Art Deco - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Art Movement is sometimes known as Deco. It is the style of design, visual arts, and architecture that first appeared before World War I in France. At Deco influenced the design of furniture, jewelry, fashion, theatres, cars, buildings, movies as well as vacuum among others. However, the emergence of the movement was closely linked with the rise of the decorative artist in status from the mere perception which they were being given before the 19th century (Nutting et al., 2017, 745). Notably, Art Deco took its name from the international exhibition of Industrial Arts and Modern Decorative which was held in 1925 in Paris. It combined fined craftsmanship which includes rich materials with modern styles. It generally represented exuberance, glamour, luxury as well as faith in technological and social progress. This paper focuses on discussing the four different types of Art Movements; Art Deco, Pop Art, Minimalism and Deconstruction as well as their characteristics.

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Key Designers of Art Deco

Most of the Art Deco creators designed limited-edition or individually crafted or items. They included the fashion designer Erte; H.G. Murphy, artist-jewelers Raymond Templier, and Wiwen Nilsson; the architect Eliel Saarinen; glass and jewelry designer Rene Lalique; furniture designers Maurice Dufrene and Jacques Ruhlmann; metalsmith Jean Puiforcat and the figural sculptor Chiparus (Nutting et al., 2017, 247). However, the graphic artist Edward McKnight Kauffer and the fashion designer Paul Poiret represent others whose work reached a broader audience directly.

Characteristics of Art Deco

The distinguishing features of the Art Deco are simple and clean shapes with a "streamlined" ornamental look; that is stylized or geometric representational forms. These forms are unusually varied, though often have expensive materials which include human-made substances such as plastics, especially ferroconcrete, Bakelite, and vita-glass as well as natural ones like obsidian, chrome, Jade, rock crystal, silver, and ivory. Similarly, the characteristic features of the Art Deco movement reflected admiration for machine-made for all the inherent design qualities objects and machine modernity in reshaping the quality of production (Nutting et al., 2017, 245). The objects and elements in Art Deco were symmetrical, relatively simple, and planar as well as repetitively unvaried.

Moreover, Art Deco was an imitation of several different styles which are sometimes contradictory but are massively united by a desire of modernity. Bold geometric forms such as Cubism and bright colors of the Ballets Russes and Fauvism influenced Art Deco. However, the updated furniture craftsmanship and the exotic styles of Japan, China, Ancient Egypt, Persia, and Maya Art gave the movement its distinctive feature.

Contextual Factors and Influences

The formative influences on Art Deco include Cubism, Art Nouveau, Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and Bauhaus. Contextually, the ideas of decoration came from early classical sources, American Indian, Egyptian as well as from nature (Florea et al., 2016,134). However, characteristic motifs of the Art Movement included animals, nude female figures, sun rays, and foliage, all under conventionalized forms. Interesting, these social factors gave Art Deco its meaningful exoneration.

Example Art Deco

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement which emerged in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1950. The Pop Art movement presented a significant challenge to fine art traditions which includes imagery from mass and popular cultures such as mundane cultural objects, comic books, and advertising. The main aim of using these images of popular culture was to emphasize kitschy or banal elements from any distinct culture usually through the application of irony.

Notably, Pop Art is also associated with the use of mechanical means by the artist in reproduction or rendering techniques. Similarly, the materials in this movement are sometimes visually removed from their known context or combined with other unrelated material.

Key Designers of Pop Art

Leading Pop Artist and exponents included Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. The artists gave Pop Art its distinctive features which made in lovable across the United States and the world. Other proponents included Robert Indiana, Jim Dine, Ray Johnson, Alex Katz among others who contributed to the art movement left it being celebrated among the modern artist. The contribution of these designers gave Pop Art its modern features and forms.

Characteristics of Pop Art

Pop art is easily recognizable because of its unique and vibrancy attributes which are present in many of the movement's most iconic works. Most distinctive characteristics include;

Recognizable imagery: The movement utilized icons and images from popular products and media. They included commercial items such as road signs, newspapers, soup cans, and photos of celebrities among others. Interesting Pop Art incorporated both names and logos in giving value to the products and other items (Whiting, 2017, 77). Similarly, Pop Art was characterized by bright colors. The primary colors of the movement include blue, red and yellow which were regarded as the prominent pigment which was common in Roy Lichtenstein's body of work.

Moreover, Pop Art is characterized by innovative techniques. Many artists in Pop were engaged in printmaking processes which allows them to be quick in reproducing images of large quantities. Notably, Andy Warhol used different silkscreen printing whereas Roy Lichtenstein used lithography to achieve their signature visual art. Similarly, the pop artist usually took imagery from mainstream cultures and incorporated them into their artworks, either in its original or altered form.

Contextual Factors and Influence

The emerge of Pop Art was similar to the rise of another art form known us Dada as well as its broader-based successor known as Surrealism. The two art forms superseded Abstract Cubism and Expressionism which was associated with highly intellectual styles which have limited appeal to the mainstream of art lovers (Salazar et al., 2016, 124). However, to its characteristic bright colors, Pop Art gave the environment a beautiful outlook which was loved by all especially the upcoming artist who wanted their forms to be likable by many. The bright coloration which was chosen for the art form improves social interaction among American.

Example of Pop Art

Minimalism

Minimal Art emerged in the 1950s as a movement and continued to spread through the Sixties and Seventies. Minimal art was a term used in describing sculptures and paintings which thrive on simplicity in both form and content and aim at removing any sign of personal expressivity that any be existing in the new outlook (Smith, 2016, 56). Similarly, Minimalism aimed at allowing the viewer to experience their work more intensely without any forms of theme and composition distractions. When Geothe constructed Good Fortune Altar in the early 18th century, several minimalist theorists were exercised to give the movement a meaningful outlook. However, in the 20th century, the Minimalism movement chose its feature which was unfamiliar to most artists but was purposed to create more interesting outlooks for the best part of the art form.

Key Proponents and Designers

Minimalism was associated with artist like Malevich and Duchamp who produced works in the Minimalist in vain. However, other American such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Ellsworth Kelly reacted against Abstract Expressionism which was becoming the more unusual form in their stark canvases, installations, and sculptures.

Characteristic of Minimalism

The most common characteristic of Minimalist Art is repetition. It is associated with the creation of multiple images with the same shape and geometric forms like square and lines. Artists in this movement repeat different shapes and produce paintings which are composed of several vertical color blocks.

Similarly, many works in Minimalist Art are extremely simple and pared down with the least forms and line needed for painting the image (Nutting et al., 2017, 245). The paintings have smooth, finished and devoid areas of obvious brushstrokes. Notably, Minimalist art focuses on line, color, and geometry in giving precision to the art forms which are being produced.

Influence and Contextual Factor

The idea of simplicity in Minimalist art appeared in many cultures like the Zen Philosophy of the Japanese traditional culture. Japanese manipulated the Zen culture into the design and aesthetic elements for their buildings (Harris, 2016, 21). Similarly, this architectural idea influenced Western Society since the mid-18th century but inspired the minimalist architecture in the subsequent years.

Example of Minimalism Art

Deconstruction

Overview and Characteristics

Deconstructivism is an art movement of the postmodern architecture of the 1980s. It was originated by the philosopher Jacques Derrida as an approach of understanding the relationship between different texts and their meaning. The approach by Jacques Derrida consisted of conducting text readings with an ear to the intended meaning or the structural unity of a specific text. The movement gave the impression of the fragmentation in the different constructed building. Similarly, deconstruction is characterized by an absence of symmetry, harmony or continuity. The name was coined from a form of semiotic analysis which was developed by Jacques Derrinba, "Deconstruction. Deconstruction art period is posited to have drastically changed leading to the formation of contemporary art. However, postmodernism in the visual art started after that and functions parallel to the late modernism. The movement which is a contemporary modernism continuation began during in the late modernism and ended in the 21st century.

Deconstruction Designers

Architects whose work were described as deconstructionism include Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eiseman, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and coop Himmelb.

Influence and Contextual Factors

Deconstruction movement is complicated to identify in the contextual setting. It is very rebellious against all traditional philosophical thinking such as mimesis which leaves many artists to have a bad attitude towards contemporary society. During this period which was corresponding to "modern art" significant fragmentations were developed to strengthen the coherence and stability of art forms. The art movement enables us to slice through the art history and lay bare the entire preconceived notion, thereby forcing us to keenly examine every aspect of our relationship with the world especially to the notion of culture. Deconstruction's use of Semiotics aims at deepening our self-awareness to keep us more conscious of our use of different signs as well as their power of manipulation.

Conclusion

Art movements define the styles and tendency that is followed by specific groups of an artist with specific goals during restricted goals or philosophy which is followed by a group of artists during the period which is a limited period within some years. Notably, Art movements were essential in modern art especially when each progressive movement is considered a new avant-garde. According to theories related to the postmodernism and the modernism, art movements are essential modern art periods. Different art movements have distinct characteristics which distinguish them from others. Different designers have chosen different approaches to in giving exuberation to their art forms. For instance, Art Deco is characterized...