The Starving Art Student

The

STARVING

ART STUDENT

The Bauhaus

A condensed history of the legendary influence that started an art movement

pg 26

Spring Semester 2012

" The REAL ISSUE

is not TALENT

as an independent element,

but talent in relationship to WILL, DESIRE, PERSISTANCE."

&

– Milton Glaser

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

The purpose of this editorial is to fill a void. As an art enthusiast for longer than I can

remember, and now as a design student for four years, I have always recognized there is never enough room made for art. And for art students, there is never enough information and there are never enough materials. Especially materials made specifically for students.

I believe all current and potential art students should have a publication that inspires and

informs. I wish a publication like this actually existed. If this magazine were a reality, it would be a go-to-guide with job postings and a classified section where students buy and sell their used equipment, books, and supplies. And it would share a unique feature with this prototype in that it would be printed on recycled paper.

Throughout years of frustration of the scarcity and unpopularity of art and design

magazines, and things written for artists and designers, part of me is somewhat content with my recent epiphany that there isn’t a whole lot of publications, popular ads, or broadcasting about art and design, and for only one good I can come up with—we are the ones that create it all. So to my fellow students in the disciplines of graphic design, fine art, and art history, here is a temporary relief to the feeling that no one notices our world.

Sincerely,

Jen Heinser EDITOR

THE G FINE ARTS ILLUSTRATION

A glimpse of the talent found inside the latest edition of Illustration Now! 6

GALLERY FEATURE

The MoMA: A mini history of the art and design mecca 8

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS Freelance photography business owner Michelle Vazul gives up her portrait photography secrets 10

GRAPHIC DESIGN DESIGNER ESSAY

Information Design and the Placebo Effect by Michael Bierut 12

iPHONE 5 HIGH HOPES Our tech man Jim Cady’s insight into the potential specs of the next iPhone 14

TOP TEN

The top ten tools that will make your life as a design student a hell of a lot easier 16

ART HISTORY HISTORY SPOTLIGHT

A look at the very first portrait photograph 20

THE BAUHAUS

The beginnings and the school’s lasting effect on the art and design world 22

DEBATE

Dada: Art or Bullshit? Editor Jen Heinser rants about why Dada is not worthy.

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GUTS FEATURED TYPEFACE Bodoni: A history and appreciation of one of our favorite typefaces 18

FEATURED ARTIST

Alphonse Mucha: a history of the man, and his worshipped style within Art Nouveau 26

JUST FOR FUN

A game of matching the famous artist with the correct outrageous fact 28

ILLUSTRAT “...the most exquisite books on the planet”

—Wallpaper*, London

MICHAEL KUTSCHE, Berlin, Germany Caterpillar, 2008, Disney Enterprises Inc., character design for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" Digital Painting

A beautiful collection of contemporary illustration, the Illustration Now! series has gained the attention of editors, designers, and directors looking for fresh talent in both digital and fine art illustration. These volumes really bring together a great mix of both disciplines and a lot of mixed media work. 150 illustrators from 30 countries are featured, some with special four-page spreads.

Volume 4 has a forward by Bruno Porto and an introduction by Steven Heller.

Editor Julius Wiedemann was born in Brazil, studied graphic design and marketing, was an art editor for art magazines in Tokyo, and is also the editor/author of Advertising Now!, Logo Design, and Brand Identity Now!

Wiedemann has a Portraits Now! book we’de love to get our hands on as well. The series began in 2008 and has been publishing a volume every year since. A fantastic series we hope to see continue...and keep collecting!

TION

GABRIEL MORENO, Madrid, Spain Rafa, 2010 For Vision Youth Magazine Hand-drawing, watercolor, collage

KAREN KLASSEN, Calgary, Canada Poppy Crown, 2009 Fro Market Mall / Zero Gravity Acrylic and oil on paper

FINE ART

2

RUBENS LP, Sao Pãulo, Brazil Balance, 2005 Personal Work Adobe Illustrator

“This book is perfect not simply for artists and students, but to anyone with an admiration both for beauty and for talent. An exquisite addition to any stylish coffee table.”

— Image magazine, Dublin, Ireland

ALBERTO SEVESO, Milan, Italy David Lynch, 2009 Factory 311 Evolution Exhibition Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

FLORIAN NICOLLE, Caen, France Lil Child, 2009 Personal Work Digital

“This book is perfect for graphic artists, creative professionals and illustration students, as well as anyone with an appreciation for draftsmanship and visual language.”

— ParkaBlog.com, New York

CHRIS LYONS, New York, NY Summer Mucis School for Kids, 2011 For Hochstein Music School Adobe Illustrator

FINE ART

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MoMA I

n the late 1920s, three progressive and influential patrons of the arts, Miss Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., perceived a need to challenge the conservative policies of traditional museums and to establish an institution devoted exclusively to modern art. They along with additional original trustees A. Conger Goodyear, Paul Sachs, Frank Crowninshield and Josephine Boardman Crane created The Museum of Modern Art in 1929. Its founding Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., intended the Museum to be dedicated to helping people understand and enjoy the visual arts of our time, and that it might provide New York with "the greatest museum of modern art in the world."

T

he public's response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and over the course of the next ten years, the Museum moved three times into progressively larger temporary quarters, and in 1939 finally opened the doors of the building it still occupies in midtown Manhattan. Upon his appointment as the first Director, Barr submitted a plan for the conception and

5

A HISTORY: straight from the art & design mecca itself.

organization of the Museum that would result in the Museum's multi-departmental structure with departments devoted for the first time to Architecture and Design, Film and Video, and Photography, in addition to Painting and Sculpture, Drawings, and Prints and Illustrated Books. Subsequent expansions took place during the 1950s and 1960s planned by the architect Philip Johnson, who also designed The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden. In 1984, a major renovation designed by Cesar Pelli doubled the Museum's gallery space and enhanced visitor facilities.

F

rom an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, The Museum of Modern Art's collection has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. MoMA also owns approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills, and MoMA's Library and Archives, the premier research facilities of their kind in the world, hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, and extensive individual files on more than 70,000 artists.

T

he Museum maintains an active schedule of modern and contemporary art exhibitions addressing a wide range of subject matter, mediums, and time periods, highlighting significant recent developments in the visual arts and new interpretations of major artists and art historical movements. Works of art from its collection are displayed in rotating installations so that the public may regularly expect to find new works on display. Ongoing programs of classic and contemporary films range from retrospectives and historical surveys to introductions of the work of independent and experimental film- and videomakers. Visitors also enjoy access to a bookstore offering an assortment of publications and reproductions, and a design store offering objects related to modern and contemporary art and design.

T

he Museum is dedicated to its role as an educational institution and provides a complete program of activities intended to assist both the general public and special segments of the community in approaching and understanding the world of modern and contemporary art. In addition to gallery talks, lectures, and symposia, the Museum offers special activities for parents, teachers, families, students, preschoolers, people with special needs, and more. The Museum's Library and Archives contain the leading concentration of research material on modern art in the world, and each of the curatorial departments maintains a study center available to students, scholars and researchers. In addition, the Museum has one of the most active publishing programs of any art museum and it has published more than 1,200 editions appearing in twenty languages.

I

T

M

T

n January 2000, the Museum and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center exercised a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing their affiliation. The final arrangement results in an affiliation in which the Museum becomes the sole corporate member of P.S.1 and P.S.1 maintains its artistic and corporate independence.

This innovative partnership expands outreach for both institutions, and offers a broad range of collaborative opportunities in collections, exhibitions, educational programs, and administration departments. oMA has just completed the largest and most ambitious building project in its history. This project nearly doubled the space for MoMA's exhibitions and programs.

Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the new MoMA features 630,000 square feet of new and redesigned space. The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the western portion of the site houses the main exhibition galleries, and The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building—the Museum's first building devoted solely to these activities—on the eastern portion of the site provides over five times more space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher training workshops, and the Museum's expanded Library and Archives.

These two buildings frame the enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The new Museum opened to the public on November 20, 2004, and the Cullman Building opened in November 2006.

o make way for its renovation and rebuilding, MoMA closed on Fiftythird Street in Manhattan on May 21, 2002, and opened MoMA QNS in Long Island City, Queens, on June 29, 2002. MoMA QNS served as the base of the Museum's exhibition program and operations through September 27, 2004, when the facility was closed in preparation for The Museum of Modern Art's reopening in Manhattan. This building also now provides state-of-the-art storage spaces for art in the collection. oday, the Museum and P.S.1 welcome thousands of visitors each year. A still larger public is served by the Museum's national and international programs of circulating exhibitions, loan programs, circulating film and video library, publications, Library and Archives holdings, Web site, educational activities, special events, and retail sales. The MoMA is located at 11 West 53 Street , New York, NY.

FINE ART

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PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

Michelle VAZUL is this semester’s guest author

Senior portraits today are certainly not like those of our parents - or puts, for that matter.

Today's seniors want cool, edgy, different. They want what will showcase their personality.

The days of indoor, black backgrounds are gone.

I have captured many seniors in my photography career and one thing each of them asks for is to be different. Many use locations that mean something to them.

Some use props, like a letterman's jacket, snow board, pets or even a gun that has special meaning.

Each senior has been willing to push the limits to get the pictures they are looking for.

Many of the girls will use their prom dresses in their portraits, also known as Trash the Dress.

Having taken pictures of the girls in their gowns on hay bales, tractors, in fields and, yes, even in lakes, I can say the

pictures leave me speechless. I am amazed at how willing these girls are to do what they are asked to get a gorgeous portrait.

And don't worry, no dresses are ever harmed in the making of the memories. They dry clean beautifully and the dresses can be used for more than just prom afterwards.

So, get out there and be creative with your seniors. Let them suggest some of the poses, props and locations. Have fun and LAUGH. Help them create memories of their last year of high school. Capture THEM! What are you waiting for? Go!

With this push for different, many schools are allowing personal photos to be submitted to the yearbook.

Rarely do we see the black studio background and everyone looking exactly the same. Instead of the cookie cutter portraits, seniors are requesting to show their personalities and it seems as if schools are agreeing with them – for the most part.

FINE ART

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INFORMATION DESIGN AND THE PLACEBO EFFECT Michael Bierut Despite Enron and Martha Stewart, scandal in the Catholic Church, and the failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I would describe myself as a trusting sort, one who fundamentally still believes in the institutions that govern our public life. But last week, that trust was shaken to the very core by a report in the New York Times about the buttons that are mounted on poles at over 3,000 street corners in New York City. Despite the fact that they bear official-looking signs that read "To Cross Street/Push Button/ Wait for Walk Signal/Dept. of Transportation," it appears that at least 2,500 of them have not worked for the last fifteen years.

Like everyone else, I've trusted those instructions, pressed the buttons and waited dutifully, fearing - and, indeed, this is the literal interpretation of the sign that the light would not change, ever, unless one pushed the button.

Now I learn that I've been the dupe of what Times reporter Michael Luo calls mechanical placebos, where "any benefit from them is only imagined." And, my eyes newly opened, I wonder: can this possibly be an isolated case?

Now that I think about it, I've always wondered about those "Door Close" buttons on elevators. I mean, the door always eventually closes, but it's hard to tell if there's

really any causation involved. Like the crosswalk buttons, all of these buttons may function simply as therapy for the over-anxious. And it's significant that even if they seldom work, they still work sometimes.

Every behavioral scientist knows that if you reward the rats every time, they take it for granted; if you never reward them, they give up. The most effective approach is to reward them every once in a while. This principal of intermittent reward is well understood by casino owners.

I myself have deployed meaningless information to assuage my own anxiety. We bought our first house from a fairly paranoid owner who had outfitted the (modest) property with an elaborate security system.

Its operation was well beyond the ken of my family, and after setting off various alarms at various hours of the early morning, we finally had the whole thing disabled. But we left up all those signs reading "This Home is Protected by the Neverrest Ultra Security System," reasoning that intruders would be as alarmed by the signs as by the (now disarmed) alarms.

subject visitors to x-ray examination and require tenant escorts. It's an inconvenient procedure, but at least you can understand its efficacy. More often, you're merely asked to sign a log and, sometimes, present your driver's license. How this is supposed to deter cunning terrorists, who presumably can acquire cheap fake id's as easily as anthrax or dirty bombs, I've never understood.

And of course, to move from the personal to the political, no one is exploring the frontiers of information as placebo like our own Department of Homeland Security. What exactly are we expected to make of Tom Ridge's color-coded terrorism alert levels?

When the level is raised, are we supposed to hide under the bed or go about our business? Are they trying to reduce anxiety or increase it? Do they mean anything at all?

We don't know, and I'm not sure they really know either. But one way or another, they seem to be trying to press our buttons.

In post 9/11 Manhattan, this exchange of meaningless information has become part of daily life. Visit any office building over four stories in height and you're likely to run a gauntlet of inquisitors. The truly diligent ones

GRAPHIC DESIGN

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The iPhone 5 Our tech expert Jim Cady weighs in The iPhone 5 . . .will we ever see it? All sources say yes, it’s just a matter of when. In my research I have seen multiple release dates and many different features and configurations. Judging from what recent releases are saying it will be a large advancement from the IPhone 4S in a few prominent aspects.

The release rumors really started flying late 2010 – early 2011. It was said that 2011 was the expected release, but there was no firm evidence to support this date. Instead the iPhone 4S was released, so to release the iPhone 5 would not make any sense right now.

The iPhone customer base is a buy-the-bestmodel-out kind of buyer, so to release them at

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the same time would just cause a huge loss on the 4S end of things. Apple's history suggests they release an iPhone every year and October 2012 would be over a year from the 4S’s release date. This would support better sales of both phones, and more profit for apple.

Based on the latest articles and rumors we are looking at a September preorder date and an October release.This give Apple time to recover from the iPad 3 release and puts the iPhone 4S on the market for over a year. There are many different said changes including a complete external make over. The more advanced iPhone 5 will have a larger screen than any other iPhone to date, which Steve Jobs supposedly was not

happy about because he thought it would make it look too simlilar to Android phones.

The rumors are pointing toward a 4 inch screen, a small upgrade from the 3.5 inch of past iPhones. It is also said that the new Incell touch panel technology will be used which brings many advantages to the table previously impossible.

Some of these are production requirements. It would be cut from eight steps to a five step production process. The number of production days would be reduced from 1216 days, to 3-5 days. This is also going make for a thinner, more sleek design going from the 4S which is 9.3mm, to a slender 7.9mm. To do this they upgraded from a three layer (glass, touch screen, and LCD) display to a two layer which integrated the touch screen and the LCD display into one piece. (See Figure 1)

of ram. It will also feature the new Qualcomm LTE chip for 4G LTE connectivity and possibly NFC (near field communication) technology which has been a rumor since day one of the iPhone 5 hopeful rumor mill.

The NFC feature is more than a flashy, fad-driven feature; it’s the next generation of mobile devices. Last but not least, the rumor of a slide out key board which would help break into the corporate user market.

I can promise you one thing is that whenever released and whatever features are involved it will be a ground breaking release. There are millions awaiting a sure sign of this release which I’m sure apple has a master plan to make it yet another successful apple product.

Glass differences between the 4S and 5 A concept of the rumored keyboard

Last but not least the new case will be liquid metal, which is an alloy made from zirconium, titanium, nickel, and copper.

The benefits will be a thinner but stronger shell leaving more room inside for upgrades.

Other updates look like an A5X chip and a possible 1 gig

GRAPHIC DESIGN

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2

1

WHITE GOUACHE

indispensable for those ittybitty mistakes

C-THRU RULER

the most used tool in our supply arsenal

TO TE 10 PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE Expensive, but saves a ton of time while choosing colors

Ten design tools that will m

9 MATTE FIXATIVE It's never just a sketchbook, so smudges are never acceptable

8 TYPE GAUGE

Helps you gauge type, line width, picas, and more

3

4

DOUBLE-SIDED TAPE

the cheap way to mount your stuff, but hey, we're on a budget!

BONE FOLDERS

for absolute perfect scoring and folding

OP 5 EN X–ACTO SWIVLE do we need to explain?

make life as a student easier

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MATTE DIGI-FINISH

6

GRAPHICS TABLET This one, by Vistablet, has proved it's worth

A must-have to protect your work between home and school

GRAPHIC DESIGN

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BODONI History of a Typeface

by Jen Heinser

G

iambattista Bodoni was born in Parma, Italy in 1740. As the fourth son of a master printer, he spent his life not only as a printer, but as typeface designer, photographer, engraver, and a publisher. Bodoni’s influences were John Baskerville, and the creator of the first

modern typeface, Francois Didot.

Bodoni had designed hundreds of typefaces, his namesake type being one of the most well-known.

H

e has been called the “king of typographers and the typographer of kings”. Bodoni’s family business granted him the freedom attached to the luxury of having a lot of time, money, and means to take on any project he desired. According to fonts.com, “Bodoni once confided to a friend that he agonized for more than six months and produced thousands of trial proofs in the process of choosing just the right type for the title page in one of his books. He opened his first printing office for the Duke of Parm the city of his birth.

Bb

T

he typeface is not exactly for every application.

It has very unique characteristics that give it an elegant feel and a sophisticated presence. It boasts high and abrupt contrast between thick and thin strokes, small apertures, and a vertical axis. It features unbracketed serifs, bold stems, and hairline strokes.

Even with a small x-height, the typeface looks wide and very black because of that vertical stress. Striking similarities between Bodoni and Didot are hard to ignore. However, upon close examination, you may still be able to see that a hint of a bracket is barely evident in Bodoni, never seeming to get quite as geometrical as the typeface’s influential predecessor with it’s sharp, 90 degree angles. Bodoni is a bit softer and has unusual characteristics that should be handled in a certain way.

B

odoni should be set large enough so that the hairline strokes should still be visible. In other words, do as I say, not as I do–Bodoni was probably not the best suited choise for this article.

However, I wanted the typeface to be present in numerous sizes as samples. It can be tiring on the eyes for long articles, or the lengthy copy of a book.

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ou may recognize Bodoni from the band Nirvana, GIORGIO ARMANI, MAMMA MIA, and Elizabeth Arden. A strange mixture, yet all wear Bodoni well. A few type foundries publish their own version of Bodoni, for example Adobe. It is still a classic style we see used across numerous platforms. It will always be one of the favorites in our collection.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

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World’s First Portrait

it, 1838

Boulevard du Temple Louis Daguerre

L

ouis Daguerre was born in France in 1787.

As well as being a physicist, he was an artist who apprenticed in architecture, theatre design, and painting.

Originally working with an inventor named Nicephore NiĂŞpce who created the first heliograph (the process of taking a photograph using a coating called bitumen on glass or metal which hardens when exposed to light), NiĂŞpce died during their experimentation but Daguerre continued with the project and experimenting.

Daguerreotypes were most popularly used for portraits, the rarer nature subjects which are harder to find are now worth a lot more money to collectors and art dealers.

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ooking at Boulevard du Temple on the previous page, we see an intersection in Paris.

left corner, emphasized here in an inset below, shows two people who escaped the veil of the time lapse. A man on the corner is having his shoes shined. They were the only two people who held still long enough to be captured on film. Because of very good records kept by Daguerre, and a reliable date, this is known

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he outcome would be known as the daguerrotype.

The process he figured out was to expose a thin silver-plated copper sheet to the vapor from iodine crystals. This produces a coating of light sensitive silver iodide. The plate is put into the camera and exposed. He discovered the faint latent image made by a shorter exposer could actually be developed with mercury vapor created by heating the liquid metal to 107 degrees. Easy, right?

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e then fixed it with hot salt water which removed the unaffected silver iodide. Later hypo, as we know the step today, was added. Because

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What you cannot tell from this photograph is that these streets are actually busy and filled with people, horses, and carriages. You can see one or two blurs found in the middle of the street that seem to be horse-drawn buggys or wagons of some kind.

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ou may be wondering why this is considered the first portrait photograph. In the bottom

to be the first actual portrait photograph.

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o next time you glance across your friend's Facebook and Flickr pictures, you can silently thank Loius Daguerre for his experimentations in the darkroom for where we are today. It is pioneers like Daguerre that make what we have now not only possible, but seem so easy.

The New iPad Pixel-perfect performance The A5X chip with quad-core graphics drives four times the pixels of iPad 2 yet it delivers the same smoothness and fluidity iPad is known for. Even with all that extra oomph, the new iPad still gets an amazing 10 hours of battery life.

More power on display.

Instant on. Touch and go.

Battery life spared.

The Retina display on the new iPad wouldn’t be possible without the new and powerful A5X chip. It drives power to every one of the 3.1 million pixels in the display.

And its quad-core graphics processing makes everything you do on iPad feel incredibly responsive. From the little things like swiping, scrolling, and pinching to the big things like editing photos in the new iPhoto, applying titles and transitions in iMovie, and, of course, playing games.

You use your iPad all the time.

A few minutes here, an hour or so there. And each time you press the Home button or open the Smart Cover, it’s ready to go. Instantly. That’s the work of flash storage.

It’s fast and reliable, so you can get to your apps and do whatever you need to do, pronto.

The new iPad features a Retina display with four times the pixels of iPad 2 and quadcore graphics. How much of an effect does that have on battery life? Almost none.

You still get up to 10 hours of power to read, watch, play, write, and create whatever you want, all you want.

1923 exhibition poster Joost Schmidt

THE

BAUHAUS

by Jen Heinser

In 1914, Henri van de Velde, a Belgian Art Nouveau architect, resigned from the Weimar Arts and Crafts School to return to Belgium. He recommended that Walter Gropius replace him.

The school temporarily closed during the war, and when it reopened, Gropius was named director and renamed the school Das Staatliche Bauhaus (The State Home for Building).

The purpose of the school became the unity of art and technology. A struggle to solve visual design problems "created by industrialism". The school unified artists and craftsmen with industry to marry function and aesthetics. Workshops were taught by both artists and craftsmen side-byside. The structure was organized along midieval BauhĂźtte lines with a master, journeyman, and apprentice. Also affecting the workings of the school, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky introduced a new concern for color and form when they came to teach in 1920 and 1922.

According to Megg's History of Graphic Design, "Ideas from all the advanced art and design movements were explored, combined, and applied to problems of functional design and machine production at...the Bauhaus. Twentieth century

furniture, architecture, product design, and graphics were shaped by the work of it's faculty and students, and a modern design aesthetic emerged... at the Bauhaus, no distinction was made between fine and applied art." The world was thought to be a better place if things were designed cohesively across the disciplines and trades.

The Germans wanted a fresh start – a new life at this time, and the Bauhaus manifesto seemed to stand as a symbol of what was needed, and served as the school's philosophy.

"The complete building is the ultimate aim of all the visual arts. Once the noblest function of the fine arts was to embellish buildings; they were indispensable components of great architecture. Today the arts exist in isolation...Architects, painters, and sculptors must learn anew the composite of character of the building as an entity...The artist is an exalted craftsmen. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending his conscious will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. Therin lies the prime source of creative imagination."

ART HISTORY

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In 1919, Bauhaus teacher Lyonel Feininger introduces De Stijl to the Bauhaus and this heavily influences furniture design and typography. But it is Van Doesburg who provides the biggest influence in De Stijl after being denied teaching it's methods by Gropius. He starts meeting students for lessons at his home.

A couple years later the German govornement insists on an exhibition to prove the school's importance and worth.

The 1923 Bauhaus exhibition is visited by fifteen thousand people. This would boost the schools image worldwide. At this time, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy joins the Bauhaus and become Gropius's Prime Minister.

Passionate about design, he once described typography as "a tool of communication in it's most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity...Legibility– communication must never be imparied by a prior aestetic.

Letters must never be forced into a preconcieved framework, for instance a square." He called the poster an evolving "typophoto", meaning that typography combined with image was going to be the new visual literature.

In April of 1925 the Bauhaus undergoes a major change and moves to Dessau.

The Bauhaus Corporation was established and they made

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money by selling prototypes to companies in certain industries.

The masters became known as professors, and in 1926 the Bauhaus was renamed Hochschule fĂźr Gestatung (High School for Form), and Bauhaus magazine began publication.

Eventually, five former students were appointed as masters. Three of the most well-known being Josef Albers, Marcel Breuer, the inventor of tubular steel furniture, and Herbert Bayer the typography designer.

In the end, Gropius resigned to continue his architecture practice, and Bayer and Moholy-Nagy left as well.

The Bauhaus changed hands from Gropius, to Joost Schmidt, to Bayer, to Hannes Meyer, then to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Then, in 1931 the Nazi party, having hands in the City Council in Dessau, cancelled faculty contracts at the Bauhaus.

It officially closed August 10th 1933. Mies van der Rohe tried to continue the teachings wherever he could, but continued pressing by the Nazi's made it impossible.

This did not kill the influence. By 1937 Gropius and Breuer were teaching at Harvard as professors of architecture, and Maholy-Nagy established Chicago's Institute of Design. According to Megg's, the Bauhaus after 14 years, the school's "thirty-three faculty

members, and about 1,250 students created a viable, modern design movement spanning architecture, product design, and visual communications." In 1961 Bayer wrote a prose poem titled Homage to Gropius.

for the future the bauhaus gave us assurance in facing the perplexities of work; it gave us the know-how to work. a foundation in the crafts, an individual heratage of timeless principals as applied to the creative process. it is expressed again that we are

not to impose aesthetics on the things we use, to the structures we live in, but that purpose and form must be seen as one. that direction emerges when one considers concrete demands, special conditions, inherent character of a given problem.

but never losing perspective that one is, after all, an artist. the bauhaus existed for a short span of time but the potentials, inherent in its principals have only begun to be realized. its sources of design reamin forever full of changing possibilities.

Bauhaus at Dessau, 1925 Designed by Gropius himself

One of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades Bicyclewheel, 1913

DADA ART OR BULLSHIT?

by Jen Heinser

Marcel Duchamp. The mere mention of this name causes the peachfuzz on the back of my neck to stand on end. I have stood in front of Bicyclewheel three times and counting, and the only thing I ever learn is that each time I see it, I get a little more angry.

Say what you will. He opened a door, he started a conversation, he made people think about what is art and what isn’t art. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and please don’t shoot the messenger, but we have been having conversations about art for eons. And I am sure any one of us can think of an artist whose work we find pointless, meaningless, a waste of time, or even agitating. But that does not mean that because it is controversial it deserves a place where, from one angle, you can see van Gogh’s Starry Night between it's spokes.

There comes a point where someone has to realize it should have it's own section. Perhaps

a “Readymade” gallery where Duchamp can put everything he ever made. We can pile the room full of bike wheels, stools, maybe urinals.

How about glueing my stapler to a TV? If I glue a sock to a snow shovel, or nail a baseball bat to a picnic table is this now art because it opens a conversation?

And I understand Duchamp’s want to push boundaries, to get attention, to ask questions. But I beg someone to think of just one direct question that this can ask someone, and I mean beside: what the hell? And what is art? Don’t even ask that. It goes around in circles. That will never be answered, and even looking at paintings that the master's put their blood, sweat, and tears into can’t answer that for you. Studying

ART HISTORY

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Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917

the Sistine ceiling will not provide you any consolation.

But at least it took more than five minutes of planning and executing. A porcelain pisspot turned upside down does nothing to provoke my thoughts beside making me think I have to stop and pee. If I wrote on my toilet it would still be made by the company that cast the molds and poured in the molten material. Using a Sharpie to write one or two words is nothing more than [sloppy] writing on a toilet.

Something that is considered art should look to any viewer that no matter what, some level of skill should have been involved, and some amount of time should have been used. By amount, I mean more than 5 minutes. And by skill, I mean more ability than proving you know how to use a screwdriver or wrench.

If that is all you would like to prove, I know this plumber down the block...

My problem lies in the way I have had to defend my choice of career to people in my past. Especially during times I thought I would like to become a fine artist, and live off my work. Before I

came to my senses, I would get the “what will you do with that”, and “what can you do that's different from what's out there?”, and “how do you even know what art is?”, and “my 6 year old can do everything out there.”

It may seem to create conversations, but please don’t be misled – those are not conversations, they are debates and arguments.

I would feel as if I am flushing everything I have learned along with my own professionalism, down the toilet if I were to start making art for shock value just to start a dialoug. Of course, with graphic design at least you have a goal – an end or desired result you are working toward. In advertising, you try to motivate people to do something like make a purchase, or use a service.

confidence in your abilities, mastery of either a tool, a brush, or a computer mouse.

The medium, and the time you spend with it is what gives you knowledge, tells a story, and teaches you. What can we learn from a bolt being tightened between a wheel and a stool? Friction exists?

How much could he have learned while tightening that wheel on there?

My point is that it is art itself that causes the people that are disconnected from the art world to decide art is too hard to appreciate because it is too hard to understand, much less translate. Intimidating people is not a good way to aquire art patrons. It is as pointless as Duchamps 1942 Mile of String installation in New York below. Thank you for keeping people away from art again, Duchamp.

Was Duchamp actually selling toilets? Bicycles or maybe stools?

Perhaps this is selfish, but I feel as an artist that a certain pride comes along with having a craft. A certain

ART HISTORY

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MUCHA The Father of Art Nouveau

by Jen Heinser

A

lphonse Mucha was born on July 24th, 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia, now known as the Czech Republic.

Although Moravian by birth, he found his fame in Paris. Art Nouveau would soon be no different from "style Mucha" and would deeply affect sculpture, jewelry, and interior design.

H

work have explained his place in history as "fin-de-siècle" meaning that he neatly overlapped the end of one century with the new. He was influenced by his friend Paul Gauguin, and Japanese prints, especially screens and wall decorations which inspired panel works of his such as Seasons.

F

is first job was as a clerk in the Imperial and District Court in Moravia, thanks to his his court usher father.

But at nineteen he knew this was not what he wanted to do, and he left for theatrical scene painting. This was his first artistic job. From 1879-1881 Mucha worked in a Viennese studio building stage sets. And growing up in a Roman Catholic home explains the baroque and neo-Gothic ornamental details in his work such as halo shapes behind head, and the mosiac patterns and textures.

or the rest of the 1890's he made a living as an illustrator for magazines and fashion journals. He had many commissions, designing theatre and exhibition posters, and ads for champagne, soap, confectioners, and even cigarettes. His sketchbooks are filled with botanical garden studies, sketches of markets, and rail stations. He captured perspective, gestures, and movements. In Paris he came into contact with symbolists and free masons, and hints of these worlds are evident in his work as well.

M

B

ucha's name would become synonomous with art nouveau in one career making piece. It was a lithograph poster for Sarah Bernhardt's Théâtre de la Renaissance. The ad was specifically for Victorien Sardou's Gismonda. The poster showed up on Paris streets in January of 1895. Bernhardt loved it so much that she signed a sixyear contract with him to design all her theatre posters. Her likeness on the elongated, narrow format became a signature clear even in these first posters. Their creative partnership was so successful that he became the stage set and costume designer for her until 1901.

W

hen designing Bernhardt's flowing hair, Mucha nicknamed it the "macaroni" or, "noodle" style.

Some in connection to Mucha or directly influenced by his

ut for the last years of his life, when his work lost it's commercial edge, he came briefly to America to capatalize on and extend the life of his style. When this proved fruitless for the long-term he moved back across seas and died in Prague on the 14th of July 1939 at nearly eighty of pnemonia.

M

ucha has influenced artists for over a century now.

The flowing hair, organic, flowing lines, mosiac and ornate borders, patterned background, and symbolism have kept him in the art history spotlight and adored, if not worshipped by art students and professionals alike.

OPPOSITE: Monaco Monte-Carlo, 1897 Orignally designed for a railway company

ART HISTORY

30

IVY, 1901 Lithograph

LAUREL, 1901 Lithograph

A MATCHING GAME

[A] Michelangelo Buonarroti

[B] Diego Rivera

[C] Claude Monet

[F] Salvador Dali

[G] Marcel Duchamp

[H] Paul Cezanne

1 Ate paint directly out of the paint tubes.

6 Hated being touched and was known to scream at people for doing so.

2 Had a big hump on the nose from a punch by another artist because he would mock the drawing skills of others.

4 Once showed up for a lecture in London with two Russian Wolfhounds and dressed in an old-fashioned diving suit that he almost suffocated in. Hey, Lady Gaga has to look up to someone.

3 Hit rock bottom when he fell off his bike while trying to ride it with a case of beer under his arm.

5 Had an artificial arm to which he would screw knives and forks into and efficiently carve or filet poultry and fish.

33

7 Once said "I only sleep with duchesses or maids.

Preferably duchesses’ maids.

Anything in between turns me right off."

8 Loved to paint completely nude and used to get caught!

H

6

D

5

F

4

J

3

A

2

E

1

ANSWERS

C

7

10 Competed as a Chess Master on the French team at the International Chess Olympiads, and cross-dressed as his alter-ego "Rrose Selavy".

And that’s no typo. It's Rrose.

I

9 At three-hundred pounds, he used to have his artist wife bathe him in a tub filled with kiddie toys.

8

[J] Jackson Pollock

B

[I] Georgia O'Keefe

9

[E] Vincent van Gogh

10 G

[D] Georges Seurat

Not all of the famous artists we learn about are all... sane.

So here’s a game.

Can you match the artist to the crazy fact about their life? Some of the answers may surprise you.

ART HISTORY

34

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" It's on the STRENGTH of OBSERVATION and REFLECTION

that one finds a way.

So we must

DIG

&

DELVE

UNCEASINGLY." – Claude Monet