Class 2.17

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Suprematism- creates a theoretical model for an abstract visual language where form is understood as a set of forces soon aligned with those of revolution
• The emergence of the Constructivist Movement
• The three principles of Constructivism
• Rodchenko and Soviet Propaganda and Commerce Establishes a Soviet visual language revolutionary in its tone
• El Lissitzky- An unchallenged visionary and innovator of 20th century graphic design
• Geometric abstraction was adopted as a sign of functionality
• Modern graphic language becomes characterized by geometric forms and high-contrast arrangements
• Late Constructivism was instrumental in placing the radical typographic forms of Futurism and Dada into the commercial realm in the late 1920’s
• The Steinberg Brothers
• Visual forms developed from Mondrian’s paintings
• Russian Suprematist and the Dutch de Stijl are also the most hated (by the public) of all art movements of this or any other Century

Tonight's lecture discussed a few different movements in graphic design. Suprematism and the Constructivist Movement were first discussed. There are three principles of Constructivism: tectonics, which is a unification of Communist ideology with a visual form, texture, which is the nature of materials and how they are used, and construction, which is the creative process and the search for laws of visual organization.

We also went over the Soviet's way of displaying visual language. We discussed geometric abstraction and how it was revolutionary to the world of graphic design. We then ended with discussing how Russian Suprematist and the Dutch de Stijl are the most hated of all art movements.

It was interesting learning about the different movements and I found geometric abstraction especially interesting due to its simplicity and use of mathematics, shapes, and forms as design elements.