Print Culture

Fine Art vs. Popular Art



Week 6 
7 November - 13 November

It is important to note that 18th Century Beaux Arts included the traditional forms of art: sculpture, architecture, music, poetry; only these were taught at art schools at the time. It was very elitist, and split between genders. Only men were the life drawing models, a sure way to glamorize men even further. And the very rich were very content with this set up.

Then between 1760 and 1840 everybody's lives were changed by the Industrial Revolution. This caused an avalanche of changes; life moved from the country to the city, everything sped up, so much became mechanised in order to meet higher demands,  meaning an increase in laborers also. Amazing change came from being able to create printed works like pamphlets. It became a way of the working people to take control of their lives, rejecting the societal elitism they had so long endured. A milestone came with John Martin (1820) when he made the unheard of decision to charge peoples to view his painting Belshazzar's Feast, gathering a crowd of 500 people. This is when people started to realise that they could make their own money.

Unsurprisingly this caused a backlash from pretentious writers and theorists (or higher class) who claimed the quality and meaning of art was being demeaned by copiers. They said that culture was to be a study of perfection and that it seeks to 'minister the deceased spirit of our time' ie. the working class. Leavisism also said that "culture has always been in minority keeping" so that only a minority of society had the intellectual capability, enforcing this elitism.

There would continue to be this political struggle between the 'art of the elite' and popular art (us- the animators, illustrators, graphic designers etc, of the world). Essentially, this is where the pretension of Fine Artist originated.

Eidophusikon

In 1781 Phillip de Loutherbourg charged viewings when he opened up the Eidophusikon in Leicester Square. It can be considered as one of the earliest forms of moving image.

More new technologies such as the Panorama and camera opened up new avenues for art, it began to unbalance what people had defined it as. It gave the working man a chance. Now it was not just the higher class who could have a portrait taken; moving on from the traditional elitist painted portraits.

So although much conflict came from the wonder that was the industrial revolution, it unhinged the rich, but gave ample opportunities for budding artists. It created new industries and professions, allowing the creative world to keep up with faster spinning cogs of the rest of the world. After all, our degree began because of it.

Type Production and Distribution

Weeks 4&5 
24 October - 6 November

Entering into early modernism we meet the Bauhaus movement which seeked to unify art, craft and technology. This was the first time that the industrial age had a visual language where typography was describing brands (what we now call graphic design) and commerce was driving the industry. In this modern world it was encouraged to move 'onwards and upwards'. And the world of typography was definitely propelled forward with the creation of the font Helvetica in 1957 by Max Miedinger
This was the ultimate expression of modernism; a dynamic font that could be interpreted and used wherever, in whichever scale with it's form then being followed by the desire function. It was thoroughly used in company logos. The wonder being that it created a competition of neutrality vs. Elegance.

A font so admired in the creative world, that Microsoft took it 25 years later for themselves (supposedly after this time there are no copyright infringements so long as you change the subject slightly). I think they really did the absolute bare minimum to make their new font: Arial.

They really didn't even try to pretend did they.

1994 showed a quick demise of well, the world, because all of our eyes have since been cursed by Comic Sans.

The introduction of Internet Explorer (thank you Bill Gates) in 1995 saw a kind of 360 as the use of images and pictures (emojis) as words returned. This is reminiscent of what we can see by the use of pictures in Egyptian hieroglyphics.