Class 2.10

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Cubism replaced a rendering of natural appearances with purely invented form.
• Bernhard’s work considered the logical conclusion of the turn of the century poster movement where minimalism becomes the norm.
• Lucian Bernhard, like Berhens set the ground work for distinct professional idenity for graphic design.
• European poster design reached a zenith of importance as a mass communication propaganda medium during the World Wars
• Familiar realist poster styles softened the harsh realities of a world war
• German Art absorbes Cubism, French advertising art, the lettering, typography and spatial origination from the Russian Constructivism and Dutch de Stijl movements
• Synthetic Cubism: constructs “signs”- the graphic essence of an object rather than outward appearances of the object
• DADA “pointless mechanisms” subverts the idea of illustrated messages from the 19th Century.
• The DADA movement split into factions and In 1924 Breton launches Surrealism in Paris

Tonight's lecture focused a lot on Modern art and the introduction of DADA. I find the whole movement of DADA to be very interesting. We touched upon Duchamp and his ready-mades and also discussed other artists of the time. We also discussed Realism vs. Abstraction and learned about the first "Uncle Sam" posters with men pointing outward to the poster's viewer.

Along with DADA, we also touched upon Surrealism and Automatism which really was just more of a way of thinking than a particular style.