Final Visual Concept

Finally, I have managed to create what was on my mind for the last couple of months. My research presented in my blog posts over these past weeks represented Transformation. I conducted my research on the 3 areas: Art, Design and Film which eventually helped me in the process of generating ideas and designing a concept which works for the same 3 areas.

My last four blog posts show a constant development of the concept. Three of which refer to the three areas and the concept. Fundamentally, the idea was to transform the painting ‘The Girl before a mirror’, but transformation can also be seen through the painting considering the aim behind the concept.

Final Concept

I used number of the sketches which I uploaded earlier to help me formulate the concept. As an inspiration, I used various paintings by Picasso and Cezanne` to portray the same technique used in their paintings. Considering that these artists used to work with oils, as an alternative I have decided to cooperate with acrylics.

The figure on the left represents Post-Impressionism; I applied the same technique Cezanne` used in most of his figurative work.  He is wearing the British Military Jacket which was worn by the soldiers during the film ‘The Four Feathers’ complimented with a light coloured trousers.

The mirror, in itself presents the image of transformation of the figure on the left. For the reflected figure I used Cubism as an inspiration. His face was surely influenced from the face used in Picasso’s painting, ‘The girl before a mirror’.  As for the rest of his body, I combined some of the sketches presented.

I filled the background with newspaper cuttings to create a collage; afterwards I spilled some coffee to give it a classic look. As text, I applied the different typographies which I mentioned before to the words related to the theme.

Concept [Design] Development

As I have mentioned before, I've decided to create a collage for the background. This idea was inspired from the Synthetic part of Cubism, when collages were founded. Therefore the background will represent the design category. The words placed in the background in a random manner should be related to the concept such as; Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne`, Cubism and so on. As for typography I’m aiming to use different typefaces used in art posters over the years.

Behrens, International Exposition St. Louis,
1904

The German architect, graphic designer and typographer, Peter Behrens (1868-1940) was certainly one of the greatest designers and left a great influence on such fields. He contributed to the transition from Art Nouveau to the Bauhaus. I will use his roman typeface Behrens Antiqua (1907-1909) and also Behrens Schrift which is a simplified black lettering typeface with a geometric impression. The typography applied to the ‘International Exposition St.Louis 1904’ is another typeface which I will put to use.

Beggarstaff Brothers, Rowntree's Elect Cocoa,
1896

The Beggarstaff Brothers (1894-99) produced a variety of simple posters which reformed Europe, having a bare background along with bold colours and a silhouette figure. I will use one of their hand-cut san-serif typefaces which ignored the style of the time being (Art Nouveau).

Marinetti, the founder of the Italian Futurist group, gave a concept to the new typography in the book ‘Les Mots en Liberte` Futurists’. It features numerous compositions using different typefaces with various sizes and styles. I intend to use these hand-drawn designs and hand-writings in my final concept.   

Marinetti, Les Mots en Liberte` Futuristes, 1919 

Down here, I've uploaded a sketch(Image 1) of the background made out of newspaper cuttings and the other one(Image 2) includes three different fonts taken from the posters I've brought up in this post.

Image 1

Image 2

References :-

MyFonts Inc, 1999. Behrens Schrift .[online] 

Available at: <http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/solotype/behrens-schrift/> [Accessed on 9 January 2013].

Beggarstaffs, 2008. Biography. [online]

Available at: <http://beggarstaffs.com/biography/> [Accessed on 9 January 2013].

The Trustees of Princeton University, 2011. Peter Behrens' book design. [online]

 Available at: <http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2010/09/peter_behrens_book_design.html> [Accessed on 9 January 2013].

Concept [Transforming 'Girl before a mirror' ]

I've already mentioned 2 different ideas for my final concept in the previous blogs, which both refer to all three categories; art, design and film. I combined my initial ideas and managed to interpret most of them through one concept.  Since the subject matter is Transformation, through the form of a painting I will represent the transformation from the Post-Impressionist era to the Cubist period.

 Picasso, Girl before a mirror, 1932

I will create a different interpretation of Picasso’s painting ‘Girl before a mirror’ (1932). The two figures shown will represent Post-Impressionism and Cubism. Since Picasso was inspired from Cezanne, the figure on the left should be in a Post-Impressionist style, while the other figure reflected in the mirror should be in the Cubist style, therefore the same figure is represented in two different styles.

The film ‘The Four Feathers’ took the colour red to symbolize various actions and occurrences through the film. All of the British Army was dressed in red. I will definitely give a great dominance to this colour in my painting.

As a background, I have decided to use Picasso’s motif in the Synthetic part of Cubism, where he places actual images related to the theme on the painting. I've decided to have the background full of newspaper cuttings placed in a random manner with words related to this concept such as; Paul Cezanne, Cubism, Pablo Picasso and The Four Feathers.

A sketch of my final concept 

References:-

Picasso, 1932. Girl before a mirror. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78311>  [accessed on  12 December 2012].

Developing Ideas

Cubism, Picasso and other designs inspired from Cubism stimulated me to start developing my thoughts and ideas for the final concept. One can look at the Cubist period from various angles, since it challenged and improved a lot of visions in the 20^th century. 

“Artists are in some sense neurologists, studying the brain with techniques that are unique to them”

                                           Semir Zeki

Original Photo

David Hockney inspired me to create an image holding various Cubist techniques in it. I took an image from a scene in the film ‘The Four Feather’, in which Heath Ledger appears. Using the formal techniques in Cubism I created an abstract structure of this photograph. I simply distorted the photo by cutting down the image to simple squares. When I was arranging these cuttings, I also duplicated a few parts to place different views in the photo, as Hockney did in the work portraying his mother. One could instantly notice this from the face.  The geometric shapes such as cubes and angles are very visible, although I didn't use any bold lines. I wanted the weapon to be more exposed in the photograph therefore I made it pointing to the center of the photo and it looks as if the image has been distorted due to this weapon. Most of the paintings during the Analytical part of Cubism had a limited colour palette, but different shades throughout. I did the same to my work by sorting the opacity of the squares.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience creating such work, which will help me develop my final concept which will be related to Cubism.

References:-

PhotoGavin, 2009. Mosaic, montage or joiner effect from one photo. [video online]

Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVxlFtrHPTM> [accessed on 11 December 2012].

Original Photo

Jaap Buitendijk, 2002. The Four Feathers. [photograph]

Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/media/rm60922112/tt0240510> [accessed on 11 December 2012].

Picasso's Portraiture; Transformation

Pablo Picasso, who is celebrated as perhaps to be the greatest artist of the 20^th century, sought to find various ways how to represent the human face. He created most of his portraiture by arranging shapes and colours. The transformation found in his portraits through the latest half of the 20^th century is impeccable. Most of them are intimate posters representing relatives, friends, fellow workers and his passion to the women he loved.

Image 1

He represented the same sitter in various styles ranging from African art to Cubism to Surrealism. Starting from his earliest works in 1905, when he painted ‘The portrait of Gertrude Stein’ ( Image 1) . Their friendship was of a great importance to him. This classical portrait shows Gertrude sitting in a brown velvet blouse in a dark, strange setting. She posed for this portrait for about 90 times in the same position and it is also known that he had her head repainted for 3 times. Looking at the head and the rest of the body separately, one can see that the head is very contrasting, using masses of colour where the facial features are very expressive (jaw lines). Her face looks like a mask; this work can be seen as an inspiration to his later works in the Cubist style.

Image 2

Moving on to Picasso’s love life, the Russian ballerina Olga was his first wife and she full filled his works from 1917 to 1920. The painting ‘Woman in an Armchair’ (1920; Image 2), shows the connection between the Cubist style & Neo-Classical These Neo-Classical paintings were then used for his finished Cubist works. I mostly like the line found in his painting which guides us and also the use of colour palette.

Image 3

When their marriage started deteriorating, her portraits where then more harsh, he even transformed Olga’s head into a skull in the ‘Seated Bather’ (1930; Image 3). Olga represented as an insect with different human and animal forms. In his new relationship with Marie-Therese Walter, he created a twin painting named ‘Bather with beach ball’ (1932; Image 4). The use of colour is less harsh, with a rounder and softer figure, which seems weightless. Although they have the same background, the transformation in the presentation of the figure between one other is huge.

Image 4

In the 1930’s, Picasso exploited sexuality. Most of his erotic paintings include Marie Theresa in them, done in the 1930’s. ‘Girl before a Mirror’ ( Image 5), has to be one of my favourite art pieces by Picasso. It shows a woman holding a mirror within which she is reflected in her dead body. It represents the concerns of the woman depicted with her own inner self. Her body is not portraying beauty, since Picasso wants to show that perception changes everything.

Image 5

When Dora Maar took place in Picasso’s life, he started involving her in his passion to portraiture. He depicted Marie-Therese with a sentimental expression, with her blue eyes dominating her curvy face. Dora’s portraits show a lot of energy and passion, with the use of bold colours and exaggerated face make-up.  Most of Dora’s portraits display a lot of emotion due to the war. He also referred to her as the ‘weeping woman’. The painting ‘Weeping Woman’ (1937; Image 6) shows a lot of pain. Half of her face is in white bones, which the corrosive tears made it reveal.

Personal Comments

Image 6

The transformation found in these 40 years of Picasso’s Portraiture is huge.  Through these portraits, one can read Picasso’s life, his troubles and pleasures expressed in colour on a canvas. In his earliest works he used dark colours, but later paintings became more vivid and bold. The Figures became more abstracted, using simplified forms; geometric and curvy ones. In the 20’s he veiled all of his paintings, but Marie- Therese seemed to be an inspiration to be more sexual and start painting the nudes (1930’s).  Although the Bather’s paintings are said to be twins, in the ‘Seated Bather’ he represented the body with bones, while the other one with balloons. In the ‘Girl before a mirror’, I think that he is trying to show 2 different parts of her, both day-self and night-self, her tranquility and her vitality, showing also the change from an innocent girl to a woman aware of her sexuality. The hand is representing unity, trying to unite the different selves. Moving on to Dora Maar’s portraits which are more conflicting then the others, showing a lot of emotion but he using bold colours.

References

MOMA, 1996. Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation. [online]

Available at: <http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/7424/releases/MOMA_1996_0019_19.pdf?2010> [accessed on 11 December 2012].

Art Net, 2012. The Muses are Women: Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art by Berta Sichel. [online]

Available at: <http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/sichel/sichel5-31-96.asp> [accessed on 11 December 2012].

JSTOR, 2002. In the name of Picasso. [online]

Available at: <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/778371uid=3738632&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101553596817> [accessed on 12 December 2012].

Timothy Hilton, 1976. Picasso. Thames and Hudson, Pgs 220-225.

Images

Image 1:- Picasso, 1905. Portrait of Gertrude Stein. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210008443> [accessed on 11 December 2012].

Image 2:- Picasso, 1920. Woman in an armchair. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pablo-picasso/woman-sitting-in-an-armchair-1920> 
[accessed on 11 December 2012].

Image 3:- Picasso, 1930. Seated Bather. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78721> [accessed on  11 December 2012].

Image 4:- Picasso, 1932. Bather with Beach Ball. [image online]
Available at: <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80262> [accessed on 11 December 2012]

Image 5:- Picasso, 1932. Girl before a mirror. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78311>  [accessed on  12 December 2012].

Image 6:-  Picasso, 1937. Weeping Woman. [image online]

Available at: <http://www.inminds.com/weeping-woman-picasso-1937.html> [accessed on 12 December 2012].

Cubism; a source of inspiration

Cubism paved the way to modern art. They were the group of artists that rejected the traditional techniques and created illusions. I've come across some artists work inspired from Cubism; from collages to fine art inspired adverts.

                                                                                                   

Mazda,
Mazda Sposorship of Picasso Exhibition,
2006

Lipton, Lipton Yellow Label Tea, 1998

A few years ago, the automobile company Mazda connected its product with the artworks of Pablo Picasso. The line at the bottom of the advert says “Be prepared to see everything differently after visiting the Picasso exhibition”. There is no reference to text, the imagination through these messages make it clear enough for one to understand. As the cubists did; placing different viewpoints in one composition, this advert seems to represent the same idea. In my opinion, it is a great ad, but it looks very simple, yet more viewpoints should have been added to this advert. An interesting print advert fro Lipton Yellow Label Tea was also inspired from Picasso. It is in a form of a painting with the brands logo distorted using a limited colour palette. Honestly, I think that Cubism art and the way the advert was presented worked out great together.

David Murray, an illustrator and designer uses the cubist style to create a versatile range of prints of different brews. In this image, we can see the beer can of Lowenbrau. The logo isn't distorted very much and unlike the cubists, there is a lot of white in the composition. The simplification of the can is like someone encroached it.

David Hockney 'Mother I, Yorkshire Moors, August 1985 No.1' 1985

 Picasso’s portrait ‘Portrait of Ambroise Vollard’, motivated Hockney when creating ‘Mother I, Yorkshire Moors, August 1985 No.1’. Both portraits are fractured into different viewpoints. Picasso uses a lot of geometric planes while Hockney places different views in a way that makes her face look as if she was in front of us. The main difference between the two portraits must be the colour palette. Hockney’s composition is amusing; his work is very appealing to me. The different tones and forms cut to create this work make it unique. I mostly like his work because of the space found in his work. Space is guiding us through his work. 

                                                          

Another work which also struck me has to be the grid-like compositions were he’s joining Polaroid photos of different body gestures or parts in the same composition. His joiners are images made out of 1000s of different photographs, another influence from the Cubism.

   

David Hockney 'Pearblossom Highway, 11th to 18th April 1986 No.2'

Cubism may have left a great influence on such artists, which helped them create modern artworks which left a huge impact. I simply like these transformations because of their simplifications but also because of the imagination running through these works.

References:-

AdMe Group, 2004. "PICASSO" Print Ad for Lipton Yellow Label Tea by JWT Russia [online]

Available at:- http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/lipton-yellow-label-tea-picasso-808605/ [Accessed on 5th December 2012]

PSFK, CUBISM-INSPIRED BEER PRINTS [online]

Available at:- http://www.psfk.com/2011/08/cubism-inspired-beer-prints.html [Accessed on 5th December 2012]

Jfkturner, The Delight of Seeings; Cubism, Joiners and The Multiple Viewpoint [online]

Available at:- http://thedelightsofseeing.blogspot.com/2011/03/cubism-joiners-and-multiple-viewpoint.html [Accessed on 5th December 2012]

Web Media Brands, Mazda: Picasso Exhibition [online]

Available at:- http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/mazda_picasso_exhibition [Accessed on 5th December 2012]

Cubism

Cubism was one of the most influential styles of the first half of the twentieth century. Pablo Picasso was the founder of this style which paved the way to modern art. He took Cezanne’s ideas to another level. It was also influenced from African art, depicting real life moments. Picasso was obsessed with cinema, and many scholars think that Cubism was inspired from the moving picture. Their aim was to lose the traditional techniques and develop a new way of seeing the world. Taking an object and looking at it from various angles, placing all these different views in one composition.  Eventually they used to transform objects into geometric shapes. Braque & Picasso’s favourite motifs to paint were usually, forms that can be related to one another, such as the human figure, bottles, grapes and musical instruments. Since these motifs are similar, they help us to find our way through the paintings and make it easier to understand. This style was divided in two distinctive parts, the Analytical and Synthetic. The Analytical was when artists viewed the subject from different viewpoints and transform it into a composition. Having a limited palette of colours, to represent these fragmented images. From the 1912 onward  Braque and Picasso’s paintings became so similar, more abstract, where the subject matter is less recognizable. Then Picasso started placing actual images related to the theme on his still life. This was the origin of collage.

 Pablo Picasso. "Violin and Grapes." Spring-summer 1912

Head of a woman (1928) vs. Head of a woman (1946)

Head of a Woman
 Pablo Picasso, 1946, oil on canvas (Museo Picasso Malaga, Malaga)

Head of a Woman

Pablo Picasso  (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)

Picasso wanted to check out for himself how far the idea of constructing can go when using unusual forms and materials.  He composed 16 different paintings symbolizing his crumbled marriage to Olga Kokhlova. In one of his earliest composition, we can see that he uses one continuous line. He added an abstract shape suggesting the contour of the face. He placed the eyes as far as possible from each other, with different sizes. To picture this angry female, he placed only three hairs and also a small pair of nostrils. He created four pointed lines in the middle representing her teeth, which make the image look a bit terrifying.  In the other composition, her teeth give a harmonious feeling to the image, with one continuous line. He divided the image in two to create a contrast, one with a darker background leaving the facial features blank. He placed the same eyes found in the other painting on top of each other, unlike the other composition. He added an extra hair, using straight lines. Only one nostril is seen. The curve in the lower part of this arrangement indicates Olga’s body. The simple lines, both vertical and horizontal are connecting the two parts together. The vertical line found in the middle presents the image of a hand.

Sources

Contemporaneous Extension, Highest Lights

Available at:- http://contemporaneousextension.wordpress.com/ ( Accessed on 18.11.2012)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2012, Head of a Woman

Available at:- http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210010276 ( Accessed on 18.11.2012)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2012,Cubism

Available at:- http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm (Accessed in 17.11.2012)

Cubism-The first style of abstract art, 2012, Cubism

Available at:- http://artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm (Accessed on 17.11.2012)

E.H. Gombrich, Phaidon, 1995, The story of Art, Pgs 574-577

Art Poster

“Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated”

                                                                                                                                        — Paul Rand   

Graphic Design is a combination of Text and images. It has 3 different purposes:- persuasion (propaganda), information (signs) and instruction. Graphic Design became widely used after WWII.

                                                            

Jules Cheret, El Dorado, 1894

In this blog, I’m about to tackle the transformation of the Art Poster over the years. A poster includes an expression of economical, social & cultural life.  They started as a mass production and show famous artworks at a very low price, compared to the original artwork. Ability to combine text and illustrations which finally made lithographic posters reduced. Jules Cheret, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Jacques Villon were the exponents of the poster till the 1890’s. Jules Cheret, the father of the poster, was also a massive contributor to the world of advertising. He developed the famous process named “three stone process”, where the rainbow colours can be achieved through the primary colours, the main characteristics of his posters were a feminine figure, drawn lettering and very bold with a cartoonish touch. When the French Art Nouveau started, Alphonse Mucha, simplified Cheret’s style. His posters were more colorful  with a bold outline, animated with most of them including a female figure with a stained glass background. Art Nouveau, in Italy was known as the Liberty style. Cappieldo’s work, influenced from Cheret & Lautrec took over other artists work. He used a lot of dark backgrounds to create a strong contrast with the use of complimentary colours. Aubrey Beardsley composed black and white illustrations, conveying a great contrast. He also used flat perspective in his work. The figures were influenced from the Japanese graphic art. Will Bradley took over Beardsley, when he passed away. He combined Art Nouveau with Medieval and Renaissance art. His work in children’s illustrations and paintings was fascinating. The Wiener Workstation workshop, aimed for quality improvements. It brought various artists and designers together. The main characteristics are the breaking down of objects to simple shapes and the use of geometric patterns with minimum decorations. The Beggarstaff brothers formed an innovative style but wasn't popular. Simplified shapes, few strong colours, less lettering & hand drawn. Bernhard Lucian took their idea and managed to popularize it. He then became the master of Plakastil, which is the simplification and definition of objects with flat colours. Advertising posters include only images of the object being advertised.

                                                         Lucian Bernhard

                                                                 

Some of Peter Behrens's posters

From a floral, Japanese prints, Egyptian style to a more serious, refined version of Art Nouveau, Art Deco. The main characteristics of Art Deco are futurism, cubism, constructivism, neo-classicism, abstraction to modern artists such as Hoffman and Frank Lloyd Wright.  Peter Behrens is known as the founder of modern design which is linked with Jugendstil (a style similar to art Nouveau). In his posters he is not only taking care of the product, but viewing it as a whole entity, from introduction till the end. The beginning of constructivism started with a highly contrasted geometric composition. The Futuristic movement in Italy was rejecting harmony and order but expressing speed and movement. Their arrangements created a transformation from the traditional typography to new forms and design. Their font types weren't linear, and most of the forms didn't make any sense but created a sense of expression. DADA’s aim was to destroy the traditional art and create a new one, without following any known rules. Subverting images to collages, photo montages, extremes which made them use ready made objects. Hannah Hoch was one of the most aesthetically gifted collagists of the Dadaists. 

Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through
 the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultura
l Epoch in Germany, 1919

        

     

 Sources

Timetoast, 2012, History of Graphic Design

Available at:- http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/53704 (accessed on 13.11.2012)

Edward Booth-Clibborn & Daniele Baroni, Thames & Hudson, 1980, The language of Graphic Design

The Four Feathers

This film produced in 2002 is full of transformation and it tells the story of Harry, the son of a British Army Hero. Harry’s a British officer in love with Ethne. The movie takes off with a scene where the British officers are playing a rugby derby. They look very dirty, strong and angry while the spectators are lovely dressed and well mannered, which is very conflicting. If we compare this scene to the ending scene, we can see that the setting of Harry and Ethne walking hand in hand leaves a harmonious effect on the viewer. 

Just before the regiment was about to depart for the battle, Harry decides to resign his commission. His friends Ralph Richardson, Jack Allen, Donald Gray and wife-to-be Ethne, sent him four feathers symbolising his cowardice.  Eventually Harry transformed himself in one of their rebels in Sudan to rescue the British Army. In Sudan, Harry’s lifestyle had a drastic change, from a wealthy life to a needy one.  In one particular scene, Harry is seen sucking the camel’s flesh.  When he was trying to save his friends, he ended up in prison where he found his friend and with the help of Fatma, they escaped to get their lives back. I’ve also noticed the change in the relationship Harry had with his colleagues. Harry used to treat Jack as his brother, but Jack without any guilt feeling proposed to Ethne, the woman that Harry was in love with.  In the end, Harry and Ethne continued their relationship where they had left it in the beginning of the movie.  

Sources

IMDb, 1990-2012, The Four Feathers(2002)

Available at:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240510/ (Accessed on:- 6-11-2012)