking materials, rich woods, novel veneers or inlays, generous stuffing, bright lacquers and colors.
Art Deco furniture and architectural designs are made up primarily of geometric patterns. Furniture
pieces were generally made to be luxurious.
The Art Deco movement developed at the same time that the Bauhaus architects were at their
creative peak, and although there are some similarities in form, Art Deco furniture is much more decorative
and was created to be made by traditional methods of furniture production. This in contrast to many
Bauhaus designs which pioneered the use of technology to make simple, functional yet architecturally
appealing furniture.
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Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918)
«Gustav Klimt first made himself known by the decorations he executed (with his brother and their
art school companion F. Matsch), for numerous theatres and above all (on his own this time) for the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he completed, in a coolly photographic style, the work begun
by Makart. At the age of thirty he moved into his own studio and turned to easel painting. At thirty-five he
was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession; he withdrew eight years later, dismayed by the increasingly
strong trend towards naturalism.
«The coruscating sensuality of Klimt’s work might seem in perfect accord with a society
which recognized itself in those frivolous apotheoses of happiness and well-being, the operettas of
Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar. Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being acknowledged as
the representative artist of his age, Klimt was the target of violent criticism; his work was sometimes
displayed behind a screen to avoid corrupting the sensibilities of the young. His work is deceptive. Today
we see in it the Byzantine luxuriance of form, the vivid juxtaposition of colors derived from the Austrian
rococo - aspects so markedly different from the clinical abruptness of Egon Schiele. But we see it with
expectations generated by epochs of which his own age was ignorant.
«For the sumptuous surface of Klimt’s work is by no means carefree. Its decorative tracery expresses
a constant tension between ecstasy and terror, life and death. Even the portraits, with their timeless aspect,
may be perceived as defying fate. Sleep, Hope (a pregnant woman surrounded by baleful faces) and
Death are subjects no less characteristic than the Kiss. Yet life’s seductions are still more potent in the
vicinity of death, and Klimt’s works, although they do not explicitly speak of impending doom, constitute
a sort of testament in which the desires and anxieties of an age, its aspiration to happiness and to eternity,
receive definitive expression. For the striking two-dimensionality with which Klimt surrounds his figures
evokes the gold ground of Byzantine art, a ground that, in negating space, may be regarded as negating
time - and thus creating a figure of eternity. Yet in Klimt’s painting, it is not the austere foursquare figures of
Byzantine art that confront us, but ecstatically intertwined bodies whose flesh seems the more real for their
iconical setting of gold.»
- From «Symbolism», a Taschen art book by Michael Gibson.
Art Nouveau
«An international style of decoration and architecture which developed in the 1880s and 1890s.
The name derives from the Maison de l’Art Nouveau, an interior design gallery opened in Paris in
1896, but in fact the movement had different names throughout Europe. In Germany it was known
as “Jugendstil”, from the magazine Diejugend (Youth) published from 1896; in Italy “Stile Liberty” (after the London store, Liberty Style) or “Floreale”; in Spain “Modernista”, in Austria
“Sezessionstil” and, paradoxically, in France the English term “Modern Style” was often used,
emphasizing the English origins of the movement.
«In design Art Nouveau was characterized by writhing plant forms and an opposition to the
historicism which had plagued the 19th century. There was a tension implicit throughout the movement between the decorative and the modern which can be seen in the work of individual designers
as well as in the chronology of the whole. Its emphasis on decoration and artistic unity links the
movement to contemporary Symbolist ideas in art, as seen in the work of the Vienna Secessionists,
but the movement was also associated with Arts and Crafts ideas and, as such, Art Nouveau forms
a bridge between Morris and Gropius (recognized by Pevsner in his book, Pioneers of the Modern
Movement, 1936).
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«In Britain the style was exemplified by the architecture of Rennie Mackintosh, and the design work
of the Macdonald sisters. The lingering impact of Morris in England slowed down the progress of the new
style in design although Mackmurdo, Godwin, Townsend and even Voysey were influenced towards Art
Nouveau. It was in illustration that the ideas were most keenly felt, through the new periodicals and
presses - the Yellow Book, the Studio, the Savoy, the Hobby Horse - and though the work of Beardsley,
Ricketts and Selwyn Image.
«In France, despite Guimard’s famous glass and iron Metro designs, the movement was best
expressed in the applied arts, especially the glassware of Lalique (1860-1945) and Galle (18461904). In Belgium, the style was promoted through the Societe des Vingts (Les Vingt) established
in 1884, and including Ensor as well as the more characteristically Art Nouveau architects Horta
and Van de Velde in its members. In Spain the style was concentrated in the eccentric hands of
Gaudi in Barcelona. In Vienna, architects like Wagner, Hoffmann and Olbrich, and artists such as
Klimt gathered to promote the style through the Secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum. In Germany,
the movement split between the decorative tendencies of Otto Eckman (1865-1902) and the Pan
magazine, and the streamlined design of Behrens. In America architects like Sullivan and Wright
were influenced by European ideas but conceived Art Nouveau in different terms, whilst designers
like Tiffany enthusiastically embraced the movement.
- From «The Bulfinch Guide to Art History»
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Art
ANXIOUS ART COLLECTIVE:
«explanation #23»
Anxious Art Collective is an ongoing project that seeks to take over and transform a space to
create environments of absolute and provocative beauty by installing the works of artists of all
mediums working in collaboration to develop existing ideas that reflect the spontaneity of the
moment. We are a collective of creative minds based on concepts exploring the limits of expression
or chance happening from all ends of the spectrum: creatively, politically, sexually, etc. The end
result invariably succeeds in illuminating the collaborative process and the varied and infinite
forms this may take. We have found this to be imperative to the future of art and thinking in general.
Since AAC’s presentation for the Opening of the NYC International Independent Film and
Video Festival will include both installation and performance, we intend to make the two presentations
recognizably cohesive in theme and aesthetic. Anxious Art Collective has always tried to make full use of
the space involved, and the size of this event can only enhance this motivation. We like to refer to this
experience as a «premeditated emergency». We expect that our combined efforts as part of the festival will
be remembered...
ANXIOUS ART COLLECTIVE:
Justin M. Troust, director/curator
Rachel Haluska, associate director
Michelle Lemagnen, associate curator
Brian PJ Cronin, associate director
MAY 3, 1999 - Madison Sq. Garden
NY International independent Film & Video Festival
Performance:
«Bethsheba Explains»
written by Justin M. troust
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directed by Brian PJ Cronin
Bethsheba - Michelle Lemagnen
Violinist - Anne Champion
On the main stage, AAC presents an original piece of theatre about a woman in flux.
Between the rational and the very distinct possibility that she does not exist at all, Bethsheba finds
her situation (in this instance onstage at a large festival opening) to be curious and somewhat
confusing, but what else is new?
Installation:
«explanation #23»
Art by:
Suzanne Fedor
Painting; William Bredbeck
Painting; Coleman-Sculpture
The History of Surveillance: Parts 1,2,3" video by Steve Bartoo (1990, 25 min.)
AAC presents a multi-media installation including three artists working in tandem to create a
space of «unbeleagured contenance» with a free-form statement of non-intent. This installation
will include oil on canvas, sculpture and video. AAC will create the space, keeping in mind the whole of the
exhibit within which this installation stands, and hopes to complement the work beside our own. We hope
that our installation will add to the whole, and the random chance events possible at a large exhibit such as
this will work to enhance the images and (lack of) concepts presented by the artists.
All inquiries to:
Anxious Art Collective 700 E. 9th St. storefront #3
«It was a large room full of people - all kinds - and they had all arrived at the same place at
more or less the same time. And they were all free. And they were all asking themselves the same
question: What is behind that curtain?»
- Laurie Anderson
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KARIM BEASLEY
I was born in New York City in 1972,
shortly after I moved to empsted, Long Island.
I have been drawing all my life, her parents
made sure she had good art supplies. On her
ninth birthday she was given a desk.. In 1978
at age 6, I did a picture of king tut in pastel for
school. My art teacher assigned me to the
project , convencing my first grade teacher to
have me work on it during class time. It was
latter exhibited in the ampstead Art Museum.
In 1980 I received a trophy from the Uniondale
Fire Department for the drewing of a
Dalmation on a fire truck, visualizing the
flames in his head. In Junior High, I did the
artwork for my graduation yearbook.I received
runner-up for the Amelia A. Wallace Award in
Art Education. From 86-91 I worked for the
Kidssday section of Newsday as a staff artist.My last picture was of kids hanging yellow ribbons on
lightpoles during the Gulf War crisis. I entered The School of Visual Arts as an illustration major in 1992
and graduated in June 1996 with a bachelor of fine arts.
Wayne Carvajal
HOTEL WINDOW
Hips rising,
we watch,
some one fall,
hips sinking,
and we come.
GOING
In the rigor mortis stillness Death’s stiff phallus pisses on
his shadow, fool! He’s drunk infuriate, bombed on a bottlefield
of self loathing. Memories landscapes burning, putrid smoke
curling, the black clouds of nights full of anger of screaming mortars, pounding reason into doubt
but he will not surrender, he says he’ll never surrender with death splashing on his heels.
This life is war immortal to be a nuclear warhead of a man made to linger a millennium or
longer, the sad figure of a man folding hands over face of his mistakes, mistakes everyone laughing
as bombs dropping, his body collapsing. (mine exploding)
Death’s jaundiced urine running down his back, he turns and laughs, after all, he wears a
clown face in camouflage colors, a necklace of labia spaced with penises, another of tongues, a choker of
eyes. Displaying these trophies of war with hope, the hope you taste the bitter taste at the back of my
throat and say to yourself, I am not alone.
34
Corey Ann Brown
Man
Charcoal
Girl
Charcoal
CICCI Make-Up Artist
Cicci 212. 877. 4599 Cicci was
born in Malmo, Sweden on September 10, 1970. When she was fifteen,
Cicci became the first make-up intern
at MalmoTV, the third largest television station in Sweden. For the next
Twelve years, Cicci learned what she
calls the «Swedish Esthetic»: high
quality products, applied in small
amounts and thin layers, to create the
desired effect. This technique can be
used to achieve either dramatic or subtle results, for various media, and in
any lighting. Cicci’s association with
many Swedish, Danish, and American
Photographers has produced the works seen here. Her apperance in this years Film Festival is
dedicated to her mentor, Monika Krumlinde, and her family in Malmo and Stockholm. Cicci is
managed by her husband, Mark Sean Panzarino. Bookings for any kind of work can be arranged by
calling 212-877-4599.
35
Print
Camilla Bjorvig-Fraas November 1997
Present Anders Kavin Photography January.
November 1997 Richard Warren
August 1997
Imaginarium Magazine November 1997
Television
«Talk Show - Kista!» April- May 1995
«Larmet Gar» February 1995
Malmo TV September 1986-1992
Theater
Ivanov by Chekhov September 1996.
Little Shop of Horrors May- June 1995.
Arturo Ui by Brecht January-August 1995
Film
Innan Dagen January 1996
Rosenkavaljeren May 1995
Tore & Svampen April-May 1995
arr February-March 1995
Book, education, and references are available.
36
DAVID A. CLEMEN
Artist
PAUL DUPLESSIE
37
Paul F Duplessie, Sr. Age: 27
Interests: Drawing- (Fantasy Art, Children's
Art, School/Church Logo's); Automotive Work,
Handling and owning Reptiles i.e. nile monitors),
CB communication- Handle =>GHoST Rider 1428
and the Medieval life Future- Hopes to work in the
Art Field, i.e.. Cartooning and freehand
drawingPresent- Drawing tattoos for others and
personal, freehand drawing and cartooning Past
Experience- School art work for shop. Drawing for
church of Christ on the cross with his disciples and
Mary Magdeline dressed in black. Drawing and
Painting for school and cover of graduation pamphlet.
Drawing for family and friends, mostly for son i.e..
Noah's ark and race cars Design for local band named
"Twist of Fate"
Genna Evanson
38
Cherine Ghabour
Discipline
Cherine Ghabour: Twenty-two year old artist Cherine
Ghabour was born in Egypt, and is currently based in Los Angeles. Having studied under strict religious disciplines, the artist
was greatly influenced by religion and its control - and by the
control we exert over one another as individuals. Most of her art
is a satiric depiction of this control as seen in a family setting,
and includes elements of the American diseases seen on some
talk shows.
39
ERICA MOLACEK
Although I have always loved art, I have been drawing seriously since graduating from C.S.U.N. in 1996.
My work depicts great detail with ambitious intentions
to create new forms and reveal emotional truth. I strive to
create an intimate topic on the page with understandable
content.
«Innocence» is typical of my work. The object on the
page works to entrance the audience through the lack of
boundaries in the picture, drawing attention to the middle
of the picture: the center plays an important part of all of
the work. The images are deceptive in that they try to be
ordinary, simple depictions of human form, yet they hope
to contain an emotional underpinning and a personality relative to any soul.
40
The sincerity of the subject is caught in the grey halftones and the piece’s personalities are demonstrated
through the arrangement of the work on the page. The work
is often off balance or cut off from one side of the page
guiding the audience to look into the piece.
I have shown work at street festivals,
community showing, and fairs. It was also
honored in a local magazine this past year,
«Valley Living».
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«LE FEMME» LAWRENCE PIZZI
April 22 “1998
After 6:00 pm
Madison Square Garden
In conjunction with the
New York Independent Film Festival
Opening night
Self-Stated elegance
Timeless and inspiring, Lawrence Pizzi’s Haute Couture Collection
for Fall 1998 features the best of the season, tastefully refined by the designer’s hand. Garments cling softly to the female form, creating a shapely
cleanness bringing new meaning to sexy-chic. Fun-N-Frivolous is the way
to describe the first group of gowns. Each one is completely different in
feel and attitude. The one common factor is the fabric, durable denim.
From the Disco floor to the Harley, here there is truly a dress for each
mood or lifestyle. Smart Suits quietly tasteful, simple lines allow the female figures to speak for themselves. Long, lean looks in fluid silks or in
classic wool with finely tailored jackets make a lady feel at home in both New York and Provance.
Easy Elegance is second nature to the little black dress. Only now that dress has entered the CybreAge and has mutated into a weapon of destruction (tearing men’s hearts into little pieces). Stretch
crepes and failles help out in this field of «Winner taking it all». Grand Gowns can bring around a
romantic air once felt by Renaissance lovers. They can be worn with the full circle hoops underneath, or they can become full flowing clouds of fabric. Again, the unexpected will be at hand with
fabrics usually associated with Menswear are transformed into fabrics feminine enough to be worn
to meet a Queen or King at a ball. True artisan craftsmanship is seen in how the fabric is manipulated to fit each figure. This is tailoring like very few people dare to approach. The designer’s
natural instinct for purity of form and dynamic vibrance for life is evident in every line, every
stitch, and every fabric choice. Throughout each garment, attention to detail is the key in creating
this alluring Collection with a diverse appeal. Elegant, worldly, refined, unpredictable: what else
would a woman expect from Lawrence Pizzi’s Haute Couture Collection for Fall 1998.
JASON TIRENDI
«I’ve managed to develop a deep (and somewhat disturbing) love for ink on paper. It is the simplest of mediums
— yet has the potential for unlimited complexity. I am
enamored of ink for this reason. And also, because a good IV
of 35 - 40 cc’s of quality India ink really gets the day started
right.»
Jason is currently employed at ArchStreet Design in
Greenwich, CT as their Graphic Designer / Illustrator /
Swashbuckler. He prays for a professional life of pure illustration — void of computer manipulation or typography.
42
Jennifer L. Newman
Jennifer L. Newman: «The images and sensations,
the cityscape of my childhood, exist in the deep spaces of
my mind. I want to recapture the smells, sounds, color, light,
and movement. At the age of seven, I moved away from
the grids of the buildings. The loss of the buildings, windows, and noise, determined my visual perspective. How
did the concept of a horizon line effect me? I am intrigued
by the notion of a «space» or «place» as an extension of
one’s «self». My medium is collage and assemblage. I work
with painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, found
images, found objects. The shapes formed by the grid in
my work, frame or hide the figure(s). I do not limit myself
to dimensional restrictions. Permitting the grid to exist in
both two, and three dimensional space allows me to reflect
the images in my mind. The grid (hidden or revealed) is the constant throughout my work. The
abstract notion of a grid helps me push and pull my images through space and time. The end
product is the unification of the two and three dimensional work.»
Lou Netter
My work reflects my intense interest in the bizarre and
wonderful. 1 love the absurdity of modern life especially that of
modern America, have a degree in illustration from Loughborough
College of art and Design in England and have spent some time in
London. My interests in the field of illustration are focused oil editorial,
reportage and storyboard art. The tradition satire is strongly present
in my work and I am looking for publications brave enough to try me.
Nadim Kurani
Abu-Tassi is a lamp series handmade from off-the-shelf bits and pieces of plumbing hardware, nuts and bolts, bathtub strainer, conduit entrance cap, 40 watt vanity type bulb, toggle
switch...and 15 pounds of concrete.
Nadim Kurani is the founder of untoys products; an idea factory responsible for the invention, creation, design development and fabrication of numerous concepts in industrial art, toys, and
computer accessories . . . so far. Some of Abu-Tassi’s clients include Warner Brothers Batman &
Robin, Summer of 1997; Lava Films, CBS David Copperfield’s 15 Years of Magic; WIRED
Magazine May 1997 issue; and many galleries, coffee houses and more. Abu-Tassi retails for
$350.00
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NILUFER SEN NECEF
I graduated from Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996 with a BFA degree. In 1997, I
moved to the USA to continue my career. Since then,
I have displayed my art work in several galleries in
Red Bank, New Jersey, and at this moment I am
working on opening my own show in Turkish Consulate in Manhattan, New York.
I enjoy working with mixed media and installation, where I can transfer my thoughts and ideas to
people. In «Don’t go crazy!» I used mixed media to
express my concerns about over fishing.
Since I came to the USA I have been taking computer art classes, so that I can use the advantages of technology in my art work. In the mean time, my next project is finding a good graduate
program to continue my art education. I can be contacted at;
THE BOID SERIES
pastel on paper
BOTH "THE KACHALIENS" AND "THE BOIDS" ARE AVAILABLE FOR LICENSING IN ALL
MEDIA
THE KACHALIENS
by: Meadow "The Kachaliens" are a group of mysterious beings, humorous figurative symbolic
representations of ourselves. They were influenced by American Indian Kachinas and Outer Space Aliens
hence "Kachaliens". Created originally as pastel and mixed media collages, (1989 to present), each one
has its own identity and name. "The Kachaliens" possess ancient wisdom and special powers, they have
come back to earth from outer space and other planets to share their knowledge. They deliver short
messages and lessons clearly understood by children about how to care for themselves and the environment.
"The Kachaliens" are available for licensing in all media, especially animation and children's books.
THE BOIDS
by: Meadow "Boids", or bird with a New York accent is the title of a series of surrealistic drawings
and paintings with social commentary as the underlying motivation. The larger works reflect the fast and
glitzy world of the New York club scene during its heyday, and document the patrons who frequented each
particular establishment. Begun in 1981 this continuing body of work depicts "Boids" as people involved in
the sophisticated activities of humankind, all with the appropriate attitude. Each single "Boid" or social
environment chosen, is established and made recognizable by the heroes, heroines and fashions that highlight
each era. The "Boids" offer us the ability to heal ourselves by granting us permission to laugh at our own
absurdity. The stories of these characters are perfect for animation and print, especially for teaching valuable
lessons in a humorous manner. The "Boids" are available for licensing in all media.
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The Dynamic Designs of
Robert F. Kauffmann
ARTISTS IN THE 1990”S
By Gordon Dane
Robert F. Kauffhmann's educational background in both Animation Arts and Computer Science have nurtured his unique perspective and manipulation of design. The dynamics which inject
his works with visual drama are the contrasts and harmonies of negative versus positive space,
detail versus simplicity, and intuition versus calculation. Mr. Kauffmann says his original drawings
and prints, "illustrate a visual conundrum and mathematical paradox."
Division of Plane with Dragon is an engaging work in which the dragon is divided into multiple sections as is the surface plane on which it rests; the image suggests a split screen with different
measures of time. The top portion of the dragon hovers in space above its lower counterpart The
red color and undulating rhythm seduces and intrigues the viewer into probing the myriad ambiguities in the design.
Mr. Kauffmann has created illustrations for books, including Robert's Rhymes by Robert Morse,
and he has been a cartoonist for the Rutgers University newspaper. He has won several awards and
his work has been published in The Encyclopedia of Living Artists and American Artists Illustrated.
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BIOGRAPHY
Robert F. Kauffmann was born in Willingboro, NJ, and currently resides in Cinnaminson, NJ.
Kauffmann received a BA in Computer Science from Rutgers University in 1987. Since 1990, he
has been attending Animation Arts in Cherry Hill, NJ, an institute which promotes ongoing studies
in traditional cel animation. His first animated film, entitled "Animated Shorts", was completed
December, 1995, and won a number of awards and has been screened in various venues nationwide. He currently is working on a new film called “The Masque of Ollock". Mr Kauffmann is also a
Software Engineer at CSC and a printmaker whose award-winning work has been shown and published
in NYC, and nationwide.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My present style is a synthesis of my knowledge of applications in art, computer science, and
mathematics. Just out of high school, I became interested in M.C. Escher's methods of employing
mathematical concepts to create designs. Around the same time, I became aware of fractal geometry, which is a branch of mathematics used to describe objects and processes in nature using forms
which are recursive and infinitely complex. I was drawn by the beauty of these mathematical forms
to develop techniques which would employ them in making visual compositions. Most works are
hand-drawn originals from which are made serigraphs via photo-emulsion technique. They typically portray visual paradox using mathematical structures as expressive tools. My style can best
be described as Mathematical Surrealism. High-level designs come about when I devise a way to
divide space in a way that generates an image which is a complex mathematical pattern which
portrays an everyday object (or not-so-everyday object) which is recognizable to anyone. Once I
devise a method and lay down an initial design. The method of adding detail is algorithmic (though done by
hand, not computer). Rendering each design by hand typically requires between 2 and 13 months. Virtually
all the important works that I have created to date are based on mathematical concepts such as recursion
and fractals. These are effects typically generated with the aid of computers, and so my work often has the
quality or appearance of computer graphics. Though my work is not created with the aid of computers, it
can rightly be stated that it has been influenced by computer imagery. Computer graphics have facilitated
the visualization of things which were never seen before computers were invented (much like film). As
stated above, a major goal of my work has been the exploration of mathematical forms as expressive tools
for visual art. Same of my initial and continuing explorations of-this theme have involved programming and
generating some images via computer. When it actually comes to producing finished pieces, however,
traditional media (mainly drawings and serigraph prints) have served me better for gaining satisfactory
results. This is because, up until now, computers and output devices with sufficient color and resolution
have remained Prohibitively expensive.
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Sunnie Lee Abrahamson
Print Making, Monotypes and Multi Media
Originally from South Korea, Sunnie Lee Abrahamson
has studied all forms of art extensively, both in Korea and
the United States. As a result, her work reflects her life -- a
distinct melding of East and West. She concentrates on
monotypes with an emphasis on abstract and impressionistic works. "I especially like this technique because it allows me greater freedom in creativity."
Monotypes (one print; singular impressions) are created by directly drawing on a smooth, non-absorbant surface with etching ink, water color, pastel, or other medium.
"I use metal plates for these pieces."
The image is then transferred to damp print paper by
using an etching press. Since most of the image is transferred in the printing process, only one strong impression
can be made. Thus monotypes are considered 'one-of-akind original prints.
The "Loppestre Series" consists of 15 monotypes.
Loppestre is an Old English word for lobster and this abstract series takes the lobster as its central theme. The works were inspired by a trip through the
costal regions of Maine.
The "Rite Of Passage" series was prepared with the concept of Cultural Bridges as a central
theme. The work has a luminous square in the center. This symbolizes both the ancient Korean
Confucian ancestoral altar as well as a secret and personal place for self examination. The combination of warm and cool colors represent life's ups and downs. Collages inpart symbolic meanings.
Applicable too is the Korean saying, "I have crossed many mountains and rivers."
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A Little About Assemblage
"Pop Art began in London in the mid-1950's, but from the very start its imagery was largely
based on American mass media. Some artists associated with Pop embraced in their work the entire
range of their physical environment... They usually found the flat surface of a canvas too confining;
in order to bridge the gap between image and reality, they often introduced three-dimensional
objects into their pictures... utilizing every conceivable kind of material. These "environments" or
"assemblages" combined the qualities of painting, sculpture, collage and stagecraft.""Pop Art produced not only paintings but constructions and "environments"...being three-dimensional, the latter two can claim to be considered sculpture. Our habit of using "sculpture" in this sense is only a
few hundred years old. Antiquity and the Middle Ages had separate terms to denote various kinds
of sculpture according to materials and processes. No single one to cover them all. We must put
"assemblages" (that is, constructions using mixed mediums) in a class of their own -- probably a
useful distinction... Conversely, an object may deserve to be called an assemblage even though
composed of essentially homogeneous material.. carefully selected for their shape and color, and
composed in such a way that they form a new entity."
Malka S. Benoff
Oil
«Safed, Israel View»
«The view from the Phillips»
«Island Retreat»
Malka S. Benoff has an extensive background in art expression. She began exploring a myriad of arts
and crafts in Israel and continued in the United States. The mediums she has become proficient in include:
Decoupage, needlepoint, knitting, crocheting, latch-hook, fashion design, culinary arts, ceramics, hand
built stoneware, and wearable art. Increasingly, oil painting has been her primary focus and concentration.
Malka has participated in juried art shows throughout Northern Virginia and has had several solo
exhibitions as well. Her paintings hang in numerous private and corporate collections in Virginia, Maryland,
Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Florida and Israel.
While Malka's earlier paintings tended to be photo-realistic, most recently she has been exploring a looser, more painterly, and impressionistic style of painting. She uses a full palette and
works both from direct observation and from photographs. She is fascinated by the interplay and
effect that changing lights and shadows have on objects and their hues. Her paintings take the
viewer into a frozen moment in time and space and invite him or her to linger, ponder, and perhaps
pretend...
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«On the Porch»
«Canal Reflections»
«By the Potomac, W. Va»
Oil 35x14 inches
Brie Combs
Watercolor, Oil, Colored Pencil
«Believer»
Monotype 6.5" x 6.5"
«Sacrifice»
Watercolor 22"x15"
I paint what I felt at a given moment. What begins as a purely personal, seemingly uncomplicated
statement, often turns out to be not so simple. Often it evokes mixed or paradoxical emotions: loss and joy;
fear and hope; faith and doubt. I start with a figurative outline, then flood in saturated color. Between
washes, I may add texture by blotting or scraping back, or by applying various
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acrylic mediums and texture gels. I like to use pumice
paste over watercolor, then paint into it. Sometimes I use
resist techniques, either at the beginning of a piece or to
preserve different layers of color throughout. At times
the colors almost contradict the image - I may use painful colors on what would otherwise be a joyous form.
My goal is to capture the moment and express what I
have to say as clearly as I can. I feel I have succeeded
when people tell me they react emotionally to my work.
Kathryn Higgins
Watercolor, Oil
Kathryn Higgins, a multi-media artist, paints for the sheer joy of creating aesthetically beautiful glimpses of nature and the endless variations of growing things and familiar objects in sunlight and shade. Mrs. Higgins uses oils, acrylics and
watercolors but considers the latter the most demanding.
The artist has traveled extensively throughout Europe and the Orient. While living in Europe for eight
years, she studied privately with French and German
teachers and has studied with teachers of the Corcoran
and with outstanding local and nationally recognized
teachers.
Painting has been a lifelong interest of Kathryn
Higgins. Her love of the outdoors, as well as the influence of her travels, is reflected in her landscapes, seascapes, and city scenes. Her paintings are exhibited in galleries and in private collections here and
abroad.
Penelope Packard Strand
Photography
Possibilities...
Penelope has been recently experimenting with the alternative photoprinting processes.
These non-traditional photographic works include three different types of Polaroid images: transfers, emulsion "lifts" and TimeZero prints. They are one-of-a-kind images made from Polaroid photos which have been manipulated before, during and/or after the printing process.
Transfers have been printed on art paper or other non-photographic materials before they have had time to transfer onto their
original photo-paper.On the right is a photograph entitled "Midnight Chamber" which has been transferred to rag.
Emulsion "lifts" are photos which have been soaked in hot
water, lifted off their photo-paper base and "printed" onto various
surfaces. Penelope shows her lifts on art paper, frosted glass, ce50
ramic tile, cloth, wood and marble. The emulsion lift example on the left is entitled
"Underwater Garden". This work is on marble.
Time-Zero prints, made on a Polaroid SX-70 camera, have been manipulated by drawing with blunt tools
on the acrylic surface of their chemical-containing "envelope", enlarged and further enhanced with color and
art work, creating impressionistic/surrealistic
effects.The photograph on the right is an example of
time-zero printing and is entitled "Gun Point Chapel".
Other non-traditional printing techniques used for Penelope's Possibilities images include "sandwiching" and rear-projection/
manipulation. Sandwiching involves printing from double or
multiple slides. An double-image sandwiching example to the
left is entitled "Spirit of Wild Poppies".
Rear-projection/manipulation involves projecting
slides through a translucent screen and modifying the image passing it through
various materials, such as textured glass and fabrics. The resulting images represent
a unique vision of reality. The rear-projection example at right is entitled "Trembling Trillium II".
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Haitian Art
The largest collection of Haitian art outside of Haiti.
Experience the Sequin
Arts of Haiti!
Alexandre Gregoire
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Adam Leontus
Roi David Annisey
Magic, Mystery, Emotion
The sound of drums...
The voices of spirits...
The suffering of a people...
The eyes of a visionary...
The
passionate
heart
of an artist...
...all these things are embodied in the intense and distrubingly beautiful
work of Roi David Annisey. This young artist, who learned about the mysteries
of Voodoo from his aunt, a voodoo "servitor", uses his
understanding of the spirit world to create his intricate
images. These paintings are far more than representations
of voodoo mythology. They become a visual lexicon for
the political and personal struggles of the Haitian people.
They are also lush, complexly patterned and completely
original. It is no wonder that the University of Indianna
included his work, along with Haitian Masters Wilson
Bigaud and Voltaire Hector, in a special 1995 exhibition. More recently, Annisey
was a part of "Island on Fire" exhibition, organized by collector Jonathan
Demme.
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Andre Pierre
Schools, Styles And Artists:
The Artibonite Valley
Saincilus Ismael is considered the father of the Artibonite style
of painting. These distinctively colored and detailed images are often
painted on a black ground to emphasize their colors. Traditional
Artibonite work depicts scenes of country life. However some of
Ismael’s students, such as Carlo Jn.Baptiste and Michel-Ange
Altidort, have gone on to develop distinctive individual styles. These
artists have retained a love of detail and sense of color, while exploring
themes of fantasy, politics and human relationships in addition to the
traditional subject matter.
Michel Ange-Altidort
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Edmonde Jn.Baptiste
Joseph Francois
Artibonite Artists
· Altidort, Michel-Ange
· Myrthil, Benson
· Estigene, Kedson
· Jn.Baptiste, Carlo
· Estime, Alain
· Jn.Baptiste, Edmonde
· Francois, Joseph
· Jn.Baptiste, Michel
· Francois, Serge
· Guy, Joachim
The City of Cap-Haitian
Cap-Haitian is a colonial town on the northern coast of Haiti. Artists from this area follow in
the footsteps of Haitian master, Philome Obin. The painting style of Cap-Haitian artists is characterized by refined linear elements, meticulous paint handling , and subject matter that encompasses both daily life and the area’s rich history.
Artibonite Artists
· Altidort, Michel-Ange
· Myrthil, Benson
· Estigene, Kedson
· Jn.Baptiste, Carlo
· Estime, Alain
· Jn.Baptiste, Edmonde
· Francois, Joseph
· Jn.Baptiste, Michel
· Francois, Serge
· Guy, Joachim
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The City of Cap-Haitian
Cap-Haitian is a colonial town on the northern coast of Haiti. Artists
from this area follow in the footsteps of Haitian master, Philome Obin. The
painting style of Cap-Haitian artists is characterized by refined linear
elements, meticulous paint handling , and subject matter that encompasses both daily life and the area’s rich history.
St. Louis Blaise
Andre Blaise
Rony Leonidas
S.E.Bottex
Cap-Haitian Artists
· Anatole, Charles
· Obin, H.C.
· Blaise, Andre
· Bottex, S.E.
· Blaise, St. Louis
· Leonidas, Rony
· Blaise, Sterwin
· St.Croix, Jn. Claude
· Obin, Michaelle
Celestin Faustin
Erzulie’s Own
Ezene Domond, Celestin Faustin and Edger Cayo in Jacmel, January 1979
Celestin Faustin was born in 1948 in LaFond, Haiti and even
as a child was known as an artist. Apprenticed to Wilmino Domond
at age 19, he grew quickly bored of the imposed limitation and
began to work independently within a year. He soon became known
as one of the most extraordinary Haitian painters. Faustin’s
grandmother Celestina, who Faustin was named after, was a wellknown «wise woman» and communicated with the loas. She believed that Erzulie Dantor (goddess of love, beauty and dreams)
had claimed her grandson as her own and that was where his exceptional artistic abilities came from.
But Erzulie is a harsh mistress. Maya Deren, in The Divine
Horseman says that «Erzulie is the loa of impossible perfection which
must remain unattainable». And Faustin struggled both with the impossibility of her demands and his own
religious ambivalence towards VouDou. His paintings are dreams and self-portraits reflecting this troubled
obsession. The conflict resolved itself in 1981, when after returning from a trip to New York he died in his
Petion-Ville studio from a heroin overdose.
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Ezene Domond
The Country Life
Ezene Dumond studied painting with his Uncle Wilmino Dumond, as well as world famous Voodoo artist Celestine Faustin.
He lives and works in the remote rural community of La Fond. His love of nature and the
county life is reflected in his work: wonderfully rendered landscapes, markets and animal paintings.
The consistently high standards of this artist are evident not only in his beautifully composed and executed
paintings but in his exquisite museum quality screens.
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Dr.Francois L’Amerique Bellante
Dr. Francois L’Amerique Bellante is a self-taught artist and a selfappointed doctor of herbal medicine. Bellante loves to paint and says
that he wants to show things he has seen so others can understand.
These visions are not concerned with the day to day. They explore the
world of Voodoo spirits and practitioners and, not incidentally, the human
psyche. His work is primitive, raw, wild, and from the gut—a personal
private view of the spirit world.
Schools, Styles and Artists:
Vou Dou (Spirit) Flags
Hand sewn spirit flags are an art form unique to Haiti. These
intricately sequined and beaded flags honor the loas or spirits and are used
in temples, home altars and in Voodoo ceremonies. Their purpose can be
likened to prayer cloths, stained glass windows or medieval icons.
At the start of the Voodoo ceremonies, the flags are brought in by
«Reine Drapo» (flag queen) who performs a ritual dance that helps to
invoke the spirits and to set aside the ceremonial space from the everyday
world. The dazzling display of the flags transports worshipers to a mystical
plane. For collectors, the aesthetic beauty of the beadwork parallels their
spiritual significance, and makes them doubly appealing.
(VD-413) Jn. Joseph Jn. Bernard
(VD-496) Constant
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George Paul Hector
Artist and Poet
George Paul Hector was born Feb. 7th, 1938 in Petite Riviere, Haiti He died in 1993.
Hector joined the Centre d’Art in 1952 (teaching) and also studied with L.Poisson. By
profession he was a poet, journalist and artist. And throughout his life, was active in forming various artistic and writing groups including; Koumbit studio in 1968, becoming the first general secretary of the National Association of Haitian Artists, founder/editor of Courier des Arts and in 1979
he created the group Third Generation, devoted to arts and crafts, painting and literature.
Hector has exhibited internationally, including Senegal, Jamica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. and Dominican Republic.
Levoy Exil
One of the best known of the Saint-Soleil artist community , Exil taps the sources of Voodoo and
finds his roots in his dreams. He has a complex spiritual life, believes in past lives, and relates more to the
Arrowak Indians than his African ancestors. His work is poetic, almost calligraphs of the inarticulatable.
He has exhibited all over the world, and collectors prize these highly expressive works.
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Montas Antoine
Michaelle Obin
Petion Savain
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Haitian Realism
Realism in Haitian painting is essentially a social realism, focusing on the people and activities of daily life. These artists are less interested in pattern and stylization and more focused on the
individual and his or her context. In the paintings of the realists beauty is not found in dreams or
fantasies. Instead, it resides in the eloquence of Haitian life observed.
Haitian Realists
· F. Clervil
· Gerald Decilien
· Soliman Delva
· Simeon Michel
· Josue Saintyl
Gerald Decilien
Wilson Bigaud
Bigaud joined the Centre d’Art in
1946, and is considered a first generation
Haitian master. He was a major contributor to the St. Trinity Cathedral murals with
his masterpiece «The Wedding at Cana».
His work is included on the Museum of
Modern Art collection. Between 1957 and
1961 he suffered a series of nervous
breakdowns, and was unable to paint.
However, he has recovered and as Haitian art connoisseur Michel Monnin
states: «Wilson Bigaud is in the flourish of his second career. Very few artists of any era have
approached the ability to render the beat, the humor, the exuberance of everyday life that makes
Haiti so unique...it is in this very detail that validates him a prime witness of his epoch.»
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Haitian Art
The largest collection of Haitian art outside of Haiti.
Varieties of Haitian Art
Few countries have as rich a variety of cultural influences as Haiti. Revolutionary slaves took
the island from the French in 1803, blending their West African heritage and religious customs with
the colonial French culture. The unique artistic enviroment of Haiti arises from the contrasting
social elements such as Voodoo, Catholicism, natural beauty and crushing poverty. The range of
Haitian Art is wide. These pages present only a few ways to begin to explore this world.
Ferdinand Molin
Born in Cuba, May 15th, 1925 Ferdinand is the son of Luseus
Lusamart and Melicia Molin. He came to Haiti with his mother in
1938. He lived in Port-au-Prince and went through primary grades
at Jean Francois Calvin and secondary at the Lyce Petion. He quit
going to school as a junior in high school. At a young age he began
his artistic work and painting at Foyer des Arts Plastique with
Dieudonne Cedor. He also studied a bit at the Centre de Art.
When life became difficult to care properly for his children,
he «repented» and became evangelic. Now, at 76, he has four children and is married to Stamene Molin.He studied and obtained a
diploma at the Theological Institute of John Calvin of Piety five
years ago and currently is the 2nd pastor at the Church of God on
Thurman Street.
Gesner Armand
Master of Light
Gesner Armand is clearly one of Haiti's finest non-primitive artists. Although difficult to reproduce here, the beautiful luminous light in his paintings echo the brilliant Caribbean colors of
Haiti.
Armand joined the Art Center at a young age and originally worked in watercolor. His very
first show at the Center, after a summer spent studying in Mexico City, was an instantaneous suc62
cess. Continuing his training, he spent 2 years in Paris on a French
government scholarship. After Pierre Monosiet death he became
the director of the Musee d'Art Haitien, retiring in 1995 to be
with his family. He exhibits in Haiti, Mexico, the U.S., Paris,
Spain, Jamaica, Martinique, Venezuela, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe and Israel.
Carlo Jn.Jacques
Carlo Jn. Jacques was born May 1st, 1943. Jn.Jacques was attracted to art at an early age;
taking correspondence courses from Ecole ABC in Paris, and later studying under Bernard Wah
and Dieudonne Cedor. Depression and alcholism entered his life in his late 20's.
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So disturbed by the pain and hardship that
surrounded him, Jn.Jacques was consumed with a
sorrow that was transferred to all the work he had
since created. His paintings, characterized by muted
colors, proud postures and strong emotion both
expose and condemn social injustice. Depictions of
the city’s slum quarters have never been executed
quite so gracefully.Carlo Jn. Jacques died in
September, 1990.
Jacques Enguerrand Gourgue
First Generation Master
With the death of Gourgue in 1996, Haiti lost one of its leading modern
painters. The son of a French psychiatrist and a Haitian woman, said to be
a "mambo" (Voodoo priestess), his creativity surfaced early. He joined the
Centre d'Art in 1047 at the age of 17. That year he completed "The Magic
Table", now a part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.
His visual vocabulary includes the mountains of Haiti, skeletal trees, peasants
and their huts and all the accoutrements of voodoo. By juxtaposing familiar
objects in surprising ways, he creates a surrealist style that invites the viewer
to meet him on the level of the subconscious, giving free reign to emotion
and fantasy. Haitian Art Co. is fortunate to own several of this Haitian
Masters works.
Dieudonne Cedor
Living Haitian Master
Cedor was born March 8, 1925 in Anse-aVeau and was educated at the Collere Beaubrun
Ardouin. He joined the Art Center in 1947 and
the following year served on its administrative
committee, both as a teacher and member of
the board of directors. In 1950 he was one of
the founding members of the Foyer des Arts
Plastiques
Cedor's work has been extensively exhibited and collected at home and abroad. It was
exhibited in Miami in 1969 and from 1971 has
been shown in the United States, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama. He executed a mural for the
International Airport of Port-au-Prince in 1967 that still greets visitors today. There is a permanent
display of his work at the Museum of Haitian Art at St.Pierre's College in Haiti.
Cedor is a professor at the Art School of the University of Haiti. Information on him can be
found in Selden Rodman's, "Where Art is Joy", "La Peinture Haitienne by Nadal and Bloncourt,
and virtually every other book about Haitian Art. Cedor is considered one of the greatest living
Haitian artists.
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Jn.Voltaire Hector:
A Visual Diary
Jn.Voltaire Hector is a rising star
among self-taught Haitian artists. He
began painting simple landscapes in
1977, but soon moved on to depicting
intimate scenes of Haitian life. Hector
is a sensitive and passionate artist. His
paintings serve as a sort of visual journal, illustrating his personal life and the
life of his community.
Whether presenting domestic
scenes, Voodoo ceremonies, or political events, his narrative paintings always engage the viewer.
Even the world of the spirits feels real and immediate in Hector’s work. The constant thread running through this prolific artist’s works is emotion. Gentle or intense, joyous or painful, the feelings evoked always ring true.
Fritzner Chery
Fritzner Chery was born in Petionville in 1947. He is a framer for the
Monnin Gallery in Petionville. Chery originally started painting in 1976, and
then stopped for some time because he was too busy making frames. He
started painting again in 1997. He has no formal training, but working at the
Monnin Gallery, enabled him to absorb and appreciate the art surrounding
him. His favorite artists include Franz Zephirin, Gourgue and Paul Beauvoir.
The raw primitivism of his paintings make him a favorite of the Haitian Art.
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Soliman Delva
Emotional Realism
Delva began painting at the age of 21, and in the
last 8 years he has shown a remarkable progression in
both skill and sensitivity. His special brand of social
realism has an amazing empathetic quality. In spite of
his youth, he understands and portrays a wide range of
human experiences, from birth to death. Although he
struggles with health problems (he was diagnosed with
TB in 1993) Delva remains one of the most dedicated
and dynamic artists represented by the gallery.
Delva has been training another young artist, Josue Saintyl
Andre Blaise
Heart-warming Humor Under the Sea
With the help of his famous brother, St. Louis Blaise, Andre Blaise began painting
in 1977. His delightful "bourgeois fish" series, begun in 1988, de-picts well dressed
fish behaving in a strangely human manner under the sea. Along with his mystical
landscapes, these paintings have become highly collectable and Blaise's reputation
has grown along with his popularity.
Carlo Jn.Baptiste
«Maitre Inconnu»
Carlo Jn. Baptiste attended local schools up to the Jr.College level. In 1978, he began an
apprenticeship with Saincilus Ismael. Ismael speaks of Carlo as the best of his apprentices, numbering more than one hundred and fifty.
Other successful artists and art critics express astonishment at the quality of his work and
speak of him as a «maitre inconnu» i.e. an unknown master. Boris Kravitz, our purchasing agent,
commented, «Carlo Jn.Baptiste is the most exciting artist I’ve encountered since being in Haiti»
(20 years). He has the combined technical skills, discipline, talent and creative forces that make
him a remarkable artist with an exceptional potential.
Rameau Cameau
Contemporary Haitian Master
The highly textured and stylized work of Cameau finds it's source in both his
training (with internationally known Calixe Henry) and his individual interpretation of
the Haitian experience. From his early work, depicting Voodoo scenes, to his more
recent presentations of landscapes and daily life, his painstaking "razor" technique has a
look that is both bold and contemporary. Cameau is able to create paintings that inspire
interest in both his paint handling and his narrative.
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Harry Jacques
“Arijac”
Arijac's portraits are highly romantic and lyrical. His medium is acrylic or encaustic, which is
an unusual one for Haitian artists. The pieces offer an almost European sensibility while retaining
the vivid color of his Haitian contemporaries. Arijac's paintings are valuable collector's pieces.
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Charles Anatole
Born November 4, 1922, died 1979. Charles
Anatole was born in the countryside near CapHaitien and lived most of his life on a busy street in
that city. He began painting in 1940; four years
before DeWitt Peters opened the Centre d'Art and
the Haitian art scene exploded. He is one of Haiti's
original naive painters contemporary with Hector
Hyppolite and Philome Obin. Anatole's work an
excellent example the unexpected beauty so often
expressed by "self taught" artists. His work is highly
collectable.
George Paul Hector
Artist and Poet
George Paul Hector was born Feb.7th, 1938 in Petite Riviere,
Haiti. He died in 1993. Hector joined the Centre d'Art in 1952
(teaching) and also studied with L.Poisson. Professionally he was a
poet, a journalist and an artist. Throughout his life, he was active in
forming various artistic and writing groups including; Koumbit studio
in 1968, becoming the first general secretary of the National Association of Haitian Artists, and he was founder/editor of Courier des
Arts. In 1979 he created the group Third Generation, devoted to
arts and crafts, painting and literature. Hector has exhibited
internationally in many places, including Senegal, Jamica, Puerto Rico,
the U.S. and Dominican Republic.
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St. Louis Blaise
Georges Auguste
In the rich and intricate patterns of George Auguste's painting, his background as a tapestry
maker is evident. Indeed he weaves elements of daily life into paintings that become atmospheric
naratives, shown from a "birds eye" view.
Gesner Abelard
Gesner Abelard was born in 1922 in Port-au-Prince. He first began his artistic career as a
sculptor, studying with Ulberman Charles. In 1946 he joined the Art Center. He is best known for
his paintings, which are often characterized by their depiction of unusual birds and trees.
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Jasmin Joseph
Born in 1924 in Grande Riviere du Nord, Jasmin
Joseph has gone through many phases of development in both his private and artistic lives. He began
as a sculptor and has continued as a painter. Born to
extremely poor peasants, he did not receive any formal education. In 1948, his talent was recognized and
encouraged by Jason Seley, an American sculptor
teaching at the Centre d'Art, who had been bringing
work for firing to the brick factory in Port-au-Prince
in which Jasmin worked. Through his example, the
American inspired the young man to create. Today
Jasmin is famous for the fine terra-cotta sculptures
he did for Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince.
Great dignity and a lyrical contemplative mood distinguish his stations of the cross as well as his openwork blocks for the choir screen.
In 1950, upset by the increasing damage done
to his sculptures while in the factory awaiting firing,
Jasmin gave up sculpture and began to paint. About
the same time, he converted from voodoo to Protestantism. This change was echoed in his work. His first
paintings were representations of voodoo scenes; the
bulk of his work now concentrates on Christian
themes. Jasmin retained his love for the depiction of
animals, out of which grew elegant pictures with moral
overtones
Jasmin's technique has changed from thickly
applied oils and heavily textured surfaces to a delicate application of color with a smooth, velvety appearance. Joseph's artistic universe is filled
with vegetation, but he
is a humorist: these animals are most often satiric representations of
well known people.
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Robert St.Brice
Born 1893 in Petionville, Haiti.Robert St.
Brice apparently came from a background of
poverty and had no schooling at all. Accepting
all sorts of jobs to survive, he reached the turning point of his life when he took the American artist Alex John into his house as a paying
guest. Fascinated by the act of painting, St.
Brice followed John's example. He joined the
Centre d'Art in 1949. He was deeply involved
in Voodoo and claimed to be a houngan. To St.
Brice, the inner eye was all-important; he felt no need to depict the visible world around him. He
conceived of painting as a mystical act, perfect for the transmission of his religious convictions. He
used his dreams as a source of inspiration. His dreams were messages from his Indian and African
ancestors. He is considered one of the dream painters. His tadpole men, mermaids and loas-trinity
have a power of primitive expression comparable to totems or Indian amulets. His images seem
always in a state of transformation, appearing and disappearing like shooting stars. The organic
forms are only roughly outlined, ready to dissolve into the void of the background. Depending on
the strength of his vision, the shapes can have expressive3 features such as eyes and mouth. The
eyes especially hint of Voodoo-they are of snakes. St. Brice himself, however, was quite the contrast of his paintings: jovial, affectionate and articulate, finding friendship and love the most important things in life. St Brice died in 1973 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Calixte Henry
International Sophistication
in the Haitian Milieu
Born in 1933 in Port-au-Prince, Calixte Henry began his painting career
in 1955 at the Centre d’Art. Four years later, he had opened his own studio
where he pursued his interest in cubism and impressionism. Inspired by Braque’s
elegant sense of design and Suerat’s mastery of color, Henry manages to combine
European style and Haitian subject matter. Painting entirely with a pallete knife,
he captures the vivid light of the tropics and the beauty of the Haitian landscape.
Henry has exhibited in both Europe and the United States. He won a special
mention in Switzerland’s Guggenheim Contest.
«The Shore»
«Twilight»
«Still life»
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Petion Savain
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on February 15, 1906.
Considered one of the fathers of Haitian painting, he was
the first Haitian painter to receive recognition when he was
awarded medals at the Gallery of Science and Art in 1939-five
years before the opening of the Centre d’Art. He started painting
in 1927 while teaching cabinet making, tin smithing and wrought
iron at the same school. Savain studied at the Haitian School of
Agronomy and earned a law degree. He decided to learn painting in 1931, and in 1939 published his first book, La Case de
Damballah . He studied at the Art Student’s League in New York
in 1941, where his second book, Les Oeuvres Nouvelles, was
published a year later. His quest for knowledge was insatiable. A
lawyer, painter, author and
teacher of the arts, Savain was
also a student of mural and fresco techniques, tempera, wood sculpture. He even found time to become a newspaper columnist from
1950 to 1956 during which time he appeared in over six art books.
Savain’s very personal style has been copied by many Haitian artists, but his pinks and purples are instantly recognizable, as is his
use of semicircles and triangles in which painted figures crouch or
sit. His work is on exhibition in the US, including the Corcoran
Gallery and Grand Central and Riverside Museum. The opportunity to buy Savain’s work is rare, but an aesthetic joy as well as an
invaluable investment. Petion Savain died in 1975.
First Generation Masters and Collector Pieces
In 1944 DeWitt Peters, an American watercolor artist, established the Centre d’Art in Port au Prince.
No one could have predicted that it would serve as a catalyst for such an incredible explosion of the
Haitian creative spirit. Artists who joined the Centre close to its inception are known as First Generation
Artists. These artists and other major figures continue to exert an enormous influence over the development
of Haitian Art. Their work is prized and of particular interest to collectors.
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J.E. Gourgue
Gesner Armand
Carlo Jn.Jacques
Haitian Art Company:
Promoting the art of Haiti for over 20 years
Located in the historic district of Key West, the Haitian Art
Company is owned and operated by the father daughter team of
Boris and Ruth Kravitz. Boris resides year round in Haiti and purchases all the paintings, sculptures, paper mache and spirit flags
directly from the artists. Because he has become a part of the Haitian
community, the gallery is able to support emerging artists as well as to maintain close ties with well known
artists.
Ruth created the gallery space in colorful old town Key West. The «gallery
grrlz» Jenny, Shari and Erin are friendly and eager to share their knowledge
about the art of over 350 artists. Our paintings look wonderful in their wood
frames hand crafted in Haiti.
Services offered by the gallery include layaway, shipping
and an excellent art through the
mail program. Selections from
the extensive photo library can
be tailored to your interests in a
«Photo Pack». Photo Packs make our collection of over
4000 paintings available to our customers who live far
away!
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The Definition of Design
by William R
How we define design forms the basis of both our theoretical and pragmatic expressions as
designers. Without a clear understanding of what we mean by «design» we are apt to find ourselves
the victims of arbitrary thoughts and styles, unconsciously mimicking the misrepresentations of
aesthetics, form, and function advocated by others.
Definition
The word «design» is commonly used as either a noun or a verb. As a noun, «design» generally refers to some object or other entity. As a verb it is usually used to refer to a process, or series
of activities. For the purpose of this definition the word «design» will be used solely as a verb, thus
drawing attention to the fact that design is a process.
Simply put ...
«Design is the thought process comprising the creation of an entity.»
This concise, seemingly sterile, and yet deceptively simple definition of design, is built on a
solid foundation of ideas and concepts that will serve as the very root of our philosophy of design.
To dismiss this clear, simple definition as being overly generic, obscure, or even obvious, is to miss
its value to us in our everyday world as designers.
Thought
«Design is the thought ...»
It is «first thought,» or that type of thought we call insight. It is the mental synapse that
instantly sees the potential connection between problem and possibility; that sees the capacity for
order in the midst of chaos, or for improvement amid inefficiency.
Design is also intuition, that form of subconscious thought that leads us to a deeper sense of
knowing, often in the apparent absence of rational confirmation. Intuition is akin to an elongated
insight that tells us we are on to something. It is the hunch that often underlies our efforts to
perform rational analysis.
Design also involves reason, that fully conscious form of thought that assesses the problem
and analyzes the possibilities for solution. It is the analytical process that relies on method and
mathematics to assess, refine, and verify its various hypotheses.
And finally, design is the synthesis of all three of these aspects of thought (insight, intuition,
and reason) that forms the complete, and verifiable, conceptualization of possibility. To assume
that thoughtfulness in design is limited to one or two of these aspects is to stifle the power of our
creative potential as designers. Those who argue that «design,» or perhaps even «creativity,» is
limited solely to the intuitive, or to the rational, often do so based more on a limitation of their own
skills or interests than on any well-founded epistemology.
Regardless of what talents we may have, or lack, what interests may motivate us, or where we
find our own personal comfort and satisfaction as designers, design involves the utilization and
synthesis of all three aspects of thought: insight, intuition, and reason.
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Process
«Design is the thought process ...»
As presented in this definition, design is the activity of creation, as opposed to the product of
creation. It is a sequence, or set, of thought-filled events and procedures that lead to the creation of
that which is being designed. This thought process also involves the various activities associated
with thought (contemplating, speaking, writing, drawing, modeling, constructing, etc.) that are
typically used to carry one’s «image of possibility» from initial concept to completion.
In other words, design is not «product»; «product» is, rather, the output of design. That which
has been created is not «a design,» it is what it is (a house, an automobile, a computer, a health care
program, a piece of music, etc.); it is an «entity» unto itself. Design is the process used to create
that entity.
The nature of this process, which is often modeled as a linear sequence of events, is in reality
a highly complex, multifaceted set of thought-filled activities. While design is linear, in the sense
that it is sequenced in time as one moves from initial concept to a completed product, it is also
nonlinear. Design thought often jumps in discontinuous association from one aspect of a problem
to another as it searches for solution. It is multileveled, in the sense that overall systems, subsystems, and even minute details often need to be considered simultaneously.
Design thought is also iterative. Prototypical forms need to constructed, assessed, and then
reformulated to develop the understanding necessary for the next higher level of solution.
As one can see, this process called «design» can be discussed and described in many ways.
This is not to say that a specific description of design (linear, iterative, etc.) given at a particular
point in time can not be helpful, for it can and is often necessary for the effective development and
management of the overall design process. What is important is the fact that the total thought
process of design involves a wide variety of procedural structures and thus can not be restricted to
a particular methodology.
Comprising
«Design is the thought process comprising ...»
That is, it includes, or contains, every thought and action required to create that which is being
designed. The whole of design comprises all the individual parts of that thought process leading up
to, involved with, and even following the creation of the entity being designed.
Depending on the type of entity being designed, this process can include the following:
· the identification of a set of needs,
· the initial conceptualization of a way to meet those needs,
· the further development of that initial concept,
· the engineering and analysis required to make sure it works,
· the prototyping of its preliminary form,
· the construction of its final form,
· the implementation of various quality control procedures,
· selling its value to the consumer,
· its delivery to the consumer,
· providing for after-service,
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· and obtaining feedback regarding its utility and value.
Each of these steps contributes to the generation of form and is thus part of the design process.
Frequently, designers — those responsible for the creation of an entity — limit their definition
of design to the early phases of this overall process and thus abdicate their responsibility, as designers, to others. In doing so they relinquish control to others who are often less committed to their
«image of possibility» or their «sense of continuity» concerning the final product and how it relates
to the user. This abdication is one of the primary causes of inferior products.
Quality design (the process) and quality products (the output of that process) require a comprehensive definition of design that comprises the whole «thought/activity» design process and not
some limited, however well-intended, subset of that process.
Creation
«Design is the thought process comprising the creation ...»
This comprehensive «thought/action» process is directed toward, and culminates in, creation.
That is, it leads to the tangible realization of a mature completion of the «image of possibility» that
originally served to initiate the process.
Without this realization the original «image of possibility» becomes an unfulfilled dream, or a
frustration, and in time can vanish altogether. This is not to say that the original image does not
change during the design process, for it does and often quite drastically.
What is important is that this change is a natural part of the maturation process and that the
successful completion of this process, which often begins as a mere figment of our imagination,
culminates as sensible reality in time and space.
The creation of this reality serves as the pivotal point in the overall design process; for without creation the process is either incomplete, or fallacious. It is incomplete when the process stops
prior to creation, fallacious when creation is replaced by one of its impostors.
All too often the act of creation is replaced by either copying, or mimicking, the results of
some previous design process, which itself may have been fallacious. While the results of similar
processes may themselves be similar, they are never the same, and should never be taken for granted.
Each design process must include its own act of creation.
Entity
An entity, that is, the product of the design process, can be
· physical, such as an object that occupies space (e.g., the house we live in, a car, or a piece of
art),
· temporal, such as an event that occurs in time (e.g., a musical concert, a political rally, or a
birthday party),
· conceptual, such as an idea (e.g., the theory of relativity, the concept of cybernetics, or even
the definition of design), or
· relational, such as a relationship that describes, or specifies, the interaction between entities
(e.g., the procedures for operating a computer, or even the friendship between two people).
Each of these entities can be designed.
The design process is not limited, as so many of us have been lead to believe, to that narrow
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class of objects or events that are supposed to have some sort of special «aesthetic» appeal.
Any entity can be designed, that is, can be created with intent and purpose. The total thought
process encompassing the creation of that entity, the process that gives it its form, be it physical,
temporal, conceptual, or relational is design.
Conclusion
While the contents of the preceding paragraphs elaborate the intent of our definition, it is the
definition itself that provides the clarification of its meaning. This simple definition ...
... summarizes the essence of design. More importantly, however, it provides the foundation
for a substantial extrapolation of this essence that can, through our efforts as designers, lead to
more purposeful designs.
This paper is not meant to be conclusive, but rather catalytic. Its purpose is to initiate a broader
conversation about the definition of design and its importance to all fields of design.
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Typography
Typography is said to be the passion of graphic communicators. It is one of the most complicated and studied principles of graphic design. Why would anyone care to make type their passion,
you ask?
Well, the graphic designer’s ultimate goal is to translate an idea, message or feeling into a
visual communication that the targeted audience will easily understand and remember. Type is the
most basic element of this communication. There are several elements of type that combine the reate a
unified picture, or feeling, called the typeface.
Type has two faces, just like a lot of people I know. The first expresses the written word. For
example in a Marlboro ad, the word «Marlboro» means Marlboro, the cigarette brand. The second
face is to relate an emotion. In the same Marlboro ad, the typeface is large, bold and very squared,
relating to the feeling of strength. This underlying feeling contributes to the imagery of the product
which is the ever macho «Marlboro Man». Any typeface can say «Marlboro» but only a few back
up the literal meaning with a visual punch. Type must fit into its society which we call «the page».
Your job as a typotherapist is to decide whether it does, or does not.
Here’s the guidelines to being a typotherapist:
Clarity. How easily type can be seen through the smog of the page. Can grandma read it? Do
you want her to? First, we look to see if the type fits the most basic criteria, readability. Are the words on
the space of the page easily read? Here, many physical aspects of the type is important. Is the size large
enough to read without distrubing the balance of the page? Visually, are the letters spaced equally from
each other? Is the type laid out in columns? Does this make it easier to read? Basically, the human eye and
brain are attacked by millions of messages per minute. If your message is important it better be clear and
concise or the eye/brain unit will pass right over it. It’s that simple.
Creativity. Next, we look to see if the designer uses the type in a creative way. This is not always
necessary and can sometimes detract from a good graphic design. Are the forms of the letter put together
to create a picture? How is the picture made by this negative space related to the overall piece? Next, the
type must be analyzed. Don’t dust off the microscope, yet. If there is a large block of text we look at the
texture that block of texture makes. Text that is light and spread out over a large area gives a gray texture,
however, if it is bold and compact it gives a black texture. Does this texture contribute to the composition,
or is it detracting from the piece? As a general rule in graphic design, type, or any other element, must be
absolutely necessary to convey the message. If the piece could convey the same message without some
particular element, that element is usually detracted from the piece’s overall design.
Connotation. Or how to be a typotherapist. Personality. Just like people, families of type have
personality. And, just like each member of the family stereosypically plays a role, each member of
the type family, also has a role. If a member of the family takes on the wrong responsibility, the
dishes won’t get done and the trash won’t go out. If the wrong type personality is put into a piece,
the personalities of the overall work will create conflict. I find evaluating this layer of the design is
most easily done by assuming the role of the illiterate typotherapist. Pretend that you cannot read
the word. Now, what does the picture of the word say? For example, is it set in bold, giving the
feeling of strength or importance?
What type face is used can only be evaluated by the trained eye or by using a reference.
However, the connotation of the type face can easily be examined by anyone. Believe it or no,
connotation of the typeface is impacted on us from out first Sesame Stree episode. For example,
you may not know that Garfield, the cartoon is set in Cooper Black. However, when you see the word
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Garfield typed in Cooper Black, you will not get confused with Garfield, the late president. The most
important thing to understand here is that type personality must fit with the rest of the picture to project one
image.
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Career Management for the
Independent Graphics Professional
Tips for Seasoned and Novice Professionals
Because of the boom in technology, a growing demand for quality visual communication, and
corporate downsizing, these are the glory days for independent contractors in the graphic arts.
So, what differentiates one artist from the next in the client’s mind? Mostly, it’s a combination
of hard work, smarts, a knowledge of technology, and an understanding of how the new labor
marketplace works.
One avenue many freelance graphic artists have explored is the staffing agency world. Working through a temp agency, you can leave the administrative and marketing chores to the agency
and receive «corporate level» benefits, while you concentrate on creating good work. An agency
also offers solo practitioners a valuable connection with other like-minded professionals. A good
agency will answer your questions, help you improve your skills, and fill you in on the latest gossip
around town.
Whether you work through an agency or not, there are some good lessons to be learned from
veterans of the field. Here is a «hot list» of do’s and don’ts for anyone interested in or currently working in
the freelance graphics world.
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
The graphics and production worlds are diverse. Anyone starting out needs to know where his
or her interests lie. To begin with, are you sure you want to work as an independent and not inside
a structured environment? «Temping and contract work isn’t for everyone,» says Maureen Stuart,
director of creative staffing for MacTemps (http://www.mactemps.com) in Philadelphia. «We often
see people who are excellent in the full-time corporate setting, but find the freedom and lack of
structure in the independent world unsettling. If you’re striking out on your own, it has to be a
lifestyle you thrive on.»
If you aren’t sure of your career goals, temping offers real benefits. «Temping gives you the
chance to sample many different kinds of industries and work environments before you choose one
to stay with,» says Stewart. «If you’re looking for a full-time job, temping provides you with a slew
of experiences. You work with small and large clients, on the production side, the prepress side, the
design side, and so forth.
«Moreover, in an economy like ours, in which business is growing quickly and companies are
choosing to hire permanent as well as temporary graphics people, you can work through an agency
like MacTemps in a “temp-to-perm” capacity. You and the client get the chance to test each other
out and decide that the working relationship is a good one for the long term. If not, you’re both free
to try other opportunities and no one loses.» .
PROFESSIONALISM
According to Stuart, the most important thing to focus on, whether you’re working through an
agency or as an independent contractor, is professionalism. «We look for the professional when we
screen candidates,» she says. «Self-image, a pride in your work, and a professional attitude are the
most important. No matter how good designers are, if they can’t work well in a team, they won’t
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work well with a client.»
Adds Kim Schaefer, Philadelphia market manager for MacTemps, «You must also be flexible
and adaptable. In any graphic communication environment, you’re going to be challenged to find
solutions to your clients’ problems. As a temporary or freelancer, you’ll have to expand your knowledge and experience into fields you may not have worked in, and it stretches your capabilities to
make you a better designer. If you’re not willing to stretch, temping or freelance is probably not for
you.»
Positions often arise on a moment’s notice, so many temps and freelancers carry pagers or
other devices to help agencies or clients reach them quickly.
HEALTH AND OTHER BENEFITS
There’s more to independent work than a powerful computer and a good visual sense. As
anyone who’s ever needed stronger eyeglasses after staring at a computer screen for six months can
tell you, health and wellness are also important.
You have to figure into your fees enough profit to cover medical insurance, as well as office
equipment, living expenses, quarterly tax payments, and perhaps an unsightly surprise from Uncle
Sam on April 15. One of the benefits of working through an agency like MacTemps is that payroll,
taxes, and withholding are handled for you, and benefits are provided, including health, dental,
401(k) retirement, vacation and disability, and dependent care reimbursement. You retain the freedom of freelance work while collecting a single paycheck with taxes already paid out—and your
paycheck comes to you at the end of each week. You don’t have to wait for a client to process your
invoice.
YOUR VALUE IN THE MARKETPLACE
As technology demands that artists become trained in computers, people with these skills
become more in demand as well. For example, according to MacTemps, some of the approximate
rates you could expect working through an agency in greater Philadelphia area include:
· Simple production, one-to three-color work, such as display ads: $15.75 to $21/hour.
· Complex production, such as magazine and catalogue publishing, prepress work, four-color
work, preflighting: $16.50 to $23.50/hour.
· Complex design such as design comps: $17.50 to $26.50/hour. Presentation graphics, $14.75
to $16.50/hour.
· Simple multimedia, such as simple assembly using Director: $15.25 to $20.50/hour.
Complex multimedia, ranging from Director to advanced Lingo: $16.50 to $44.00/hour.
EXPERIENCE STILL IN DEMAND
In the Philadelphia marketplace, in which traditional publishing is a strong force, there is still
a great need for individuals with traditional experience, including typesetters, prepress production
experts (with 5 to 10 years of experience), people familiar with sheetfed offset and web presses,
second-and third-shift personnel, and image retouching.
Anyone entering the field as either a temporary or independent should have a strong command of the major software applications, including: QuarkXPress, PageMaker, Photoshop, FreeHand,
Illustrator, Word, WordPerfect, Persuasion, PowerPoint, Excel, and Lotus 123. People working in
advanced multimedia should be familiar with Director, Strata Studio Pro, Infini-D, Sound Edit 16,
Authorware and other major new media programs. Web development is also in demand, so pro81
grammers in HTML, Java, C++, and other relevant languages can command competitive salaries.
Graphic Arts Monthly On Line, September 24,1996
The University of Arts
Foundation Program
Robert McGovern & Michael Rossman
Co-Chairpersons The Foundation Program in the College of Art and
Design provides incoming freshman with a year devoted to a basic understanding of principals and concepts in the visual arts. During the first semester
each student is a member of a Foundation section and takes Two-Dimensional Design, Three-Dimensional Design, and Drawing. During the second
semester students select a minimum of nine credits (3 courses) from the four
courses offered by Foundation in Two-Dimensional Design, Three-Dimensional Design, Drawing, and Time and Motion. Each class meets for three
hours, twice a week. Each section of students is taught by a team of faculty
who are professionals in their various fields of art and design; many hold the
rank of Professor and Associate Professor. In Foundation courses, faculty
stress not only the independent qualities of a discipline but its interdependent character. Through these
basic studies and their interaction, students discover the underlying values and principles important to all
visual arts. Classroom work is enriched by home assignments, critiques and reviews, guest artists, films,
slides, and class trips. One faculty member from the section's team is designated as the advisor to that
section. Students meet individually with the advisor to discuss concerns, the registration process, and their
choice of major. The student chooses an additional course offered by the major studio departments each
semester. These elective courses are designed to acquaint the student with the practices of the major
studio areas. Students also register for two Liberal Arts courses in each semester as indicated by the
University core.
Crafts
James Makins
Chairperson
The Crafts Department seeks to develop artists of originality and
resourcefulness who can excel in the most competitive professional
environment. Studio experience is provided in five major craft areas:
ceramics, fibers, glass, metals, and wood. There are also offerings in plaster and papermaking to
complement the curriculum. Each crafts area offers a balanced concentration in both the technical
and aesthetic aspects of the medium. While practical training and specialized skills are necessary
for creative ability, the conceptual and expressive evolution of each student is the essential focus of
the department. An ongoing study of the contemporary crafts movement is seen as an integral
element for those involved in the program. The range of faculty in each area provides the student
with exposure to a diversity of professional perspective and experience. Through an incisive and
rigorous curriculum, the department is devoted to preparing students for professional involvement
in their craft. Upon graduation, students elect to become independent artists,
teachers, or designers, or
find employment in industry. Individuals often combine these occupations in
order to meet their individual needs and goals.
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Graphic Design
Dera Drodvillo
Chairperson
Graphic designers play a key role in our information-based society. They give form to the
interface between users and our culture of rapidly proliferating products, places, processes, information, and services. The graphic design department, since its beginning, has sought to give students the basis to solve problems in communication in a way that merges concerns for fidelity to
content, for the visual aesthetic, and for engaging the reader-viewer’s rapport.
The faculty and students are engaged in a collaborative process of exploring the New as it
emerges. For graphic design the New has meant especially the transformation of media, effecting
how we create messages, how they are transmitted, and understanding the changing landscape of
design where media and culture intersect. Throughout the three years of major concentration, problems in graphic communication are combined with exploratory and experimental studies in drawing, color,
photography, typography, and emerging technologies. The curriculum is supplemented by special lecture
programs; workshops with invited design firms; and on-site studio seminars in selected design offices and
studios, paper and printing plants, museums and libraries, and with film and computer graphic producers.
Opportunities for additional study in fine arts, illustration, photography, animation, filmmaking, and
emerging technologies are available.
Designers work across several media and venues-from handmade images to digital images,
from still images to time-based communications, from print-oriented problems to communications
in cyberspace.
With successful completion of the program, students are prepared for entry-level positions as
graphic designers with design studios, publishers, corporations, nonprofit institutions, governmental agencies, architects and planners, network or cable broadcasters, film and video producers, or
advertising agencies.
The faculty are practicing professionals with distinguished records of accomplishment, sensitive and responsive to the changes in the field of design, yet not limited by its current practices.
Industrial Design
Anthony Guido
Chairperson
The Industrial Design Department provides a professional education for those wishing to
bring beauty and appropriateness to the products, presentations, and settings of modern society.
The program prepares students for careers in product, packaging, and exhibit design, as well as for
the design of communications, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and interiors. It also addresses problems of human factors research, computer-aided design, product development, manufacturing,
marketing, and a host of other considerations related to the humanistic uses of technology.
The department places emphasis on the development of graphic, sculptural, and spatial design
skills as a complement to creative problem solving, technical innovation, and effective communications during the solution of actual problems of design.
After initial coursework to introduce basic design and production processes, including computer-aided design and model making, students begin to develop and apply theory, skill, and knowledge to actual design problems, many brought into the studio by industry. Visiting designers also
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bring knowledge of current design, manufacturing, and marketing practices into studio and lecture courses,
and visits to industry provide opportunities for direct observation and firsthand knowledge of manufacturing
processes. Based on this foundation of skills, experience, and information, emphasis in the final year shifts
the responsibility for knowledge of design to the individual student, who works directly with a client/
sponsor on a thesis project prior to graduation. During the final semester the instructional focus also shifts
to career planning, portfolio preparation, and the development of information gathering and business
communication skills to better prepare the student to enter the job market.
Due to the wide scope, and creative yet practical character of an Industrial Design education, many
career opportunities await the graduate: with consulting firms, corporate design staffs, manufacturing firms,
exhibit houses, retailers, advertising agencies, research organizations, museums, educational institutions,
and government agencies, all of whom recognize the need to constantly improve the appearance, manufacture,
performance, and social value of their products.
Illustration
Mark J. Tocchet
Chairman
Illustrators give visual substance to thoughts, stories, and ideas. The Illustration Department
seeks to prepare its students for entry into the fields of book and periodical publishing, promotion,
education, advertising, and specialty fields.
Illustrators must call upon a broad range of traditional and up-to-date competencies to respond to today’s visual problems. As visual problem-solvers and communicators, illustrators need
to be open-minded, eclectic, flexible, and imaginative. The illustrator’s solution should be appropriate, intelligent, expressive, and visually engaging.
In order to prepare for a career in this competitive field, The University of the Arts Illustration
student develops skills that encompass two-dimensional media: from painting and drawing to photography, technical image-making, reproduction processes, and emerging opportunities in electronic imaging. Students may concentrate on either a design oriented or pictorially oriented curriculum. These skills are nurtured within a stimulating cultural climate provided by the resources
of the faculty, visiting professionals, the University, and the city at large. Each student progresses
from general competencies to a personal viewpoint, clarified career goals, and a professional attitude.
Master of Arts in Art Education
Janis T. Norman
Director
The Master of Arts in Art Education program at The University of the Arts is designed to
develop the studio, intellectual, and professional education background of art educators, enabling
them to meet advanced professional goals.
Coordinating professional education courses with work in liberal arts, graduate research and a
concentration in studio, the MA in Art Education Program offers custom-designed programs of
study to meet individual needs. A series of graduate education seminars addresses historical and
contemporary issues in art theory, criticism, and education. Drawing on the wide range of studio
departments, nearly half of the program is reserved for work in one or more studio area, depending
upon the student’s particular background and career needs. The independent thesis or graduate
project, which is normally completed in two semesters, may take the form of either an academic
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research paper or a graduate project in an appropriate format.
Designed for established or new teachers, the degree may satisfy credit accrual requirements
for Permanent Certification or lead to other career advancement. Graduates have also found the
program relevant to positions in museum education, college (especially junior college) teaching,
arts administration, educational media, and other related fields. Applicants must hold a Bachelor’s
degree or equivalent with no less than 40 credits in studio work with a «B» or better cumulative
average. A teaching certificate is not required. Students not holding degrees in the visual arts can
expect to complete 18 credits of foundation studies and/or up to 40 credits of studio work, depending upon faculty review of their portfolio.
The degree may also be taken in conjunction with the Certification Program in Art Education
thereby allowing the student to earn their Masters plus Certification. The difference between this
combination and the MAT, Masters of Arts in Teaching, being the concentration in graduate studio
work and the research and thesis required for the MA degree.
Full-time students may complete the MA program in one academic year plus a summer. Parttime students may take coursework over as many as five years. Depending on the needs of the
individual student, professional education courses and selected studio and liberal arts courses may
be taken in the evenings and summer. Certification may also be earned by combining the MA in Art
Education with a non-degree certification option. A museum concentration may also be combined
with this degree.
Master of Arts in Museum Education
Anne El-Omami
Director
The Master of Arts in Museum Education is a concentrated program focused on the development and implementation of appropriate pedagogical practices and critical/interpretive skills for
communicating to the public about culture and the arts. Coursework comprises three distinct areas: a
broad art and education core addressing theory and methods, a concentration in museum studies and
practices, and a professional core including research and an internship with a cooperating museum. Applicants
should have had a core of at least 40 credits in the arts, liberal arts, and/or communications, with a
minimum of 18 credits in art history (or 12 credits in art history and 6 credits in anthropology or
communications). This degree is an appropriate option for those with a strong commitment to providing
educational programming within a museum context, as well as for teachers who wish a concentration in
museum education so they may utilize museum resources more effectively within the classroom.
Museums and galleries worldwide are becoming more dependent upon their audiences for support.
Consequently, the role of museums is changing to meet audience demands, including expectations for more
relevant and accessible public educational programming to promote cultural knowledge and interests. This
growing trend has created a greater demand for well-trained professionals with special knowledge and
expertise in planning and implementing museum programs. Additionally, current educational theory and
methodology embraces the inclusion of art history, criticism, and aesthetics as critical components of the
arts education curriculum, all areas heavily dependent upon museums for exemplary resources and reference.
The MA in Museum Education focuses on a wide variety of museums and institutions with similar missions
and operations and prepares educators to function within the changing context of contemporary schools,
museums and related institutions. The MA in Museum Education may be completed in two semesters and
a summer or in three semesters.
The Museum Studies core may be taken separately or in conjunction with another Master’s Program
at The University of the Arts. The core includes courses from the museum studies core and may also
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include the Graduate Museum Project and Internship with special approval. This series of courses may be
combined with the Master of Arts in Teaching in the Visual Arts or the Master of Arts in Art Education. This
option may be completed in three semesters and a summer, depending upon fulfillment of the prerequisites
and scheduling considerations.
Master of Arts
Teaching in Visual Arts
Janis T. Norman
Director
The Master of Arts in Teaching in Visual Arts is a professional degree program incorporating
preparation for the Pennsylvania Instructional I Certificate to teach Art K-12, including a student
teaching practicum. Additional coursework includes the history, theory, and practice of art education. Depending on the completeness of the student’s background, the MAT Program provides a
flexible mix of professional education, advanced studio, and liberal arts study in a 36-credit program which may be completed in a summer and two regular semesters or in three full semesters.
Although the program normally leads to certification upon receiving the degree, all candidates must, in addition, successfully complete the National Teachers Exam, PRAXIS Series with
satisfactory scores to qualify for State certification. This unique degree program allows a student to
obtain his/her certification requirements for teaching while also earning a master’s degree recognized by potential employing school districts and educational institutions. In many cases this enables the MAT recipient to qualify for a higher salary and often preferred placement.
Applicants to the MAT Program should possess a BFA or BA degree in studio art with a
minimum of forty (40) studio credits with a «B» or better cumulative average. They also must have
satisfactorily completed the coursework and/or acquired competencies in fields relating to teacher
certification described below. If any deficiencies exist, up to 12 corequisite credits may be completed concurrently with the degree and applied to elective requirements.
Media Arts:
Photography, Film/Video, and Animation
Harris Fogel
Chair
The Media Arts Department offers major concentrations in photography, film/video, and animation while providing elective classes to the University at large. The three-year curriculum of
each major is built around a sequence of classes designed to move the student to a position of
independence within the discipline. An introduction to the intrinsic conceptual and material concerns of the medium fills much of the sophomore year. Within the two remaining years, the student
is expected to develop and expand a sense of personal vision, practice, and goals.
Philadelphia’s professional resources have allowed the department to develop an extensive
internship program for advanced Media Arts majors. This program allows students to gain professional experience while earning credit toward their degree. Internship sponsors have included commercial photography studios, galleries, film and video production houses, hospitals, medical laboratories, and multi-image and special-effects houses.
The Media Arts Department also offers minor concentrations in all three of its programs-film/
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video, animation, and photography. These minors are available to students majoring in studio areas outside
of the Media Arts Department. Those interested in this option should consult with their major advisor as
well as the Media Arts Department.
Master of Fine Arts
Museum Exhibition Planning and Design
Jane Bedno
Director
Recognized formally by the American Association of Museums since 1981, the field of exhibition planning and design has become a demanding, fast-growing profession as museums respond
to the demand for exhibitions addressed to public needs and interests. With the cooperation of a
group of major regional museums, following the guidelines established by N.A.M.E. (National
Association for Museum Exhibition), The University of the Arts offers a two-year, 60-credit Master of Fine Arts degree which prepares students for professional careers in the planning and design
of exhibits for museums and other interpretive centers, focusing on methods of presentation for
collections and information, while exploring the full range of exhibition communication and methodology.
Representatives of cooperating museums and the University faculty offer a curriculum that
addresses the conceptualization, research, organization, design, and production of museum exhibits and educational presentations, utilizing a variety of techniques and media. It also explores exhibit programming, evaluation and management methods applicable in a wide range of museum
situations. Visiting experts teach many aspects of museum presentation, education and management, and students make formal visits to design departments, production shops, galleries, exhibits
and programs in numerous museums in Philadelphia, the Mid-Atlantic Region, Washington, and
New York.
Students undertake a thesis project and a supervised museum internship related to their career
interests during the second year of the program. To preserve the intimate contact with museum
professionals and to guarantee participants studio facilities, the program is limited to ten entrants
per year.
Most candidates for this program will have previously completed a baccalaureate degree in
industrial, graphic, interior, or architectural design and demonstrate an acceptable level of professional accomplishment through a portfolio or another appropriate means. Alternatively, they may
seek admission with a baccalaureate in a discipline related to a particular career direction, and take
courses to develop the necessary background in design. Students from non-design, non-art backgrounds, are also encouraged to apply.
The first year provides a basic understanding of the exhibition process, with the first semester
focused on conceptual development, planning, systems, and intellectual analysis of problems, and
the second on the practical implementation of concepts and on understanding materials and meth87
ods of exhibition design and production. The second year is dedicated to practice of skills learned during
the first year, and practical exposure to actual exhibition development practice in museums and museum
consultancies. All activities during the final semester are focused on thesis development and completion.
Master of Fine Arts
Book Arts/Printmaking
Patricia M. Smith
The Master of Fine Arts Degree in Book Arts/Printmaking is built upon the University’s fortyyear tradition of involvement with the book and printed image. Open to all qualified students with
an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts, Design, Photography, Printmaking or Fine Arts, the program emphasizes the artist’s demands upon the book as an art form. The course of study, based
upon each student’s interest and level of experience, allows for the advancement of conceptual
abilities while developing technical proficiencies in both traditional and state-of-the-art processes.
Investigation of related fields of study in studio arts and liberal arts encourages an approach that is
experimental, interdisciplinary and reflective of a broad range of personal and professional involvement.
The sixty-credit, two-year program is offered within the Printmaking Department and draws
upon the expertise of a faculty of professional artists and a full complement of technical facilities.
Visiting artists, field trips, and guest lecturers supplement the studio experience. Access to Philadelphia’s rich heritage of public and private collections furnishes a unique opportunity to study rare
and contemporary manuscripts, prints and books. Internships in professional book and print-related organizations and libraries are available for qualified students.
Master of Fine
Arts Ceramics, Painting, or Sculpture
Summer Program
Carol Moore
Director
These studio-based Master of Fine Arts degree programs are intended to broaden and advance
the conceptual, critical, historical, and practical knowledge needed to sustain a contemporary studio. The programs have been designed to meet the needs of artists holding BFA or BA degrees who
are interested in pursuing an MFA in either Ceramics, Painting or Sculpture within a time frame
that accommodates their employment or academic year schedule.
Departing from the more traditional semester format, students complete the major portion of
their work during four annual seven-week summer residencies of intensive, individually focused
studio experience. Interdisciplinary graduate seminars address contemporary critical issues common to each major area of concentration. Students attend an annual on-campus winter review weekend and complete two independent studios per academic year. A final thesis review and exhibition
is held during the fifth summer session.
In addition to well-equipped studio space, students have access to the University's extensive
arts facilities that include: the Greenfield Library, whose visual arts collection ranks among the
largest of the nation's visual art schools; state-of-the-art electronic media labs; numerous galleries
and performance spaces; and the more than 100 museums and cultural institutions that comprise
the extended campus of the City of Philadelphia.
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Students will be challenged by the broadly diverse aesthetic and critical opinions of distinguished studio faculty and notable visiting artists and critics who are invited to participate in the
program each summer.
Recent visiting artists and critics include: Barry Bartlett, Paul Bloodgood, Tom Butter, William
Daley, Arthur Danto, Larry Day, Patrick Murphy, Elaine Reichek, Judith Stein, Stephen Tanis, and
Ursula Von Rydingsvard.
MFA candidates are expected to follow the curriculum as structured in order to complete the
program within four years and present a final thesis exhibition during the fifth summer.
Master of Industrial Design
Thomas S. Bley
Director
This unique, two-year, 60-credit Master of Industrial Design degree focuses on the new role
of the profession of industrial design in a post-industrial society.
With respect to the international student body, the diversity within the design profession and
the wide range of global issues in design, this program focuses on the individual profile of its
graduates. It offers a wide platform of knowledge and expertise in areas of significance to the
future of design development, design research and design education.
Current changes and future trends continue to shift our understanding of where and how design can make a difference and requires the continuous reconsideration of the designer’s role,
capabilities and education.
· Future designers will humanize technologies and invest them with cultural values.
· They will belong to or lead multidisciplanary teams working in highly commercial and competitive business environments.
· They will operate at a national and international level creating and developing products,
systems and services for diverse cultures.
· They will be flexible integrators in the development of processes and a major source of
creative guidance and inspiration to other professions.
· They will be effective in dealing with the concepts and implications of many different technologies as they affect both users and the environment.
· They will understand and play a significant role in managing design development processes;
recognizing and acting upon issues of social and environmental responsibility.
· They will understand and communicate the psychological, semantic, behavioral, interactive
and cultural significance of their design strategies.
The MID Program as part of the Industrial Design Department, offers learning experiences
balanced between theory and practice, seminar and practicum, academe and reality, ecological and
economical, and humanistic and technological concerns.
Students can expect to explore important and challenging issues, technologies and techniques
at the forefront of humanistic design today with expert faculty and industry sponsors. They may
have the option to complete part of their program of study abroad, if it is appropriate to their study
goals to do so.
During the fall terms (semesters 1 and 3) of the two-year program the focus is on inter- and
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multidisciplinary team-oriented projects, while during the spring terms (semesters 2 and 4) the focus shifts
to an emphasis on individual exploration and the development of student based career objectives.
Candidates must have a bachelor’s (or equivalent foreign degree) in a design, engineering or scientific
discipline and be qualified to undertake independent, tutored study. At least one year of professional
experience is recommended. Foreign applicants must be proficient in English. Qualified candidates with
significant, well conceived study objectives are preferred and applicants with programs sponsored by
government or industry are welcome.
Each candidate is carefully selected to assure a comprehensive balance of disciplines in the
program. Within this collaborative framework, each candidate is tutored in the knowledge, software and systems appropriate to their needs.
In addition to a University Grant covering part of tuition and fees, the program supports individually tailored thesis study in the second year via funding for consultants, tutors, conferences,
visitations and materials.
Painting/Drawing
Gerald Nichols
Coordinator
The Painting concentration provides a firm basis for students to develop a professional involvement with their work. A balance is sought between the acquisition of studio skills and the
development of a critical intelligence.
Students are encouraged, through the rigor of studio activity, to understand the breadth of art
in both its traditional and contemporary forms, and to gain increasing authority in their own work.
Courses evolve from the study of basic working methods and fundamental issues of image
making to the subtleties of complex pictorial organization and the refinements of aesthetic judgment. In the final semester of the senior year, each student is required to complete a thesis project,
which includes a formal presentation of a paper and an exhibition of a coordinated body of work.
The faculty of practicing professional artists represents a diversity of attitudes and ideals.
Through the format of studio instruction, dialogue, and critique, they seek to instill in each student
a habit of self-instruction which will serve far beyond the program at the University.
The Painting/Drawing Department features its own gallery space where faculty, students, and
invited artists have an opportunity to exhibit their work. Students have an opportunity to show their
work and a student exhibition committee is formed each year to invite artists, manage and install
the exhibitions.
Studio activity is augmented by lectures, seminars, visiting artists, and field trips to museums
and galleries.
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Philadelphia College of Art and Design
Stephen Tarantal
Foundation Program and Majors
All freshman students enter the Foundation core program that includes courses in drawing,
two-dimensional design, three-dimensional design, and time-motion studies. The Foundation program introduces the basic language and processes of the visual arts and prepares the students for
entry into a major department. Through freshman elective course offerings students are introduced
to major course options and opportunities offered at the College of Art and Design.
Students enter a major in the sophomore year. The major studio concentration is augmented
by required and elective courses in other departments in PCAD and PCPA to encourage an awareness of the productive interaction that can occur between the many disciplines available at the
University. Alternative career opportunities are often developed by students stimulated by courses
outside their major.
Many departments offer opportunities to study off-campus during the junior and senior years.
Frequent field trips to museums, galleries, artists’ studios, and design studios in Philadelphia, New
York, and Washington, D.C. supplement their regular work in studios and workshops.
Class Size and Structure
Each department is unique, with its own curriculum and structure, but in every department
classes are small and informal. Faculty advisors and the generous student/faculty ratio assure close
individual attention and assistance throughout a course of study.
One of the important teaching modes in the college is the critique, or «crit,» an evaluation of
student work by the instructor with the participation of the class. Given informally to the class or
individual as often as once a class, crits have proven to be an invaluable method for the development of critical thinking and self-awareness, which are major educational goals in our programs.
Printmaking/Book Arts
Lois M. Johnson
Coordinator
The Printmaking concentration bases its instructional program on the development and realization of visual ideas through multiple image-making processes. The primary objectives are to
develop conceptual abilities and technical proficiencies leading the student to acquire personal
imagery and professional competence in printmaking media.
The department provides the expertise of a faculty of professional artists for study in traditional and contemporary methods. The major graphic media explored include relief processes,
etching (intaglio), lithography-stone, metal plate, and offset and waterbased screenprinting and
non-silver photographic printmaking. Courses in book and typographic design stimulate experimentation in unifying the elements of paper, prints, typography, and bookbinding.
Visiting artists, field trips, and guest lecturers supplement the studio experience. Using the
city as an extended workshop, Print students attend seminars and museum collections. The Print
Study Seminar is held in the Print Room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and furnishes a unique
opportunity to study original prints from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries.
The main emphasis over the three-year undergraduate period of study is on the evolution of
students as artists who make individualized demands upon the media. As with any study in the fine
arts, the experience should be multidimensional, reflective of a broad range of personal and profes91
sional involvement, and reinforced with stimulation from related areas of interest, including drawing, painting,
photography, graphic design, illustration, sculpture, and crafts.
The undergraduate curriculum is enhanced by the graduate program in Book Arts/Printmaking.
This two-year course of study of 60 credits culminates in a Master of Fine Arts Degree. The program provides the opportunity for individual artist’s expression in limited edition bookworks. Undergraduate students work alongside MFA candidates in studios, workshops, and some major and
elective classes. (Students interested in the MFA degree in Book Arts/Printmaking should contact
the Department of Printmaking or the Office of Admissions.)
Sculpture
Barry Parker
Coordinator
Sculpture reflects one of the deepest creative impulses of artistic endeavor. Sculptors today
are called upon to create images that range in size from coins to monuments. Usually working as
independent artists, sculptors make objects for exhibition and sale, or work on commission for
architects and planners.
The Sculpture concentration offers instruction and experience in both the traditional and the
most innovative aspects of the art. Resources are available for work in clay, wood, stone, ferrous
and nonferrous metals, plaster, wax, and plastic.
The department’s instructional aim is to provide a sound, balanced exposure to the formal
technical and intellectual aspects of sculpture, in preparation for continued professional growth
beyond the undergraduate years. The curriculum is carefully designed to provide both disciplined
instruction and time for individual creative development.
At the introductory level, fundamentals of sculpture are taught along with technical procedures in a variety of materials. At advanced levels, students may specialize and are increasingly
expected to initiate and complete works reflecting their own artistic interests under critical supervision.
Studio and shop facilities are comprehensive and include air tools for carving, a foundry for
bronze and aluminum casting, a wood and fabricating shop, a complete metal shop for forging and
three types of welding, and a moldmaking shop. Technical assistance and supervision in the facilities is provided by a full-time shop supervisor who is in charge of maintaining the equipment.
Faculty members are chosen from a variety of backgrounds, and field trips to New York,
Washington, and neighboring museums serve to expand students’ visions.
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Art Education
Janis T. Norman
Chairperson and Director
Pre-Certification Concentration in Art Education
The teaching of art is a profession that allows for the artist-teacher’s continued growth while
nurturing the aesthetic and creative experience of others. Recent national as well as statewide
attention to education and to the role of the arts in education makes this an especially good time for
students to consider becoming an art teacher and artist. In preparing students for careers in art
education, the University is committed to the ideal of exemplary teachers who are also able to
produce their own competent works. To that end, the University offers a flexible program of competency-based education at the undergraduate level to prepare students to complete a professional
certification program after graduation or within a nine-semester undergraduate program.
The Pre-Certification concentration is designed to be taken in conjunction with a regular studio major in the BFA program. In addition to meeting the requirements of a major studio department, students enrolled in the teacher certification program take courses in the Art Education Department, plus prescribed courses in Liberal Arts, Photography, Electronic Media, and other studio
areas. These courses are taken within the general Liberal Arts and studio electives requirements.
The Art Education concentration provides a strong theoretical and practical foundation for
teaching as a career. Through field experiences starting in the sophomore year, the student is able to
explore teaching in a variety of traditional and alternative settings. Students are also provided with
the necessary competencies in teaching discipline-based Art Education through special studies in
education combined with Liberal Arts coursework in Art History, Aesthetics, Social Sciences, and
Psychology, plus studies in studio production and criticism.
The Pre-Certification Concentration may be taken in its entirety or in part to fit individual
plans and needs. Students who satisfactorily complete the program will be able to enroll directly in
the Professional Semester, completing the student-teaching requirement, the PRAXIS National
Teachers Exam, and qualifying for the Pennsylvania Instructional I Certificate to teach Art K-12 in
as little as one regular semester beyond the bachelor’s degree. Another viable alternative is that
qualified graduates may enter the Master of Arts in Teaching program in which it is possible to earn
a Masters degree and certification in as little as one additional year.
The Pre-Certification program, if taken in conjunction with the BFA degree, allows for the
majority of the concentration in Art Education to be completed within the four years required for
the bachelor’s degree. Following graduation, remaining course requirements for certification may
be completed in one additional professional semester, in which AE 659 Student Teaching Practicum
is taken, along with AE 552: The Art of Teaching.
Academic Regulations
Students working toward certification are required to maintain a 3.0 cumulative average in
certification coursework. Admission to the Student Teaching Practicum is by permission of the
department based on satisfactory completion of all prerequisites and on evidence of promise as a
teacher shown in prior coursework. A grade of «B» or better in the Student Teaching Practicum is
required for recommendation for certification.
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Art Therapy
Karen Clark-Schock
Director
Art Therapy is a new discipline within the human services professions that offers an opportunity to explore personal problems and potentials through verbal and nonverbal expression. Physical, emotional, and learning skills may be developed through therapeutic art experiences. Therapy
through art recognizes art processes, forms, content, and associations as reflections of an individual’s development, personality, and conflicts.
An undergraduate art college is the ideal place to begin the study of Art Therapy. At The
University of the Arts the student is equipped with practical experience in art while acquiring a
background in psychology, behavioral science and art therapy.
While majoring in one of the studio departments of the college, the student is introduced to
Art Therapy on the undergraduate level.
Students who wish to enroll in the Art Therapy program register for Art Therapy courses as
studio electives. Students complete all requirements in their chosen major department. At graduation, Art Therapy Concentration students will receive a certificate of completion in Art Therapy.
Interested students should request an interview with the Art Therapy Director.
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Tessellations
In this section, you will learn about the Dutch artist M. C. Escher and his famous tessellated
designs.
Introduction
Maurits Cornelis Escher, master artist and creator of tessellations, was born in Leeuwarden,
Netherlands in 1898. After an aborted attempt to become an architect, Escher studied graphic art at
the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. Over the years and throughout his
travels, he created a number of fascinating landscapes, portraits, and geometric designs, but the
work for which he is most famous, his tessellations, were his main preoccupation.
Since his first visit to the Alhambra in Spain in 1922, Escher was intrigued by the Moorish
mosaics. Escher animated his own versions of the abstract geometrical designs he had seen. Through
his extraordinary creativity and an inate understanding of the mathematics involved, Escher created hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of tessellating shapes in the form of fish, birds, dogs, crabs,
insects, horses, humans, and other beasts.
In this section of Totally Tessellated, you will find a variety of information about M. C. Escher,
but by no means all that is available. When there is a particular reference that will supplement your
studies of Escher and tessellations, the reference will be noted. Here you will find a brief bibliography, and introduction to Escher’s collective works, and a section on his tessellations, including
an analysis of a selection of Escher’s best, and instructions on how to create some of your own.
Escher’s Self-Portrait
An Escher work of art
Glossary
This glossary includes definitions and examples of basic terms. Please resize this window so
that it is narrow, and keep it visible on your screen. It will be very helpful as you browse the site.
Angle: the figure formed by two line segments meeting at a point; also refers to the
space between such lines
Axis: a reference line used by a transformation such as a reflection
here, the dotted line is an axis
of reflection—the line over which the shape has been reflected
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Centroid: the «center-of-balance» of a polygon or shape; for regular polygons, the centroid is the center of the circle that could be inscribed in (drawn to fit
inside) or circumscribed around (drawn to fit outside) the regular polygon
Centroid Technique: a technique for modifying existing tessellations that involves doing the
following for each polygon in a tessellation: drawing a line from each vertex to or through the
centroid of the polygon
Congruent: the property of being identical in form, shape, and size; two figures are congruent
if they can be made exactly alike through transformations
(Note: Although the terms congruent and symmetry are very similar, congruent refers more to
the property of being identical, while symmetry refers more to the means by which two shapes can
be shown to be identical.)
Cool Color: a mostly bluish or greenish color; tends to be seen further away from the eye than
warm colors
Degree: unit of measure for angles; amount of rotation needed to match one
line segment of an angle onto the other
Demiregular Tessellation: a tessellation composed of more than one type of regular polygon
such that exactly two or three polygon arrangements exist; there are fourteen semiregular tessellations
two possible diagonals
Diagonal: a line between two vertices of a polygon that is not also a side of the polygon
Diagonal Technique: a technique for modifying existing tessellations
that involves drawing the diagonals of each polygon in a tessellation
Distinct: different; two objects are distinct if they are not identical
Division: a technique for modifying tessellations that involves dividing a
certain shape into smaller shapes; this modification is repeated throughout the
tessellation
the change indicated
Dual: the tessellation formed by connecting the in orange is applied at
centroids of adjacent shapes of an existing tessellation (the the bottom of the
tessellation (look
orange and black tessellations are duals of each other)
carefully)
Equilateral Triangle: a triangle (three-sided polygon) with sides of equal lengths and
angles of equal measure)
Glide Reflection: a transformation performed by a reflection and a translation. Whether the
reflection or translation comes first does not matter.
Glide Reflectional Symmetry: symmetry when obtained by a glide reflection (animated)
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Grids: treating tessellations as simple outlines; overlapping, rotating, and
other similar modifications of grids can result in new tessellations
Heptagon: a polygon with seven sides; shown here is a regular heptagon which has
sides of equal length and angles of equal measure
Hexagon: a polygon with six sides; shown here is a regular hexagon which has sides
of equal length and angles of equal measure; regular hexagons are very
common in regular, semiregular, and demiregular tessellations
Interior Angle: an angle facing the interior or inside of a polygon or shape
Joining: a technique for modifying tessellations that involves joining several
adjacent shapes into a larger shape; this modification is repeated throughout the
tessellation
a straight line
Line: the path traced by a moving point; in tessellations, «line» usually refers to straight lines
the change
indicated in
orange is applied
at the bottom of
the tessellation
(look carefully)
Midpoint: the point on a line that is the same distance from each endpoint of
the line
inside of each black polygon, there is an orange polygon formed by joining the midpoints of adjacent sides of the
original black polygon
Midpoint Technique: a technique for modifying existing tessellations that involves joining
the midpoints of adjacent sides of each polygon in a tessellation
Octagon: a polygon with eight sides; shown here is a regular octagon which has sides
of equal length and angles of equal measure
Offset Polygons: a technique for creating new tessellations that involves
placing copies of a shape such that the sides and vertices do not align—in other
words, the shapes are offset
Offset Technique: a technique for modifying tessellations that involves moving rows or columns of shapes independently of the rest of the tessellation
Pattern: repeating figure; all tessellations are patterns because they repeat,
but not all patterns are tessellations
Pentagon: a polygon with five sides; shown here is a regular penta- this pattern is not
a tessellation
gon which has sides of equal length and angles of equal measure
Point: a geometric object that has no length, width, nor breadth and that
exists to define location; we represent points as dots
because it is not
composed of
distinct shapes
Polygon: a closed figure bounded by three or more straight
line segments
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Quadrilateral: a polygon with four sides; squares and rhombi are two important types of
quadrilaterals
Reflection: a transformation performed by plotting corresponding points on the opposite side
of an axis of reflection. A corresponding point must be the same distance from the axis as its
original point.
Reflectional Symmetry: symmetry when obtained by a reflection
Regular Polygons: polygons that have sides of equal lengths and angles of equal measures
Regular Tessellation: a tessellation composed of only one type of regular polygon; the arrangement of polygons at every point is the same; three regular tessellations exist: 3.3.3.3.3.3,
4.4.4.4, 6.6.6
Rhombus: a quadrilateral (polygon with four sides) that has sides of equal lengths
Rotation: a transformation performed by turning a shape around a point.
This point is called a center of rotation.
Rotation Technique: a technique for modifying tessellations that involves rotating a group of
shapes without disturbing the rest of the tessellation; this rotation is usually repeated throughout
the tessellation
Rotational Symmetry: symmetry when obtained by a rotation (animated)
Semiregular Tessellation: a tessellation composed of more than one type of regular polygon
such that the polygon arrangement at every vertex is the same; eight semiregular tessellations exist
Shape: a closed figure or form; has a definite interior (inside) and exterior
(outside)
Square: a quadrilateral (polygon with four sides) with sides of equal
lengths and angles of exactly 90 degrees
Symmetry: the property of being identical in form and configuration usually across a line or point
(Note: Although the terms congruent and symmetry are very similar, congruent refers more to the property of being identical, while symmetry refers more
to the means by which two shapes can be shown to be identical.)
Tessellation: a repeating pattern of distinct shapes (see the Gallery or any
part of the site for examples)
Transformation: a method of changing one set of points into another; three
transformations important to tessellations are reflection, rotation, translation, and
glide reflection
Translation: a transformation performed by simply moving a shape
Translational Symmetry: symmetry when obtained by a translation
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reflectional
symmetry is
shown here; the
black and orange
shapes are
identical
Trapezoid: a quadrilateral (polygon with four sides) that has two parallel sides
Triangle: a polygon with three sides; an important type of triangle is the equilateral
triangle which is used in many regular, semiregular, and demiregular tessellations
Unit Cells: a technique for creating new tessellations that involves drawing a design within a
square, equilateral triangle, or other simple figure, and duplicating this pattern in the simple gridlike fashion suggested by its outline
Value: the level of brightness of a color
Vertex: a point at which two line segments meet; usually associated with an
angle
Warm Color: a mostly reddish or yellowish color; tends to be seen closer to the eye than cool
colors
This section describes techniques for creating tilings from scratch. However, it does not include the basic techniques
of creating tilings from regular polygons.
Unit Cells - using equilateral triangles, squares, and regular hexagons as skeletons for new
tilings
Parallel Lines - using sets of parallel lines to create tilings
Offset Polygons - joining simple non-adjacent polygons to form new tilings
Grids - treating existing tilings as grids and using this grids to create new tilings
This section describes techniques of modifying tilings in order to create new ones.
Joining Technique - merging several polygons into a single shape
Division Technique - dividing a polygon into smaller polygons
Duals - connecting the centers of adjacent polygons of a tiling
Offset Technique - moving polygons slightly so that they are offset
Rotation - rotating an entire group of polygons without disturbing the rest of the
tiling
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Combination of Techniques - using two or more of these techniques to create very interesting tilings
Dissection Tiling
Another type of tiling of the plane, though little-known, is known as dissection tiling. Like
simple tiling, dissection tiling uses polygons to tile the plane, without gaps of overlaps. But unlike
simple tiling, dissection tiling has an added restriction.
To form a dissection tiling, begin with a polygon. Partition or break this polygon into a collection of smaller polygonal pieces, then use these pieces to tile the plane infinitely—use them to
create a standard tiling. The frequency of each smaller polygonal piece, that is, how often it occurs
in the dissection tiling, must be in proportion to its area. Otherwise, one could take the original
polygon, cut out a small square from the middle, discard the remainder, and just use the square to
tile the plane.
We hope you enjoyed the splash page. All of the images on the splash page have connections
to the topic of tessellations and can be found somewhere on this site. Hopefully, your interest in the
world of tessellations has been excited!
In short, a tessellation is any repeating pattern of interlocking shapes. Tessellations are also
sometimes known as tilings, but the word «tilings» usually refers to patterns of polygons (i.e.,
shapes with straight boundaries), which is a more restrictive category of repeating patterns.
The definition sounds fairly simple, but the ideas involved in designing and understanding
tessellations can grow very complex and interesting.
This site will give you a comprehensive introduction to tessellations. It will explain the basic
mathematics underlying tessellations, as well as allow you to browse through many examples of
tessellations in real life. M. C. Escher and his well-known tessellations are also covered in this site.
Tessellations are quite graphic-oriented, and the many images and animations throughout the
site are crucial. Thus, you need a color monitor capable of displaying at least 256 colors and a web
browser capable of displaying animated GIFs to make the most of this site. Such requirements are
not steep, and the vast majority of users should be able to use this site without any problems.
A note about animations: animations are substantially larger in file size and download time
than normal images. Please allow pages to complete load before clicking on links in order to make
sure that animations are loaded fully. You may scroll and read text, however, at any time. If an
animation seems to be broken, click the Reload button in your browser and let the page load completely.
Simply browsing this site is not enough if you want to really understand why tessellations
work and how to create your tessellations. Make use of the many hands-on activities and templates
provided in this site for your personal exploration of tessellations. For these, you will need access
to a printer.
In Mathematics
Although tessellations have been traced back to ancient human cultures and can also be found
in the natural world, they have had a relatively short history as a topic for serious mathematical and
scientific study. One of the first mathematical studies of tessellations was conducted by Johannes
Kepler in 1619 who wrote about the regular and semiregular tessellation, which are coverings of a
plane with regular polygons. However, about two hundred years passed before new scientific progress
concerning tessellations was made.
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Near the end of the nineteenth century in 1891, the Russian crystallographer E. S. Fedorov proved
that every tiling of the plane is constructed in accordance to one of seventeen different groups of isometries
(i.e., methods of repeating tilings over the plane). His study marked the unofficial beginning of the
mathematical study of tessellations, occurring only about a hundred years ago. Progress beyond this point
has resulted in advanced mathematical analyses of tilings (e.g., extending tilings to more than two dimensions
and to non-Euclidean geometrical systems) which can be only hinted at in the Beyond section of this site.
Prominent names and dates in this research area include the following: Shubnikov and Belov (1951); and
Heinrich Heesch and Otto Kienzle (1963).
In Science
Aside from being studied in mathematical or geometrical research, tessellations and tilings
have been linked with x-ray crystallography. X-ray crystallography is a field of science concerned
with the repeating arrangements of identical objects as found in nature, a description very similar
to the geometrical definition of tessellation. Interestingly, the discoveries made in x-ray
crystallography during the mid-20th century are similar to many of the discoveries the Dutch artist
M. C. Escher made while formulating designs for his tessellated artwork. (See the Escher section
for more details.)
The symmetry issues that are so important in tessellations have shown to be relevant to quantum mechanics, the study of particles smaller than atoms.
Several other scientific and engineering applications have been found for tessellations. For
instance, tiling research has benefited the conservation of sheet material and reduction of scrap
metal. How? The closer fitted that the objects to be cut out are, the less waste material produced.
Since tessellations are perfectly fitted patterns of shapes, no waste material would be produced if
the template resembled a tessellation.
Other fields of research associated with tiling include geology, metallurgy, biology, and
cryptology (the study of using secret codes in communication).
Introduction
Suppose you were to cover a large surface (such as a floor) with little pieces of material. You
would probably choose to design a repeating pattern since repeating patterns are usually more
beautiful than a haphazard non-repeating one. When you finished, you would have designed a
tessellation! Any repeating pattern of shapes that cover a plane without overlap is considered a
tessellation. Thus, it is not surprising that tessellations and tilings can be found in many cultures,
both ancient and modern.
General Information
Tessellations are thousands of years old and can be found all over the world in a variety of
cultures and in a variety of forms. They can be traced all the way back to the Sumerian civilization
(about 4000 B.C.) in which the walls of homes and temples were decorated by designs of tessellations constructed from slabs of hardened clay. Not only did these tessellations provide decoration
but they also became part of the structure of the buildings. Since then, tessellations have been
found in many of the artistic elements of wide-ranging cultures including the Egyptians, Moors,
Romans, Persians, Greek, Byzatine, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese.
The kinds of shapes used in the tilings vary between culture to culture. Coloring techniques,
which can make tremendous differences in the overall visual effect of a tessellation, also vary from
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culture to culture. Finally, the amount of embellishment added to the tilings varies among the artwork in
each culture.
For example, the Islamic religion forbids the representation of living objects in works of art.
The Moors have consequently created only abstract geometrical works composed of simple shapes.
Nevertheless, their works of intricate design are nothing short of breathtaking. On the other hand,
Romans and other Mediterranean peoples have incorporated detailed illustrations of humans and
natural scenes into their designs.
Examples
Probably the best known example of tessellated patterns has been the Alhambra palace, an
Islamic architectural marvel located in Granada, Spain. Its floors, walls, and ceilings are literally
covered with tessellations and other repeating patterns.
In recent times, tessellations have appeared on floors, walls, ceilings, and buildings, and in
ceramics, clothing designs, rugs, wallpaper, and stained-glass windows. They have continued to be
an art form with artists such as Maurits Escher, Victor Vasarely, and Bridget Riley, who have
explored variations and extensions of tilings on the plane.
Visit the historical gallery for many examples of tessellations as they have appeared in everyday life.
A floor-like tiling:
Variation of actual uses of tessellations:
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Ceramic Design Group
PRODUCTION SERVICES
Ceramic Design Group LTD., Steamboat Springs,
Colorado.
We are a full service design and manufacturing facility for artists, designers, and companies requiring multiple ceramic reproductions of their work.
Our range of products and services include all types of plaster and mold
work, including, but not limited to, modeling, block and case molds, and
working molds for your production. We can work in all types of plaster,
gypsum cements, and rubber compounds.
Our specialty is contract manufacturing. We can produce the necessary
prototypes and samples, along with the required tooling to produce your products in bisque, or to
completion as glazed ware. We can work with any available clay and at any firing temperature and
atmosphere.
Our extensive manufacturing abilities include jiggering, hydraulic pressing, and slip casting.
A complete range of shipping options and carriers is available.
Each job is quoted on an individual basis for your specific needs and requirements. Consulting, design service, tooling, mold costs and freight are separate line items and are billed above the
unit cost for each piece.
We respect and insure complete privacy and confidentiality of your designs, samples and
products. Our confidentiality agreement extends over the complete project, whether it be an initial
inquiry or an ongoing enterprise.
We are a service-oriented business, dedicated to providing quality work for our clients. If we
can be of further service to you, please contact us. There is no cost for a product evaluation or
quotation.
A DESCRIPTION OF OUR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS DESIGN
SERVICE
We offer a complete design service for creating ceramic products. Often, this
usually starts with your concept or idea. Perhaps you might have an object or a
piece that might be incorporated into a new product of your own design. Our
designers can furnish sketches, concept drawings, renderings, or full mechanical
drawings for your project, as well as work with you, providing skilled input for
both ease of manufacturing, as well as design. We bill on an hourly rate for this
service.
PROTOTYPES
Prototypes are developed from your designs, and if requested, from
our input working with your in-house designers. Prototypes are hand assembled from start to finish, and all operations pertaining to this are
hand done. We use a variety of forming methods, whether hand -throwing
on a potter’s wheel or hand building from clay slabs. Design revisions are
included in our proposal, and can be accomplished at this stage of the
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design process only. Included in our hourly rate are all materials, firing, and finishing. Packing and
shipping are additional costs.
SAMPLES
After we design and build your prototypes, samples can be provided
from tooling that we produce for you. In some cases, our clients provide
their own tooling. Generally, samples can be manufactured in a variety of
glazed surfaces to your requirements. Samples are traditionally 2-4 times
the unit cost for production. Packing and shipping are, again, additional
costs.
CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
We offer manufacturing of your products in either bisque
or glazed form. Our services include manufacturing, firing and
finishing, packing and shipping. If necessary, we can inventory
and warehouse your products. We can also drop ship to your
vendors. We work closely with you to develop a timeline that
works for you, with built-in turnaround for re-orders. A standard
packing system is used for most of our clients, but in some cases,
custom packing systems can be designed at an additional cost to
your specifications. We offer a variety of shipping options and
ship by the most economical method.
TOOLING
Many clients have in-house production capabilities, and require
tooling for production. We can provide tooling ranging from model
only, to block and case, to working molds for casting. Jigger tooling
can be provided, if your machines conform to JB Ratcliffe specs. Tooling costs are billed both by the hour, as well as by the piece, for working molds.
CONSULTATION
We are pleased to offer our services for clay and glaze development, as well as for ceramic
problem-solving. These services can be provided by telephone, fax, or e-mail. Our base rate applies, with a billable minimum of one hour. Credit cards are accepted.
ONLINE GALLERY
The Gallery at Ceramic Design Group
Architecture and geometry are important influences behind my ceramics. This body of work,
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entitled Neo Industrial Art Objects, includes teapots, vases, halogen lamps, platters and decorative
art objects.
These pieces are all slip cast in terra cotta clay. Some forms are derived from found objects,
others are hand modeled. Plaster molds are made and the pieces are cast in limited editions and then
assembled. While the majority of objects in this group are decorative, they are all based on some common
pottery archetypes, e.g., a teapot, a vase, or a covered vessel. References towards functional forms serve
in both a historical and a contemporary context.
The surface on this body of work is built up by first spraying multiple layers of ceramic
underglaze and glaze. By varying the air pressure, distance of the spray gun, and the color sequence, depth, color, and surface texture are produced. After an initial firing, the surface is further
embellished with additional glazes, wax-based metallic pigments, gold and silver inks, graphic
transfers, or acrylic paints. Patterns are produced by airbrush, using stencils, masking, or resists.
The work is fired in excess of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, which causes the ceramic colors to
fuse permanently on the surface of the clay. While these colors are vitreous, they differ from glossy
glaze in that their surface is mat and dry. They are a different type of fired glass.
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Journalism
Unsurpassed health care journalism
When you put your name on one of Coffey Communications, Inc.’s, publications, that’s a
decision you take very seriously — and so do we.
It’s not enough these days to just present information in an attractive, easy-to-read package. That’s why the writers and editors at Coffey
Communications go the extra mile to make sure the health and health
care information we offer follows exacting standards of scientific accuracy and depth of coverage.
Coffey Communications’ original, copyrighted stories are never
«clipped» from other sources. Our team of medical journalists always
takes the time to research and interview only the best sources, then we
write reader-friendly stories with your intended audience in mind.
Our editorial services staff includes more than 30 editors, writers,
researchers and fact checkers. Here some of these staff members will show you why you can be confident
in quality when you put your name on HEALTH SCENE®, KEEPING WELL®, SENIOR EDITION®
or any of Coffey Communications’ other publications.
· Editorial philosophy
Meet Barbara Kaplan, our Pulitzer Prize-winning editor in chief. She will introduce you to an
unmatched editorial philosophy and process.
· Sources and writing
Marjorie Reece, a staff writer, will explain the writing process and the importance of sources
and experience in providing effective content. She will also tell you how attending up to 40 medical conferences helps us develop our stories.
· Ensuring accuracy
Kevin Waite, one of our senior staff editors, will walk you through the steps we take to make
the story clear, enjoyable and accurate.
· Design and art styles
Dave Dougherty is an art director and illustrator. He will outline the process of developing
compelling art and page design, including links to several art styles.
Selecting the best art styles
Sometimes conveying complex information in simple sentences and
pictures is the most challenging task of all, say writers and editors. That’s
often where Coffey Communications’ artists, designers and illustrators come
in. These talented staff members produce eye-catching pages that actually
help readers understand story ideas.
Meet Dave Dougherty, senior art director. All of Coffey Communications’ publications contain original art, illustrations and photos. And
Dougherty is a part of the process from beginning to end.
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Sometimes conveying complex information in simple sentences and pictures is the most challenging task of all.
Q: Explain the process of art creation for a publication.
A: The process is really not complicated. Generally I start with a stack of articles from the editor,
although occasionally I will get involved before the article is written. I try to spend the better part of a day
coming up with graphic ideas. That can be the challenging part.
Then the editor, a photographer and sometimes the writer, as well as myself, get together for an art
conference. We’ll go through each article and everybody throws out their ideas. When everyone has
agreed on an idea, I take it from there. I may refine the idea a bit more on my own, and as I go through the
layout process, I try to visualize how the art is going to look on the page.
Once I’ve got an idea of proportions and size of art, I will sit down and give out photo and art
assignments. Generally I like to assign a certain amount of art to myself, because for me, that’s the most
enjoyable part.
As the art and photos come in, there may be changes. Photos may need to be reshot. But with our inhouse photographers, it makes it a little bit easier to reshoot or even go on a shoot with a photographer.
After all of the artwork is in, we have what is called a page review conference. Here the page proofs
are presented to representatives from other departments who will be involved in some manner later on.
The purpose is not only to catch potential problems but to find ways of making the publication even better.
Then you hope and pray that the clients are thrilled with the final product.
Q: What is the goal when designing a page?
A: It’s got to somehow make the article come alive. It needs to illustrate what the article is
about so it’s more understandable and easier to read or relate to. Here are some sample illustration
styles we might use:
Conceptual art
As you can imagine, some topics are much more difficult than others. I start with the wording
and try to get some clues by how the article starts out or by the headlines. Words in the story or
creative angles in the headlines are often springboards for conceptual art.
Infographics
Some articles are more technical in nature and it seems quite apparent that an infographic,
showing the mechanics or process of how something works, is what is needed.
Medical illustrations
This is becoming a larger share of the type of art we do. Partly because we’ve got some
excellent freelance medical illustrators as well as good in-house illustrators who are very capable
of handling this type of art.
Contemporary styles
If the subject doesn’t necessarily point to a certain style, it leaves the door open to try something that’s a little more on the contemporary side. Or even a nostalgic look. My goal is to have as
broad a variety as possible within the limits of that publication’s character.
Photography
A photograph captures feelings and emotions that people can quickly relate to. Photographs
can be stylized as a part of a dramatic illustration or presented realistically to provide a human
touch in a layout.
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Photography
Fine Art Photography
How to «Read»
a Photograph
Nancy
Schieferstein
Southern
Images
Tom
Wachs
Kelly
Eckel
Basic Strategies in Reading Photographs
Of course, you know what you like. But would you like to know more
about how a photograph is composed? By learning what visual elements the
artist uses to communicate with you, you may appreciate better why you like
or don’t like a particular work of art. In the presentation below, the concepts
are illustrated with photographic works.
Objective:
· To develop visual literacy
· Learn the basic vocabulary used in formal analyses in the visual arts
· Combine content information with formal analysis to «read» (analyze) photographs
To enhance your appreciation of photography it is necessary to develop the skills to make
careful visual analysis. While everyone can easily discuss the contents of photographs («what you
see»), most need more training to learn about formal analysis used in the visual arts. Formal analysis focuses on an artwork’s «formal» qualities, or those visual elements that give it form. These
include: shape, size, texture, line, space, etc.
Formal analysis provides a basic common language in the visual arts. However, a description
of a photograph based only on formal analysis would be incomplete. Photographers make decisions both about composition (arrangement of visual elements) as well as content (meaning) when
taking photographs. Consequently, it is important to consider the artist’s intentions for making a
photograph of a particular subject. Finally, the historical and social context in which a photograph
was made must also be carefully considered.
An important note: each image offers a variety of interpretations. Therefore, the information
provided in this resource for each photograph should be regarded as a starting point for discussion
and not as a conclusive interpretation. There is no one correct answer when interpreting works of
art. We encourage you to carefully examine photographs to develop your skills for analyzing photographs and to explore your own personal interpretations.
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General Vocabulary Used in Photography
The following words are the basic vocabulary used in describing photographs.
abstract: an image that emphasizes formal elements (line, shape, etc) rather
than specific, recognizable objects.
content: the subject, topic or information captured in a photograph.
direct approach: confronting a scene in a straight-forward manner, without
using unusual angles or distortion.
Documentary photography: photographs whose main purpose is to record a
place, person(s) or event.
Expressive: concerned with communicating emotion.
Geometric shape: simple rectilinear or curvilinear shapes found in geometry,
such as circles, squares, triangles, etc.
intention: reason(s) why the artist made a work of art.
Landscape: an image that portrays the natural environment.
objective: a point of view free from personal bias, which attempts to consider
all available information with equal regard and fairness.
organic shape: shapes based on natural objects such as trees, mountains, leaves,
etc.
representational: an image which shows recognizable objects.
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subject: the main object or person(s) in a photograph.
theme: a unifying or dominant idea in one work of art or in a collection of
works.
Visual Elements
Practice the use of these words by asking the following questions:
focus: what areas appear clearest or sharpest in the photograph? What do not?
light: what areas of the photograph are most highlighted? Are there any shadows? Does the photograph allow you to guess the time of day? Is the light natural or
artificial? Harsh or soft? Reflected or direct?
line: are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight,
curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline?
Do the lines show movement or energy?
repetition: are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a
pattern?
shape: do you see geometric or organic shapes? What are they?
space: is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates
this appearance? Are there important negative spaces in addition to positive spaces?
Is there depth created by spatial illusions?
texture: if you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel?
How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel?
value: is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value?
Where is the lightest?
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Composition of the Photograph
The words here will allow you to think about how visual elements combine within a photograph to create a composition.
angle: the vantage point from which the photograph was taken; generally used
when discussing a photograph taken from an unusual or exaggerated vantage point.
background: the part of a scene or picture that is or seems to be toward the
back.
balance: the distribution of visual elements in a photograph. Symmetrical balance distributes visual elements evenly in an image. Asymmetrical balance is found
when visual elements are not evenly distributed in an image.
central focus: the objects(s) which appears most prominently and/or most
clearly focused in a photograph.
composition: the arrangement or structure of the formal elements that make
up an image.
contour: the outline of an object or shape.
contrast: strong visual differences between light and dark, varying textures,
sizes, etc.
framing: what the photographer has placed within the boundaries of the photograph.
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setting: actual physical surroundings or scenery whether real or artificial.
vantage point: the place from which a photographer takes a photograph.
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Home decor
The Americas : San Francisco - Guadalajara
THE AMERICAS 1100 Folsom Street San Francisco
The Americas is a San Francisco based wholesaler,
retailer and manufacturer of quality home decor products
designed and produced by us at our facility in Guadalajara,
Mexico.
The Americas has been providing hundreds of retail
outlets and restaurants with solid pine furniture, wrought
iron, pottery and glassware since 1986. We can custom
manufacture to specification and also stock thousands of
handmade home decor items at our outlet in downtown San Francisco.
We search all over Mexico for the very best in hand made home decor and accessories. On the
pages below you will find what we think are some of the best values in home decor. Everything is
hand made, hand finished and we always buy direct to get the very prices for you.
The Americas stocks thousands of home decor items everyday in our San Francisco location.
Pine furniture, metal furniture, glassware, pottery, metal accent pieces, wine racks, mirrors and
more. While much of our stock is one-of-a-kind or limited production items, we have chosen some
of the most popular items to display here.
Furniture - We stock hundreds of solid pine furniture pieces in our warehouse everyday.
Some of our best sellers are featured here. Solid pine tables, chairs, armoirs, dressers and more.
Glassware - We work with 10 different glass blowing factories to bring you the best prices on
handblown drinking glasses, pitchers and vases. As all pieces are handblown, sizes and colors may
vary slightly from the photos shown. It is all part of the charm of quality glass!
Pottery - Pottery has been produced in Mexico for all most 500 years. Completely hand
painted, each piece is an unique work of art. Suns, moons, flowers and complex geometric patterns
make Mexican pottery some of the most beautiful pottery in the world for the price.
Accessories - We travel all over Mexico looking for the very best in home decor. Working
with hundreds of artists, we produce the very best items on the market, hand produced with techniques hundreds of years old. Browse this section for a taste of the best of Mexico.
CHAIRS
Our chairs are made of 100% aged pine. There are no pressed woods or laminates, only solid
pine chairs that will give you years and years of enjoyment and use. Our chairs are made by a group
of carpenters that produce quality chairs at very reasonable prices. We buy every chair that they
make and lovingly finish them here in San Francisco.
All chairs include our custom finishes and all chairs
are available for only:
$70.00 Each!
Styles are listed below. Custom manufacturing available on orders of 100 or more. Price breaks available at
20, 50, and 100 chairs.
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TABLES
Old world craftsmanship and our manufacturing process make our tables a great deal in two
ways. First, our tables are hand crafted by a single workshop that produces nothing but various
designs of dining tables, coffee and sofa tables. Hand turned legs, extra thick tops and useful side
drawers all add up to functional and beautiful tables that will last for generations and wear wonderfully. Second, because we control the workshop and production, we are able to keep our costs down
and offer all this quality for a fraction of what you would pay in a regular store.
Each table (and our table/chair sets) include custom finishing. All tables are normally sanded
very smooth before the final color/wax finishing. We are able to provide more rustic finishes upon
request.
Some of our most popular styles of drinking glasses are featured on this page. We stock over
60 different designs of drinking glasses in our outlet everyday, and we have featured the most
popular designs here. All drinking glasses come in sets of 4 and are matched as closely as hand
blown glassware allows. Prices include shipping within the 48 States.
Blue Rim Tumblers - Large tumblers that hold over 16 ozs. of your favorite beverage. Each
is hand blown with a cobalt blue rim.
Green Rim Tumblers - Just like the blue rim except these have a rich green color to the rim.
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Confetti Wine Glass - Not your average wine glasses. These wine glasses have specks of
blues and green mixed throughout the glass. Each one is unique.
Confetti Goblet Glass - Extra wide mouth and overall large drinking glasses perfect for water
during the meal and desserts after!
Tortoise Wine Glass- Amber color and dark specs give these glasses the look of tortoise shell.
Perfect for your favorite red or white wine, or any other drink too!
The Americas sells merchandise to hundreds of retailers in the United States. Sometimes we
produce special orders that have been made solely for that company, in large quantities. Every so
often we have overruns on a particular item. The items featured on this page are overruns and the
original per piece retail that the chain store charged is listed.
Alebrige - Hand carved from wood and approx. 10" High. Made in Oaxaca in
Southern Mexico. Original retail: $65.00.
Cat Frames - Hand painted in Oaxaca, Mexico. Each holds a 4x6" Picture. Assorted colors.
Original retail: $15.00 ea.
Ant - Hand carved from wood and hand painted, these ants measure approx. 5" long. Each is
unique. Original retail: $20.00 ea.
Pigs - These pigs are big, almost 10" long from snout to curly tail. They come in assorted
colors and will lighten up any decor. We have 150 pigs left in stock. Original retail: $28.00 Ea.
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Miracle Frame - The frames are produced in a small village north of Mexico City. There are
20-30 small metal pieces each representing prayers for miracles or "milagros". We purchased
these from a wholesale client who over ordered. The original price tickets are still on them
showing a $24.00 retail each. Each frame holds a 4x6" photo. Original retail: $24.00 Ea.
Talavera Sun/Moon Candle Sticks - Oops! We forgot to cancel the balance of an order we
had placed for 1,600 of these handpainted candlesticks from Central Mexico. Each is slightly different, but all have a sun/moon design and stand about 9" high. We have 200 sets left and are selling
them at 50% off the retail price (which is still on the bottom of each piece) of $15.00 ea.
Gecko and Armadillo Candleholder - These candleholders can hang on the wall or rest on
the edge of a table. Made from handcut and handpainted tin, each candleholder is about 12" long
and has dozens of tiny holes in the design to allow the light to come shinning through. We made
these for a national garden store and have about 150 sets left. They were sold in the chain for
$15.00 ea. We are selling them in sets of two, one gecko and one matching armadillo for $ 15.00
for the pair. Order 3 sets and we'll ship for the same price! Original retail $15.00 Ea.
Many times while producing orders for our wholesale customers we have overruns that we
are able to sell for a fraction of what other stores charge for hand blown glass of this quality. Each
of these colorful vases, jars and bowls is made by a craftsman using techniques thousands of years
old, but with designs and colors that are very today! All pieces are priced individually (unless
otherwise stated), and prices include shipping within the 48 states.
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Cone Vase - These 14" high vases are perfect for displaying your favorite cut flowers. Each is
made in a style called crackel, in which the glass finish has fine web like cracks running throughout
the piece. This does not effect the quality or durability of the item. We have them in both GREEN
and PURPLE. Original retail was $48.00.
Candy Dish - Made from an amber colored glass, these cone shaped bowls have a heavy base
built in that gives them height above the table. A darker color amber swirl is blown throughout the
piece. Originally made for Pier 1 Imports, we have them for 35% less then they sold them for.
Original retail $35.00.
Confetti Serving Bowl - Each of these bowls is made from heavy hand blown glass and has
speckels of blue and green throughout. They are about 8" in diameter and 3" deep. We are selling
them in sets of 2 for $20.00. Original retail $18.00 Ea.
Milk Glass Bud Vase - Each of these bud vases is made from "Milk Glass". Milk glass is
named so because of the milky appearance of the colors used, and tiny swirls found in each piece. The
vases stand about 6" high and are 2" deep. We are selling them in sets of 2 for only $18.00. That includes
shipping! Original retail: $14.00 Ea.
PITCHERS
These large and roomy pitchers are the perfect companions to our drinking glasses. Each
piece is made from pure glass that is hand blown by master craftsmen in Central Mexico. Prices for
these pitchers include ship ping within the 48 States.
Cobalt Water Pitcher - Holds enough lemonade for a couple of servings on a hot summer
day (margaritas too!). Thick glass construction ensures years of enjoyment.
Tall Water Pitcher - The size makes it stand out (about 12" tall), but the contrasting green
handle sets it apart. Ribbed sides give it a semi-formal look. Goes great with our blue and green rim
drinking glasses.
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Ice Bucket - You can tell from the photo that this ice bucket is thick, which means your ice cubes will
stay ice that much longer. Hand blown from cobalt blue glass, we got a special purchase on these items and
have about 40 left in stock. We are making a special offer on these hand blown ice buckets for only
$26.00. You won't find a better made crystal glass ice bucket for twice the price!
PAPER FLOWERS
Paper mache' fruits and flowers have been a popular item in Mexico for years. We work with
a small workshop in Central Mexico which produces what we think are the very finest flowers and
fruits and vegetables on the market. We can offer these items to you at great prices because we
work directly with them. There are over two dozen types of fruit and vegetables available. Feel free
to mix and match. Price breaks on all items are available.
SUNFLOWERS - Handcut paper leaves around a realistic looking face make these sunflowers a great standout in any decor. People won't be able to believe they are not real.
Each measures 8" across and are about 24" tall. We price them at $5.00 Ea., 6 for $24.00, and
12 for $42.00.
CALALILY- A beautiful white calalily with a great 20" green stem. The flowers measure
over 26" in total height. They will look great for years, and best of all, they never need water!
PAPER FRUIT & VEGETABLES
We carry over two dozen types of paper mache’ fruit and vegetables. We will be showing
the photos shortly.
Each piece is only $2.50 ea./Min. 6 assorted
FURNITURE
We oversee the manufacture of every piece of furniture in our San Francisco Showroom from
our offices in Guadalajara, Mexico. All of the furniture is made from solid pine and hand finished
to your specifications. We stock hundreds of pieces of furniture in our showroom in San Francisco
and ship to all parts of the United States and Canada.
· CHAIRS Solid pine, hand-crafted chairs, custom finished and all only $70 each!
· TABLES Solid pine, hand-crafted in a dozen sizes and styles, all built to last generations.
Prices start at just $295. All custom finished to your specifications.
We stock over 3,000 pieces of handblown glassware everyday. Drinking glasses are sold in
sets of 4 only. Prices are for the set. All other glassware is sold by the piece unless otherwise noted.
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Prices include UPS ground shipping in the 48 States.
Drinking Glasses - We carry over 60 designs of drinking glasses, all hand blown by artisans
in Mexico. Each glass is dishwasher and food safe. They are sold in sets of 4, and prices include
shipping.
Pitchers - The perfect companions to our drinking glasses. Big and durable, these hand blown
pitchers are wonderful for a outdoor cookout, or an indoor party.
Flower Vases and Jars - Large or small, these colorful glass pitchers are a beautiful way to
display fresh or dried flowers, candies or as stand alone works of art.
POTTERY
We travel all over Mexico looking for the very best in TALAVERA POTTERY handpainted pottery. The Mexican people have a rich tradition of producing
pottery and folk art, and these combinations produce some of the best quality, lowest priced pottery around. We have listed pottery below by type and will be adding
more as our website grows. In addition to the pieces shown, we also stock hundreds
of other pieces in the store. Call us at 1-800-ARTIFAX (1-800-278-4329) to discuss
what other pieces we have available.
SUN CANDLEHOLDERS
We found the great sun faced candleholders in a small village in Central Mexico. Each glass
sun face is hand cast, and then centered in a base of handforged metal. The candleholder is then
handpainted. They hold votive sized candles, and cast wonderful shadows when lit. Sun Candleholders
number 1-6 are about 14" tall, numbers 7 and 8 are about 10" tall.
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Arriving in Vienna
Arriving by Plane
Your plane will come down in Vienna International Airport located about 20km (16 miles)
east of Vienna.
· Taxi - The most easiest way, but also the most expensive... - a taxi from the airport to Vienna
will cost 340,- Austrian Schilling. (about U$ 32,-)
· Express Bus - Every 20min. to Vienna airport terminal Landstrasse-Hauptstrasse (near Hilton
Hotel)
· ATS 70,-/person (about U$ 6,50), and from there by subway, tramway or taxi.
· From the airport are also connections to the main railway-stations available.
· Train - The cheapest way by rapid transit (S-Bahn) to Wien Mitte (29 minutes journey) in 30
minutes intervals from 00.07 (a.m.) to 23.37 (p.m.).
· Car Rental - all main car rental companies are available.
· Mobil-Phone Rental - you can rent your "handy" for the time of your stay.
· Hotel Booking - There is a tourist information, which can find you the
"in the moment-available" rooms.
· Money Changing - Usually there is an opened bank as long as regular flights are arriving.
· But you will find also currency-change-machines and machines accepting creditcards.
Arriving by Train
The main railway-stations are "Westbahnhof" (arriving from west), "Süd- & Ostbahnhof"
(arriving from south and east), and "Franz-Josefs Bahnhof" (arriving from north). You will find
bus-connections to the other main railway-stations and to the airport, and you can reach your hotel
by taxi, tramway or subway.
· Hotel Booking - There are tourist informations, which can find you the
"in the moment-available" rooms.
· Money Changing - Creditcard-machines or banks, if you arrive at office-time.
Arriving by Car
Entering the Vienna area look for a green sign showing a "i" - this means:
"Tourist Information", where you can get a map or a hotel room info.
Or try to find a main railway-station ("Bahnhof"). If you are parking your car, take care if this
is a short-time parking zone. You will have to fill out parking-tickets, which you can buy in a so-called
"Trafik" (small shop for newspapers, cigarettes, postcards, etc.). For using austrian highways you have to
buy a "Vignette" (using-permission).
General
Exchanging cash and travellers' cheques is rarely a problem in Austria. Changing cash attracts
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a negligible commission but the exchange rate is usually 1% to 4% lower than for cheques.
Hotel and restaurant bills include a service charge, but hotel porters and cleaning staff usually
expect something for their services. It is also customary to tip in restaurants and cafes. Round up
smaller bills and add an extra 5% to 10% to larger ones: simply say the total amount you want them
to take when handing over the money (it's not usual to leave the tip on the table). Taxi drivers will
expect around 10% extra. Tour guides, cloakroom attendants and hairdressers are also usually
tipped. Bargaining is not common except in flea markets, but you can try for a discount if paying
for major purchases in cash instead by creditcards and it never hurts to haggle for a better hotel rate
in the low season if you're staying for more than a few days.
Summer sightseeing and winter sports make Austria a year-round destination. The summer
high season is in July and August, when crowds will be bigger and prices higher. It can be uncomfortably hot in the cities over summer and many famous institutions close down. Consequently,
June and September are also busy months. During winter you'll find things less crowded in the
cities and the hotel prices lower (except over Christmas and Easter). Winter sports are in full swing
from mid-December to late March with the high season over Christmas, New Year and February.
Alpine resorts are very quiet from late April to late May and in November. Spring in the Alps is in
June, when the Alpine flowers start coating the mountains with colour.
A City of Empire
Retains Her Glory
Part I - The «Hofburg»
Once the seat of a sprawling empire of fifty million, now capital of a
nation of less than eight million, Vienna has maintained a facade worthy of
its former glory.
Opulent neo-Gothic and neo-Baroque
buildings line the boulevard ringing downtown
- the "Ringstrasse", a former city wall - while
the imposing spire of Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral towers over the
central city. Three stunning palaces grace various sections of the city;
the Vienna Woods, inspiration for Strauss' waltzes, cradle the northwest edge. Vienna's historical roots run deep, as deep as the Danube
River. First settled by Celts around 800 BC, then conquered by the Romans, the country fell under
a succession of rulers. In Roman times Vienna (Vindobona) was a military camp and the Danube
was the border to "Germania". In 996 the first deed containing the name Austria (Ostarrichi); was
recorded, and this year the country celebrates its 1000th anniversary.
During those early days, the country grew under the relatively peaceful reign of the Babenberg dynasty and Vienna
got the status of a capital. But this dynasty died out in 1246,
and was followed by the Habsburg dynasty that would rule
the Austrian and the German Empire for more than 600 years
and make the country the dominant force in Central Europe
for much of that time. And as the Habsburg ruled also in Spain, which largely
expanded to South America, the Habsburg could say:
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«In our empire the sun does never set»
Shortly before the Habsburg era crumbled with
the country's defeat in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire stretched north into what are now
Poland and the Czech Republic, east to the Ukraine
and Romania, and south to Bosnia, Croatia and Italy.
But the vestiges of that great empire still can be
seen today - in the buildings that decorate the street
corners and in the people who populate the town.
The main Habsburg palace, Hofburg, remains one of the most important buildings in the inner
city (downtown). Its earliest sections were constructed in the 1200s, and successive rulers added
their own touches. Over the years the Hofburg ("royal castle") developed into a sprawling complex
of more than 2600 rooms.
The royal apartments most reflect the influence of Empress Elisabeth "Sisi", who ruled over the empire with her
husband, Francis Joseph, until her assassination in 1898 by
an Italian anarchist. Sisi, a Bavarian (German) princess,
couldn't abide strict court etiquette, and caused quite a stir by
insisting on outfitting her apartments with gymnastics equipment.
Emperors and their entourage, just like everybody else,
needed appropriate living quarters. Since they had enough
ready money at their disposal and the most famous architects
at their command, it is not surprising that one stumbles upon architectural masterpieces wherever one turns in Vienna. Some of its wings embrace one
of Vienna's most beautiful squares - the Heldenplatz; in addition to
sumptuous state rooms, the Hofburg houses several museums and the
Schatzkammer containing the priceless imperial treasury. The Imperial Palace also includes two of Vienna's most important tourist attractions: the inimitable Lipizzans, the White Stallions of the Spanish Riding School, established in the late 1500s, the performance has changed
little over the years, as the striking white Lippizaner stallions are put
through their paces, often to the strains of one of Austria's beloved
composers. And on Sundays and holidays, the world-famous Vienna Boys' Choir sing Mass and perform
classical and modern works in the Chapel of the Imperial Palace, the Burgkapelle.
Also located in the Hofburg: The National Library, the 14th-century Augustinian Church, the
Baroque Prunksaal hall, large congress facilities, a collection of old musical instruments and the
office of the Austrian president.
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Part II - The "Ringstrasse" and other Imperial Monuments
The Habsburg emperors once ruled a huge empire from Vienna. The city is still dominated by the castles and places of the
imperial seat. Every year hundreds of thousands come to marvel
at "The Place in the Country" - Habsburg's magnificent "imperial
summer residence" Schönbrunn Palace.
Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the demolition of the city walls
130 years ago. When most of the old city walls had to be removed
in the middle of the nineteenth century, a majestic tree-lined boulevard circling the old part of the city was erected in their place.
Since then, «the Ring» has become a prime showcase for most of
Vienna’s architectural attractions: the two imposing museums
(Fine Arts and Natural History) are gazed upon by a stature of
Empress Maria Theresa; Parliament with a marble statue of Pallas
Athena; the most important German-language theater, the National Theatre (Burgtheater); Vienna’s renowned University; and
two marvelous examples of neo-Gothic architecture: City Hall
(Rathaus) with its splendid park and the Votive Church (Votivkirche) with its double spires that
seem to be made of fine lace; several imposing ministry buildings; and finally, the resplendent
State Opera House, which reopened completely renovated in 1955 after it had been almost totally
destroyed during the last war.
The Votiv Church was built by Maximilian, brother of Franz Josef and Emperor of Mexico, in
memory of an assassination against Franz Josef in this park area. He was attacked with a knife
against the throat. But the uniform had such stiff collar, that the knife didn’t get through....
St.Stephan’s
Karls Church at Karlsplatz
Giant Ferris Wheel
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Churches played a major role in catholic Austria. Surprising as it may seem, a few were built
even before the Habsburgs were on the horizon - Vienna’s oldest church, St. Rupert’s
(Rupechtskirche), is one example; another, majestic St. Stephen’s Cathedral, existed before the
Habsburgs, but was not transformed to its present Gothic beauty until the Habsburgs came along;
for many centuries now, it has been the landmark of Vienna. Due to its location in the middle of the
old city, it has become a focal point as well as a favorite meeting place. There are some who
consider magnificent St. Charles Borromeo (Karlskirche), with its green cupola, one of the finest
examples of baroque architecture in all of Europe.
The Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel) was build for a world exposition at the ending 19th century. It is today a must to take a slow 10min ride and to have a wonderful view of Vienna center.
Hundertwasserhaus
Alternativ Architecture in Vienna
Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born in 1928 in Vienna as Friedrich
Stowasser. He changed his name in 1949 into Hundertwasser. His education was
just a three months visit to the viennese acadamy of art in 1948. So he is in fact an
autodidact.
In the years 1949-1952 he travels a lot to Marokko, Tunis, Paris and to
the Toskana. These travels gave him decisive influences and experiences for
his future artistic work. In 1951 he joins the «Art-Club» of Vienna, where he
has his first exposition. At that time his work is dominated by decorative abstract forms. In 1953 he finds
the spiral as his most expressive motive.
In 1959 he is a lecturer in Hamburg in the university of educational art. Many expositions, making
naked speeches, and his revolutionary ecological ideas make him more and more famous. Today especially
his architectural works are world famous. He works and lives in Vienna and New Zealand.
Hundertwasser believes that man should live more in harmony with nature. Our buildings
should contribute to our environment and our living space should resemble the environment we
evolved in. To that end, he plants quite a few trees to grow out of buildings and the floors are quite
irregular - three-dimensional surfaces.
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The Palmers Story ...
... or how a public scandal lead to a new femal self-esteem.
Austria's leading underwear producer Palmers introduced 1981 a complete new line in advertising. The new campaign caused a hot scandal and especially the feministic scene felt mighty
shaked up. The advertising was a signal that a new understanding was arising, but first not everybody agreed. Nobody could foresee all the emotions and reactions which were caused by the public
posters. The poster was cause, stimulus and multiplicator.
The feminists revolted ... - "no woman can fulfill the expectations of these messages..." - this
was their "deeper" reason to spray the posters with slogans and to hold demonstrations. But finally it took
the other course - it induced a kind of self-confidence.
Feministic slogans could not longer irritate young and self-confident women. Underwear has
become a visible expression of body consciousness! The public scandal turned into a female liberation and emancipation, and encouraged the femals to emphasize their beauty.
Posters are a visualized speech of the "outside". They are just there, as a community institution and part of the urban scenery. Palmers posters have become very closed to every day art. It is
no longer the placement of a company's name or the advertising for underwear, it has become "art
of the streets". Maybe somedays they will be exposed in a museum. They are a sign for quality and
sensuality. And they are indeed a kind of entertainment.
Palmers creation was the "Triptychon". The poster divided into three, and one as the "eyecatcher".
1989 Tatjana Patitz
1990 Naomi Campbell
1990 Cindy Crawford
1991 Helena Christensen
1993 Nadja Auermann
1998 Carre Otis
The poster as a cultural factor. Art and advertising are unseparably linked. It can effect shock,
agression or surprise. Palmers advertising is no more a scandal today, it is more a style for what can
we expect and for self-confidence and it is an expression of wishes and pleasure. And today it
seems that the people are already waiting for every new poster. And women are proudly wearing
this underwear!
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Otto Wagner
18th Century - La Fin de Siecle - Art Nouveaux Architecture
Art Nouveaux and Art Deco in architecture was on its peak in
the period of the turning century betwen 1880 and 1920. Most of Otto
Wagner's buildings are famous and unique and have become
extraordinary sights.
The city of Vienna as "Testing Ground of Modernism" has
provided in turn-of-the-century a very special "climate" with developments in music, painting, philosophy, physics, psychology
and architecture. Today well known people like Ludwig Boltzmann,
Sigmund Freud, Mahler, Klimt, or Otto Wagner created very progressive and unique styles and
ideologies, which have been the basics of many other following developments and still enjoy a
great fame and popularity.
It was Otto Wagner and his gifted students, Josef Hoffmann and Josef Olbrich, who led the
attempt to modernize architecture and interior furnishings. All three were founding members of the
Vienna Secession which broke away from the ultraconservative Künstlerhaus in May, 1897. Olbrich
was chosen to design their celebrated exhibition hall (kunsthalle) renowned for its large spiracle
cupola of openwork leaves. Completely restored, the building is still used for art exhibitions and
has become a famous Vienna landmark.
The influences of this style are various. It seems to be a mixture of classic greek, some jewish,
some chinese and japanese, some french baroque, oriental elements... and finally the viennese
flair....
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Post Office main hall and outdoor front, located near Ringstrasse and Schwedenplatz. On the
right Church "am Steinhof" in the park area of the hospital "Baumgartner Höhe". Below decorated
appartmenthouses at "linke Wienzeile" near "Naschmarkt".
Decorated Facade
Golden Facade
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Definitions for the Elements and
Principles of Art
All definitions, except where noted, are from pages 92-94 of the California Visual and
Performing Arts Framework.
Color
Visual sensation dependent on the reflection or absorption of light from a given surface ("hue,"
"value," and "intensity" being the primary characteristics).
Line
An identifiable path of a point moving in space. It can vary in width, direction, and length.
Value
Light and dark; the gradations of light and dark on the surface of objects
Shape
A two-dimensional area or plane that may be organic or inorganic, free-form or geocentric,
open or closed, natural or of human origin.
Form
A three-dimensional volume with the same qualities as "Shape" (above), or the illusion of
three dimensions
Balance
An equilibrium of similar, opposing, or contrasting elements that together create a unity.
Texture
The surface quality of material, either actual (tactile) or visual.
Symmetry
A balance in which elements are alike and will appear to demand one another as a line that
falls in one direction demands a line that falls in another direction.
Asymmetry
A balance achieved through the use of unequal parts or elements.
Contrast
Use of opposites in close proximity (light and dark, rough and smooth).
Dominance
The difference in importance or emphasis of one aspect in relation to all other aspects of a
design.
Repetition
The recurrence of elements at regular intervals.
Rhythm
The regular repetition of particular forms or stresses; also, the suggestion of motion.
Theme and Variation
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Some dominant feature repeated with variations to give the work its dominant character.
Unity
The distinguishable units or elements that seem to belong to each other so that each contributes something to the functioning of the whole.
Aesthetic Perception
Goal I: To develop and expand aesthetic perception in students so that they may:
· Increase aesthetic awareness of visual and tactile qualities in works of art, nature, events, and
objects within the total environment.
· See the world directly and metaphorically by perceiving the physical world in terms of visual
and tactile images and symbols which are unique to the visual arts.
Creative Expression - Artistic Knowledge and Skills
Goal II: To develop and expand visual arts knowledge and skills to express ideas imaginatively,
students must be able to:
· Acquire artistic skills to express and communicate responses to experiences.
· Recognize the importance of personal experiences and respect the originality in their own
visual expressions and in the artwork of others.
· Develop manipulative and organizational skills in using visual arts media effectively to translate
ideas, feelings, and values.
Visual Arts Heritage - Historical and Cultural
Goal III: To acquire knowledge of historical and cultural developments which occur as a
result of varying needs and aesthetic points of view, students will be able to:
· Study a variety of artworks and accomplishments of contemporary, historic, and prehistoric
cultures.
· Understand that art reflects, records, and shapes history and plays a role in every culture.
· Gain an understanding of their creative abilities and their artistic heritage within the context
of a comprehensive world view.
· Clarify their own aesthetic values and learn to appreciate differences in the aesthetic values
of others.
Aesthetic Valuing - Analysis, Interpretation, and Judgment
Gaol IV: To develop a base for making informed aesthetic judgments students will be able to:
· Make informed responses to works of art, nature and other objects within the total environment by using objective criteria for anylysis, interpretation, and judgment.
· Derive meaning and value from experiences by making and justifying judgments about aesthetic qualities in works of art and other objects within the total environment.
· Use analysis, interpretation, and judgment about visual relationships based on learned aesthetic values to improve art production.
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Cultural Entomology
Flower Fairies
Numerous artists have found inspiration through the wings of butterflies and
the symbolic weight they carry. The most cherished artist in the category of illustrating
fairies with lepidopteran wings is British artist, Cicely Mary Barker. Her illustrations
are as popular today as she was in 1923 when she first published her “Flower
Fairy” books. Though she died in 1973, her fairies live on in the hearts and
imaginations of children and adults around the world.
Cicely’s timeless watercolors capture an exuberance of innocence, playfulness
and joy. Each flower fairy becomes the fanciful anthropomorphic representative of
a British flower. They bear a pair of insect wings and wear a costume fashioned in
the likeness of its associated flower. Although most of the wings are butterfly-like,
few of them mimic the actual patterns found on British butterflies. Rather, they have
metamorphosed into hybrids which also mimic their associated flower. Cicely’s
illustrations are accompanied with the song of the specific flower fairy. The songs
poetically reveal natural history relating to the flower’s appearance, habitat, lifecycle and special characteristics. The reader may relate to Cicely’s work on
numerous levels ranging from natural history, through appreciation of British heritage,
to fantasy and imagination.
Poppy Fairy
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Daisy Fairy
Lavender Fairy
Clover Fairy
The Song of the Poppy Fairy
The green wheat’s a-growing,
The lark sings on high;
In scarlet silk a-glowing,
Here stand I.
The wheat’s turning yellow,
Ripening for sheaves;
I hear the little fellow
Who scares the bird-thieves.
Now the harvest’s ended,
The wheat-field is bare;
But still, red and splendid,
I am there.
The Song of the Michaelmas Daisy
Fairy
“Red Admiral, Red Admiral,
I’m glad to see you here,
Alighting on my daisies one by one!
I hope you like their flavour
and although the Autumn’s near,
Are happy as you sit there in the
sun?”
“I thank you very kindly, sir!
Your daisies are so nice,
So pretty and so plentiful are they;
The flavour of their honey, sir,
it really does entice;
I’d like to bring my brothers, if I
may!”
“Friend butterfly, friend butterfly,
go fetch them one and all!
I’m waiting here to welcome
every guest;
And tell them it is Michaelmas,
and soon the leaves will fall,
But I think Autumn sunshine is
the best!”
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The Song of the Lavender Fairy
“Lavender’s blue, diddle diddle”So goes the song;
All around her bush, diddle diddle,
Butterflies throng;
(They love her well, diddle diddle,
So do the bees;)
While she herself, diddle diddle,
Sways in the breeze!
“Lavender’s blue, diddle diddle,
Lavender’s green;”
She’ll scent the clothes, diddle diddle,
Put away cleanClean from the wash, diddle diddle,
Hanky and sheet;
Lavender’s spikes, diddle diddle,
Make them all sweet!
The Song of the Clover Fairy
The Fairy:
O, what a great big bee
Has come to visit me!
He’s come to find my honey.
O, what a great big bee!
The Bee:
O, what a great big Clover!
I’ll search it well, all over,
And gather all its honey.
O, what a great big Clover!
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Butterflies of Ancient Mexico
Mexico’s history reveals numerous examples of the profound knowledge held within ancient Aztec
and Mayan cultures. Insects were observed, studied and many times adored by these ancient Mexicans.
Along with the snake, the butterfly was one of the most frequently represented animals. Some researchers,
like Dr. Alfredo Barrera-Marín, Dr. Leonila Vazquez and Dr. Rafael Martin del Campo, are fascinated
with Mexico’s natural and social history, and have found interesting examples of cultural entomology within
writings, paintings and other cultural sources not destroyed by the Hispanic conquistadors. For many
centuries before the conquest, and until the Colonial and Independent periods, butterflies, crickets, fleas,
scorpions and spiders were studied by the Aztecs, Mayans, Chichimecs and other diverse peoples of
Mexico. Today, ethnic groups of Mexico still look to insects for explanations of life and death.
Butterfly representations are varied and adorned numerous substrates. The butterflies found on stone
and ceramics were often found among other figures and ranged from realistic to very stylized representations.
Butterflies adorned the outer ring of the Aztec calendar and represented the fire of snakes. Other
representations are found among the gold ornaments owned by high-ranking officials. Some wall-paintings
and murals displayed colorful butterflies which in some cases represent birds. Such paintings are found on
the walls of the Butterflies Temple of Teotihuacan. art (plumeria).
Vase Support
Clay Stamp
Codex Symbol
Stamp Collection 1
Stamp Collection 2
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Xochiquetzal and Itzpapalotl
Xochiquetzal is the Goddess of love, flowers, vegetation and fire. This image is a clay flat stamp with
a mythical butterfly motif from Tula.
Itzpapálotl is the Mother Goddess of the Chichimec. This image of Itzpapálotl is from the Vatican
Codex.
The Butterfly and Moth as Symbols in Western Art
Butterflies and moths remain prominent in fine art, advertising, fashion and jewelry. Butterfly and the
moth constitute one of the major symbols in art with a significant number of major artists incorporating
butterfly or moth symbolism.
Beauty of Nature
The butterfly is a multicultural symbol of the beauty of Nature, appearing in numerous examples of
nature scenes of many artistic styles. Butterflies are included as elements of these scenes because they
most effectively represent all positive characteristics of Nature.
Logic and prejudice has deprived moths of a similar status. Logically, since most “beauty in Nature”
scenes are set in daytime, butterflies are the obvious choice for inclusion. The prejudicial lepidopteral
impression that moths are ugly, negative, drab, troublesome (as a clothes pest) and undesirable, overpowers
the fact that moths outnumber butterfly species many times.
Beauty of Color, Shape, Pattern, Symmetry
Butterflies and moths are “Nature’s canvases with the gift of flight.” Even in death, their mounted
beauty can remain intact for centuries. Nature’s genetic paintbrushes have “painted” hundreds of thousands
bilaterally-symmetrical butterfly and moth works of art. When one considers that both the topsides and the
undersides of these specimens are “painted” with equal skill, and that smaller, isolated sections of these
masterpieces can be viewed apart from the total specimen, one becomes aware of the virtually unlimited
number of artworks in this “traveling” art show of the air.
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To some artists, the butterfly and moth only symbolize beauty: the beauty of symmetry, pattern, color,
shape. These artists don’t require their representations of these creatures to be interpreted. They copy
these insects, some as faithfully as the Photo-realists would copy a still life, a figure, a panorama, and only
ask the viewer to observe their beauty.
The Abstractive-Naturalists don’t even require the viewers to know their subject is a butterfly or
moth. They enlarge small, rectangular sections of wing and present them purely as designs.
Ugly and Negative
Although fantastically beautiful moths exist, many of them live in the tropics. Uncommon, beautiful
moths such as (the Polyphemus, Cecropia, Luna) do reside in the United States, although commonly
encountered moths are small and drab brown. Compare this to the many beautiful butterflies easily observed
in almost any part of the world.
For this reason the moth always comes out second-best in a “beauty contest-opinion poll” against
butterflies. Coupled with the stigma brought on by the misdeeds of the clothes moth, these little denizens of
the closet are responsible for the tarnished reputation of moths everywhere. It is little wonder that the moth
has become the unwilling symbol for that which is ugly and negative. Some of the other symbols identified
with moths (like insanity) have also contributed to the moth’s position of low esteem.
Heavenly of Fairy-Tale
When an illustration or painting desires to convey a fairy-tale or heavenly/etherial quality, artists
usually include a few butterflies to augment the overall feeling. Winslow Homer liberally sprinkled butterflies
in his illustration “Saint Valentine’s Day.” Fairies are often pictured with insect wings which are usually
those of butterflies. Greek and Roman mythology illustrates this in describing the horae; spirits who
personified the seasons.
As such they carry flowers and fruit. They gave their names to the Hours, which in a later era they
came to represent. They are the female attendants of Aurora, the dawn, and also of Luna (Selene) whose
daughters they were. Their number varies, generally not less than three. They are sometimes depicted with
butterfly wings.
Decoration
Throughout history, butterfly imagery has been used more frequently in “decorative objects” than
most other living organisms. Butterflies are found in similar frequency with imagery of trees, flowers,
mushrooms, and owls. Indian decorations have utilized butterfly imagery for centuries.
Items adorned with butterflies are often considered decorative or ornamental. Butterflies don’t always
have to carry the specific symbolism of nature or beauty. In fact their frequency in non-symbolic decorative
usage has caused them to symbolize decoration itself. “Today, an artist will put a butterfly or flower in an
illustration just for a filler, a decorative dot of color.
Flame
Ancient Mexicans considered the butterfly important enough to dedicate an entire palace to it at
Teotihuacan, just outside Mexico City. This palace is called the Palace of the Mariposa.
Teotihuacan is the oldest metropolis in Meso-America, and is the only one to possess a continuous
history, from the archaic through to the purely classical period.
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Historians do not agree on who the founders of Teotihuacan were; some say the Olmecs, others the
Toltecs, but most agree that it was at one time the capital of a highly civilized culture later conquered by the
Aztecs, the foremost of the Nahuatal Tribes.
The butterfly represents flame in the symbolism of this culture. Often pictured with the signs for water,
it becomes clear that the “vision of Earth as a paradise is based on the dynamic harmony between water
and fire.” The same concept is exemplified by an image of Tlaloc, god of rain, pictured on a vase bearing
a butterfly motif. It is interesting to note that the butterfly is used as symbolic representatives of both the fire
and rain god.
Finding no information as to why butterflies symbolize flames Indians might have observed the many
butterflies whose wings are red, orange, yellow, or combinations of all three colors. A cloud or “cumulep”
of fire-colored butterflies taking off from a mud puddle after drinking, could easily be interpreted as being
flame-like.
Mexican Indians might also have witnessed a “magna-cumulep” of millions of orange, monarch
butterflies migrating to their over-wintering grounds in the mountains near Mexico City. A “cloud of flame”
would definitely have entered their minds. The flapping of the wings would even approximate the flickering
of the tongues of flame. The moth has also come to be associated with flames, althought not as a symbol of
fire.
Female, Femininity
The butterfly symbolizes female and femininity for a number of reasons. The “painted” beauty of most
butterflies is analogous to the “painted” beauty of a high-fashion model replete with her cosmetic finery.In
addition, the graceful walk of a woman compares easily with the gliding flight of a butterfly. A comparison
between the lithe, beautiful, graceful butterfly with the usually less-showy, stubby moth might be interpreted
as a comparison between woman and man; however, the moth has not become synonymous with men and
masculinity.
Butterflies and women share the qualities of beauty, grace. Artists often include butterflies to introduce
a feminine touch to artwork, product or advertisement.
Way To A New Dress
In Funk and Wagnalls’ Standard Dictionary of Folklore, and Legend, it states that “to get a new
dress all a girl need do is to catch a butterfly of the desired color and crush it between her teeth while
muttering a magic formula.” The article does not state where this belief is held, or why it is held.
Beneficence of Summer, Omen of Summer
Many of the Indian tribes of North America including the Hopi, Navaho, Zuni, Pomo, Piute, Apache
and unnamed pre-historic tribes used butterflies to represent the beneficence of summer. These tribes
mainly use the butterfly in their basketry and beadwork.
Associating butterflies with summer is directly related to their abundance during that season. Although
adult butterflies are present in each season, they proliferate and are most visible during the summer months.
The Zuni Indians also feel “when the white butterfly comes, comes also the summer.”
136
Rain, Rainy Summer
Butterflies have much to do with the prediction of weather in many cultures. The Zuni Indians of the
American southwest believe “when the white butterfly flies from the southwest, expect rain.” “Some say
that if the first butterfly is white it will be a rainy summer.” The reasons for these beliefs are undocumented.
Omen of Thunderstorms
“Some say that if the first butterfly is ... dark [it will be] a season of thunderstorms. This belief appears
in Funk and Wagnalls’ Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. No mention is made
of the origin of this belief. The probable reason for this superstition associates the dark color of the butterfly
wings with the dark color of thunderstorm clouds.
Omen of Birth
“In south Germany, some say the dead are reborn as children who fly about as butterflies [hence the
belief that they bring children].” “In Brunswick if the first one of the season is ... yellow [it is an omen of]
birth.” It was not stated why this belief holds true.
Death, Omen of Death
Death is symbolized by many aspects of lepidoptera. In Maryland, if a white butterfly enters your
house and flies around you, it foretells death. In some parts of the country, if a moth lands on the mother of
a newborn child, that child will soon die. Italian-Americans view the appearance of a moth in their home as
a sign of the impending death of someone they know.
There is a moth in Europe called the Death’s Head Sphinx Moth. It represents death to many Europeans
because of the clear outline of a skull on its back. Salvador Dali made use of this symbol in an interpretation
of a Currier and Ives print, “The Life of a Fireman.”
There are numerous other examples of lepidoptera symbolizing death. It is said if a caterpillar measures
your entire length or girth you will die. Samoans felt if they captured a butterfly it meant they would be
struck dead. In Brunswick, if the first butterfly spotted in spring is a white one, it was an omen of death.
The Celts believed that seeing a butterfly flying at night meant death. The chrysalis or pupal stage symbolizes
death in Christian art.
Omen of Good Health
The first butterfly seen in a season carries some significance in many countries. In Ruthenia, if the first
one is red it announced good health. This symbol may be derived from the belief that rich, red blood is a
sign of good health.
Omen of Sickness
“There are many superstitions regarding specific butterflies. Among the Bulgarians a dark butterfly
presages sickness.” “In Ruthenia, the first one, if white, announces sickness.” It is possible that the association
of the white color of the butterfly’s wings with the pale, white color of someone becoming sick accounts for
this belief.
137
Old Age
As a metaphor to human aging, butterflies and moths experience a time of “old age” before succumbing
to gravity for the last time. Their constant fluttering can leave their wings partially devoid of the powdery
scales which provided their former beauty. Brilliant hues give way to faded colors. Collisions with branches
leave jagged scars and frayed wing tips. Charles Burchfield painted “Queen Anne’s Lace”, depicting an
“elderly” swallowtail probably Papilio polyxenes.
Youth, Childhood-lost
If the frayed and battered butterfly or moth symbolizes old age, then it follows logically that the
recently-emerged adult, resplendant in its newly-acquired, powdery, “suit of lights” represents youth. Its
flashy speed in contrast to the feeble flapping of a near-death specimen heightens the image. Butterfly
imagery in tandem with a youthful pursuer, also symbolizes youth. Collecting butterflies seems to be an
experience of childhood-lost, common to many.
Impermanence, Fragility
A page of the wind in the book of the sky,
the fragile butterfly
Another characteristic of both moths and butterflies is their fragile nature. Their thin wings and antennae,
their powdered color that comes off on your fingertips adds to their stature as a symbol of impermanence.
Omen of Bad Luck
Lucy Clausen, in her book Insect Fact and Folklore, states it is “bad luck to pull off butterfly
wings.” She does not reveal where this belief prevails or why it came into existence. Other references can
be found. “In Scotland it is unlucky to kill or keep them.” In the west of England, it is unlucky to kill the first
butterfly seen. In north Hampshire, it is a bad omen to see three butterflies in a group.
Spokesman For The Raven
The Haida Indians of the Pacific Northwest incorporated the butterfly in their mythology. The butterfly
is the raven’s spokesman at feasts. The raven “was an integral part of Northwest coast life and to separate
this bird from the life of the people was inconceivable. It is a never-to-beforgotten bird.” “The raven
created the world according to the Haida Indians.”37 In one Haida totem pole, the butterfly appears
beneath the raven and touches the raven’s tongue, possibly signifying his spokesman role. The totem
butterfly is highly stylized. Indian art gives primary attention to the predominating power which he attached
to that animal. The art endeavored to give an impression of action or pictorially indicate what the animal
could do. Since birds were a dominant theme in Haida art, their artists perhaps overlooked the most
obvious flying abilities of butterflies and (presuming they referred to a butterfly’s sucking mouthpiece as a
tongue) decided to make an insect with a big tongue a spokesman.
138
Knowledge
The sorcerers of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico refer to the moth as a symbol of knowledge. In the
book Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda, the moth is such a central figure it is included as the major
character on the cover of the book. It is revealed by Don Juan, a Yaqui sorcerer, “knowledge is a moth.”
He expresses metaphorically that “the moths are the heralds, or better yet, the guardians of eternity,” for
some reason, or for no reason at all, they are the depositories of the gold dust of eternity. He continues,
“the moths carry a dust on their wings, a dark gold dust. That dust is the dust of knowledge.” “Knowledge
comes floating like specks of gold dust, the same dust that covers the wings of moths.” “The moths have
been the intimate friends and helpers of sorcerers from time immemorial.” Don Juan adds, “Moths are the
givers of knowledge and the friends and helpers of sorcerers.”
The association of the moth with knowledge coincides with the Blackfoot Indian belief that the butterfly
“is a little fellow flying about that is going to bring news to someone tonight.” In addition, the Yaqui associates
some danger with the moth and its knowledge. The Navaho Indian also feels that “moths and butterflies,
especially moths, are very dangerous.” The Yaqui feels the powder on a moth’s wings is knowledge. The
Navaho associates the powder on lepidopteron wings with insanity, the drive to commit incest and the
power of an aphrodisiac and the power to run fast. The old adage “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
is quite applicable here.
Lepidopteral Symbolism
139
Native American mythology
Because of the beauty, power of flight, and complete metamorphosis found in butterflies and moths,
these insects frequently are found in Native American myths. In an early article, Grinnell (5) called attention
to the belief held by the Blackfeet that dreams are brought to us in sleep by a butterfly. Their sign for a
butterfly was a design roughly in the shape of a maltese cross with one arm horizontal and the other
verticle. This sign was painted on a lodge to indicate that the style and method of painting the lodge were
taught to the lodge owner in a dream. It was also the custom for a Blackfoot woman to embroider the sign
of a butterfly on a small piece of buckskin and tie this in her baby’s hair when she wishes it to go to sleep.
At the same time, she sings to the child a lulaby in which the butterfly is asked to come flying about and put
the child to sleep. Grinnell did not learn why or how the butterfly bring sleep and dreams. However, he did
note that the Blackfeet stated that the butterfly is soft and pretty and moves gently and that if you look at it
for a long time you will go to sleep.
The butterfly was also a prominent figure in the myth and ritual of the Hopi. This insect occurs
frequently on prehistoric pottery, in a ritual “Butterfly Dance”, and a clan in one of the Hopi pueblos was
even called the butterfly Clan (4). The spirit of the butterfly is also personified in Hopi kachina figures.
Kachinas are the spirit essence of everything in the real world. They represent game, plants, food, birds,
insects, and even death itself is given a kachina form. During sacred dances, men who impersonate kachinas
present carved replicas of their kachina appearence to women and children. These figures are commonly
called “kachina dolls”. Among the various insect kachinas are three of butterfly origin (8). These are Poli
Sio Hemis Kachina (Zuni Hemis Butterfly Kachina), Poli Taka (Butterly Man), and Poli Mana (Butterfly
Girl). Poli Taka is shown in figure 1.
Butterfly Kachina Blackfoot Symbol
Awatobi Symbol
Hopi Buterfly Dance
The sheer beauty of many butterflies is explained in a legend of the Papago. According to this myth,
the creator felt sorry for the children when he realized that their destiny was to grow old and become
wrinkled, fat, blind, weak etc. Hence, he gathered beautiful colors from various sources such as the
sunlight, leaves, flowers, and the sky. These colors were put into a magical bag and presented to the
children. When the bag was opened by the children, colored butterflies flew out, enchanting the children
who had never seen anything so beautiful. Interestingly, the butterflies also sang which further delighted the
children. However, songbirds complained to the Creator because they were jealous that butterflies were
both so beautiful and could sing like birds. Hence, the Creator withdrew the ability to sing from butterflies.
And, hence butterflies are so beautifully colored, but are now silent (3).
140
Born out of the caterpillar in the chrysalis, butterflies were a symbol of rebirth, regeneration, happiness,
and joy to Native Americans in Mexico. In one legend, the powerful plumed serpent god, Quetzalcoatl
first enters the world in the shape of a chrysalis, out of which the god painfully emerges into the full light of
perfection symbolized by the butterfly. The Obsidian butterfly, Itzpapalotl, is a patron deity in the Aztec
calendar (7). The Aztecs also believed that the happy dead in the form of beautiful butterflies would visit
their relatives to assure them that all was well. These butterflies flew around the house and around bouquets
of flowers which were carried by Aztec men of social rank. It was considered ill-mannered to smell a
bouquet of flowers from the top. It should always be sniffed from the side, for the top was left for the souls
to visit, where they could enjoy the fragrance thus reserved especially for them (1).
Native South Americans also integrated various Lepidoptera into their mythologies (6). To the Goajiro
of Columbia, if a particular large, white moth is found in a bedroom it must not be mistreated for it is the
spirit of an ancestor come to visit. If the moth becomes troublesome, it can be removed only with the
greatest care or the spirit may take vengeance. Among the Aymara of Bolivia, a certain rare nocturnal moth
was thought to be an omen of death.
Numerous other examples of Lepidoptera in the mythology of Native Americans exist beyond those
documented in this article. Lepidoptera have also been popular in myths among other aboriginal people
around the world. Many of these myths are found in anthropological sources and have yet to be fully
brought to the attention of entomologists
141
Japanese crests
1 Japanese family crests contain numerous
designs based on butterflies. With the kind
permission of Dover Publications, the links to the
left, as produced on the inside front and back
covers of the printed version, display 36 recreated
examples of highly stylized, symmetrical crests.
A complete collection can be found in Japanese
Design Motifs. ISBN 0-486-22874-6
2 Since their introduction during the eleventh
century, Japanese crests have become
increasingly prevalent and diverse. Initially, they
were stylized and elegant motifs used by highranking courtier families to formally adorn their
Imperial court dress. Throughout history, they
have undergone stylistic and symbolic changes.
After their initial usage within the court
aristocracy, they became popular with the
warrior class,
3 Who introduced new designs that
emphasized simplicity and ease of recognition.
After waring stopped, Japanese crests were
used in formal wear and became more
symmetrical in design. The nineteenth century
saw a huge proliferation of motifs. Crests were
no longer limited to symbolic representation of
families and became identifying marks for cities,
corporations, trademarks and badges.
142
Textile Sculptures
Speaking about wildlife art, naturalist Charles McCubbin points out, “the world
of invertebrates is largely ignored... many people regard anything with more than
four legs as something to be feared or killed on sight.” Now, thanks to twenty years
of painstaking dedication to her art and craft, Annemieke Mein has produced an
impressive body of invertebrate textile sculptures that swing the typically mammalbiased scales back into balance.
Annemieke Mein
Dragonfly Cape
Lacewing Vest
Butterfly Ties
Grasshopper
Born in Haarlem, Holland, Annemieke moved to Australia in 1951 and spent
much of her childhood becoming enchanted by the diversity of Australian insects.
She studied, sketched and collected butterflies and other insects. Encouraged at
school, she explored numerous mediums for her creative expression. When she
moved to Sale in Gippsland, Victoria in 1971, her popularity grew and she became
recognized as one of the world’s foremost textile artists.
Annemieke clearly states her motivation, “The encouragement of an awareness
of our environment and an understanding of the importance of the preservation of
our natural heritage are among the most important needs of our time.” Speaking of
her beloved Gippsland’s flora and fauna, she illustrates the timeliness of her art when
she says, “I have already seen disturbing changes in the environment and witnessed
the effects of apathy, ignorance, financial greed and premeditated vandalism.” “Through
my textiles, whether sculptures, wall works, or ‘wearables,’ I hope to make people
more aware of our native species while expressing my love and concern for our
native environment.”
Annemieke’s thoughtfulness toward her insect sculptures is illustrated by her
use of a detail-oriented, larger-than-life style. After many hours of detailed,
microscopic study and patient behavioral observations, she employs dramatic
magnification in her work to “enhance the visual impact, deliberately accentuating
the minute” which, in essence, forces people to really see something that they would
typically ignore. I am particularly impressed by Annemieke’s determination to expose
people to “the hidden” side of nature. She states, “I especially enjoy depicting species
that are not normally considered interesting, let alone beautiful, and visually enhancing
their individual charms and attributes by giving a great deal of attention to their fine
details.”
Many of Annemieke’s creations are attributed to a memorable field experience
that initially inspired the piece. “Grasshoppers” was inspired when she witnessed
her first locust plague. “Dragonflies” was inspired after she witnessed the miraculous
eclosion stage when the adult dragonfly emerges from its aquatic larval domain. Her
“Mythical Moth” series, characterized by a more fanciful interpretation of coloration,
was inspired by her close observation of Emperor Moths emerging from their cocoons.
Her fantasy motif is continued when she incorporates “butterfly dust” into a couple
of her creations.
Annemieke Mein’s rise in popularity is a fair tribute to the phenomenal power
of her creations. Her work adorns the walls of many public and private collections
around the world and her exhibits draw impressive crowds. People are moved to
tears when observing her exhibits, perhaps reminded of their childhood days when
they had the time and freedom to “butterfly dawdle.”
143
“The Old Lady Moth,” unlike most other pieces, has an invitation to touch. The tension between the
desire to touch and people’s fear of insects is quickly dissolved into rewarding tactile exploration that
makes this creation a center of attraction, especially for children.
Annemieke has more than accomplished her goals of promoting environmental awareness. Viewers
of her work are emotionally moved and the messages of respect and admiration for the “unseen” world
remains with them.
Cocoon Artifacts
Historically and prehistorically, humans have processed and refashioned many natural materials or
objects to make containers, the most familiar examples being baskets and pottery. Rattles have been made
from gourds (Lagenaria, Cucurbitaceae), turtle shells, animal hides, and several other natural objects filled
with stones or seeds. Although moth cocoons have been mainly exploited for their silk to produce fabrics,
they also have been used whole in the construction of a variety of artifacts. Some moth cocoons are very
tough and, if kept dry, are preserved for long periods of time. To people without access to synthetic
manufactured products, some kinds of cocoons make compact and strong containers, ready to be used in
a variety of ways.
Cocoons of several species of saturniid moths and other families have been used to make hand
rattles, ankle rattles, necklaces, purses or other artifacts in cultures around the world. Although Native
American usage from the western United States is now historic, indigenous peoples in Africa and Mexico
continue to use moth cocoons. Some Mexican and African ankle rattles are possibly being produced for
sale to musical instrument and ethnic art collectors, as well as for the original intended use in ceremonial
dances.
Ankle Rattles
Strings of dry cocoons containing gravel are worn as ankle rattles (anklets) by dancers of some tribes
of Native Americans in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Cocoons of Rothschildia cincta are part of inter-regional commerce among the Tarahumara Tribe.
The strings of rattles may be worn around the wrist as well as the ankle. Nowíki is the Tarahumara name
for the cocoons, as well as what they call the larvae of the butterfly, Eucheira socialis (Pieridae), which
they eat. Cocoon rattles have special significance among the Tarahumara Tribe because the “butterflies”
symbolize birth, death and souls.
The Yaqui Tribe of Sonora and Arizona make paired anklets from cocoons of R. cincta called
teneboim that are used by pascola dancers (including the deer dancers which have become the symbol of
the Yaqui) and the chapayeka dancers. Each anklet consists of a single strand wound around the lower leg
to sometimes cover a broad area between the knee and the foot. The cocoons are sewn on red yarn; the
red tassels on the end are called “flowers” and symbolize divine grace. The cocoons are brushed with
white paint to keep anklets looking new.
The Mayo Tribe of Sonora and Sinaloa make ankle rattles called tenovares that are used in the
pascola dance ceremony. Cocoons are also worn by chapakobam (the Mayo name for chapayeka) dancers.
They extend from the knees to the ankles of the dancers and contain cocoons of R.cincta.
The Seri Tribe of Sonora used cocoon rattles in their venado dance. The Seri term for a single
cocoon or string of cocoon rattles is xica quiinla meaning “things that rattle.” They put broken pieces of sea
shell into the cocoons to produce the rattling sound.
The Tóhono O’dham Tribe of Arizona and Sonora make anklets from white painted R. cincta cocoons.
Some variations are exceptionally long four meter strings with 110 pairs of cut cocoons of R. cincta which
are worn around the chest and over the shoulders.
144
Africa
Diffusion of culture is evident among the Bantu-speaking tribes (Sotho, Swazi, Venda, Zulu) and San
bands of southern Africa that construct similar cocoon rattles within their region. African examples with cut
cocoons are strikingly parallel to those from Mexico. Those with whole cocoons bear superficial resemblance
to cartridge belts. The types with clusters of cocoons made by the Swazi and some Zulu are worn at the
ankles, whereas those sewn on long strings made by the San are wound around the lower leg as in the
Mexican examples.
The Zulu Tribe from Natal, South Africa, make extensive use of Argema mimosae cocoons to make
anklets. The use of these rattles became common in Natal as a result of the introduction of the rickshaw
from China and India. The cocoons are collected after the moths have emerged and one or more small
stones are placed inside before they are sewn onto a broad strip of goat skin (with the fur on the inside for
the greater comfort of the person wearing the anklet). The cocoons are much favored by the Zulu as these
anklets produce a satisfying rattle.
The Swazi Tribe from Swaziland, South Africa, use anklets made from cocoons of Argema mimosae.
Within the Venda Tribe from Venda, South Africa, elderly women from the drier northern parts of
Venda use anklets containing cocoons of Argema mimosae, in tribal dances.
The San (Bushman) Cultures from the Kalahari Desert regions of Botswana utilize cocoons. The G/
wikhwena San make dance rattles from Gonometa cocoons called /xododzi. Anklets are used by male
dancers on an average of three nights a week; the stomping wears out the thongs after about ten weeks
and the cocoons last about a year or two. The Kung San use cocoon anklets for healing in their important
trance rituals.
Necklaces
The Coahuiltec Tribe from Monterrey, Mexico, wore necklaces made from cocoons of Rothschildia
orizaba, believing that they would prevent the growth of a beard. Southwestern cultures are believed to
use cocoon necklaces as does the Tarahumara Tribe of Chihuahua who probably believe the cocoons to
have medicinal value. Natives in New Guinea have been seen wearing necklaces made from the cocoons
of a large saturniid (probably Coscinocera).
California Hand Rattles
Ankle Rattles
Tarahunara Ankle Rattle
Swazi Ankle Rattles
San Ankle Rattles
Tarahumara Necklace Zulu Ankle Rattles
145

English Reader for Designers

Transcription

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