Poster: A Global History

Huyen Mac

ART 335

Book Review

 

Guffey, Elizabeth E. Poster: A Global History. (London, UK: Reaktion Book Ltd, 2015, 319pp)

 

Poster: A Global History by Elizabeth E Guffey informs the birth of the poster design throughout the years from nineteen century to the present. The book was first published in 2015 and reprint in 2016 by Reaktion Books Ltd in London, UK. Poster: A Global History demonstrates the history of poster design and how poster design plays an important role in the historical timeline. The book is the combination of a series of poster designs and its analysis. Guffey also explains about the historical and cultural aspect of each artwork in order to define the significant role of poster design in various societies. She spent the last chapter to define the role of modern technology and how it affects the poster design industry. While technology and computer graphic have a rapid improvement, but only a “few forms of graphic design can rival posters for their tangibility, sheer spatial presence, force, and immediacy”. (pg 1) Digital graphic can work hand-in-hand with the traditional style in order to improve the role of poster design in the modern society.

This book describes the history of poster design from nineteen century to the present time. The format of the book is similar to an extension of a basic essay. It has the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusion. Away from the introduction and the conclusion, the author divided the book into five chapters with the chronological order. Each chapter has its distinguish title and the timeline to separate the historical contents and the ideas of each individual. The first chapter “Consuming words on the street: 1840-1950” started with the historical content in 19^th century, when poster design became well known and took over public spaces. It created a new movement for advertisement. Soon after that, posters were not only display in public areas, but people also collected them as a part of their collection.

Deep one night, in December 1891, billstickers plastered Paris with some 3,000                       copies of a poster for the Moulin Rouge nightclub. Soon after, most of the                                   posters have disappeared – torn down, not because they were unpopular, but                           because they were being collected. (pg 51)

Posters getting extremely popular and became a part of people’s daily lives from wedding invitation to dress up as poster characters to the party. (pg 54) Along with the popularity, the demand of public spaces became fiercer. The rental fee went up depend on the location. The owner of the new building on Broadway, Manhattan could earn almost $3,000 a year for leasing the board surrounding his building. (pg 57)

In early 20^th century, the role of poster design has changed intentionally. From the advertisement purpose, posters became a tool to propagate political issue. Propaganda posters were born to encourage people to join the military. It also used to support the war effort and generated patriotism from young people. Inspiring the troop to fight and protect the country. “Leaders, such as Hilter and Stalin could also deploy posters in complex roles, using their belligerent ubiquity to make over the poster like a quick-change artirst”. (pg 75)

The next chapter “Trashing tradition: 1945-1965” and “New Art, New Space: 1960-1980” informed a new style in poster design, which opposed the traditional art, called Dada movement. Dada was an anti-war, anti-art movement, which rejected all the traditional style and gave a negative response to the nationalism during World War I. With Dada posters, the text can be overlapped each other, or paragraphs can be rotated upside down. Dada movement did not follow any rules or had any specific style.

Unlike other history books, which focus only on certain countries in Europe, Poster: A Global History contains artworks from diverse countries. It includes the significant artworks from European countries, Americans, African, as well as Asia. Guffey spends the whole chapter four “Fetishisn and the global poster: 1960-1980” on talking about the global poster with the portrait of Che Guevara as the first example. She spends the rest of the chapter to inform about how poster from China and Cuba has a huge impact in its own country at that time. Posters of Mao Zedong in China and the portrait of Che Guevara became a significant icon in their societies. Guffey successfully demonstrates the role of Mao Zedong poster to Chinese society at that time. His iconic images links to a powerful leader and appear in public as well as individual houses.

With the clear structure, it provides a smooth flow of the contents so that the readers can be able to follow the ideas without any difficulty. Overall, Poster: A Global History showed that the author carefully selected 150 stunning images for the demonstration purpose. There are a variety of posters throughout different time periods. It helps to present the visual connection between the text and the images.

The author walks the readers through different timelines from 19^th century to the present time. She not only gives general information about the pieces but also explains the in-depth materials related to the works. She describes the artworks in details and explains about the historical content behind the artworks. It includes when the poster was made and which country the poster came from as well as how the poster fit in different societies. Guffey emphasizes the important role of the poster in the community. The poster is not simply a graphic element or a tool to advertise the products. Posters can reflect the culture and the environment around them.

 

 

Fifty Years of Illustration

Jessica Agim

ART 336

Book Review Draft

Fifty Years of Illustration. By Lawrence Zeegen and Caroline Roberts. ( London: Laurence King         

           Publishing Ltd, 2014. 383 pp. ).

Lawrence Zeegen is known as the author, but  Caroline Roberts is also given credit as an author because of her efforts in researching the illustration for each artist represented in the book Fifty Years of Illustration. Illustration has changed and developed over many years. With that, it has expressed its rich heritage and this book shown to us how illustrators have affected or reflected the decade through artwork. The beginning of this book starts off with explaining that illustration (as an art form) is known as the “people’s art” as well as a reflection of the lives we lead. With that idea, it plays an important part in history and plays a major role in determining how we see and comprehend this world and its past. Given this book’s recent publication, The focus is mainly on how far illustration has come since the 1960’s. The book mainly shows the observation of illustrators and the artist’s voice. This book represents the possibilities and impression that can leave a mark in history for future generations.

Lawrence does not tell a story but instead creates a link that recognizes and shows the interpretation of the cultures for each decade. It first starts off explaining what illustration means in connection with others to be able to view history through the visual arts. The book  gives the reader five decades, each being its own chapter, starting with the 1960s and then the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. Each chapter starts off with defining a decade with a title, from there it explains how that title represents that decade, and what had happened in that time that caused such a large impact.

An example of this would be chapter two reflection on the 1970’s that is titled as“ A Decade of discontent”. It explains that this decade of discontent with informing the reader of known facts that the world was currently in decline with economic recessions, but people distracted themselves with dancing to disco music and listening to ‘concept’ albums. Once those two to three pages of description is explained by the author it then finishes the chapter with recognizing lists of artists. Each author is given a brief description of their life from where they came from and what they ended up doing or being known for. After that, you are shown samples of their work with the title and year in which it was created. The setup of this book comes across as an archive of artists, whether being iconic or artist who had a small impact.

The topics in which this book focuses on is personally refreshing, as they do not lead with the typical “art history” subjects. Typical art history lectures usually concentrate on traditional fine arts from the eighteenth century, while this book focuses on the artist of recent times and how they represent their decade indical ally or all together. The book’s introduction gives reference to the illustrators of today when briefly states “…This new breed of illustrators work globally, and yet lives locally. No longer required to live where the work is, illustrator’s can work anywhere, anytime and for anyone”( Lawrence pg.15 ).

The interpretation of the decades and how the artwork draws a link gives the viewer the responsibility for the feeling and reason why the artist would have thought or irresistibly wanted to create or represent that certain political head, media, music genre, celebrities, revolutions, the need for change, and the pain of war. Given such a thing doesn’t the view to criticizes the work but instead call for interpretation and analysis of what that work represents and why it has become a significant part of history? This idea can let viewer figure out how the work would have or may have affected, started, or moves that era to its end.

After reading this book you will find that the main agenda and purpose of this book is to show the change of illustration styles over time, either being from propaganda, the wave of new music genre or recalling attention to an event or feel of people of that time period. Each Chapter organizes itself by first explaining the main idea of what the decade has been through or were going through, develops a theme to describe that time and then finish the chapter off with showing examples of the artist whose works were known or had an impact in that decade. It doesn’t explain the purpose of their illustration but instead gives you mini autobiography of how they came into doing illustration and why they did them.

Based on the information given in this book, It can be said that this book is mainly for illustration major doing research or art historian. It is set up as a reference book that could be useful if a person is researching an art movement in a certain time period or an art of that time period. This book would not be effective it was used as a class textbook because it doesn’t give a detailed autobiography of the artist, just main facts, and their artwork. For a research paper, this book would be very helpful in connecting a time period with the style, movement, and artist.

Fifty years of illustration, says exactly what the books gives you, no more no less. the downfall of this book is that the autobiography of each artist is short and there are no details of why they created the illustration or the impact the illustration may have had in that decade.The introduction to each decade is not as brief but not completely actual, instead, it reads as if the author is telling a story of what his interpretation of what that decade represented. The main purpose of this book is to show the change of illustration over the decades as well as how they may have influenced each other through the changing or the development of art styles.Each chapter focuses specifically on its decades and does not draw reference from the time period before or after.  

A person with an appreciation and appetite for visual reflection and history would find this book to be very stimulating. You may not recognize all of the work but you can connect the feelings of the artist who created such work that represented iconic people that reflected that time, political events, and even the humor of the decade  that showcased an idea of what drove the arts into creating that specific image without having to verbally tell you why they created it. All in all, to define this book of illustration, it shows a very true statement to the saying that  “ A picture is worth a thousand words”.

 

Anime a History Review

Melanie Bigler

Art 335

Book Review

Anime: A History. Clements, Jonathan.  (London: Palgrave Macmillan on Behalf of the British Film Institute, 2013. 256 pp.).

Johnathan Clements’ Anime: A history showcases an in depth look of the evolution of anime while highlighting eras that have been overlooked by many. Anime, a style of animation in Japan that has influenced many over the years and has become a big topic to many as well. Anime is a growing subculture in American and in other countries as well. Clements explores the world of anime by going giving an in depth look on the process of anime.

Clements breaks up his content in ten chapters going in chronological order. Clements starts off in the early 1910’s with pieces like circa. He continues through to the twenty first century with animes like spirited away. By breaking up the content in chronological order it makes the text clean and easy to follow. He heavily focuses on the animation in the early years to show the true origin of anime.

There are few anime history books that have been published. Many of them refer to Astro Boy and Akira as the classics and origin of anime instead of the pre-animation back in the early 1900’s. An example of this is from a book called Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation by Susan J. Napier. This book starts off with Akira being one of the first animes and moves up to more recent films, however Akira and Astro Boy are not the true beginnings of anime. Pre-animation was the beginning of anime as it evolved with more modern technologies and practices it could turn into the anime we know today.

Clements starts off with the early animations in chapter 1 called kid deko’s new picture book. These animations are from the years 1912 – 1921. The board becomes strange is one of the early Japanese cartoon films that he talks about. Clements also incorporates the influences of Western films that have been introduced to Japan; such as The Haunted House in the Ruins of Napoleon’s palace. He shows this film even though it is not truly an animation, but consists of stop motion. By incorporating stop motion, it shows the process on moving from film to stop motion to animation. Clements choice of early films is very meticulous. Many have forgotten these early works and by reincorporating them in his book people then can begin to remember and appreciate these old animations. The early adaptation The New Adventures of Pinocchio had come out with episodes that were 12.5 minutes long half that of Astro Boy.

Clements still incorporates Astro Boy as a beginning for anime. Astro Boy can be considered as a beginning for anime because it was what sparked the want for more similar cartoons. It was one of the first animes ever to be broadcasted overseas. This anime also has a style that is unique in comparison to other animations. It is a great milestone in anime history and he chose to still incorporate even though he wanted to showcase the pre-animation. We can further appreciate Clements work with how he incorporates every little detail even ones where he isn’t to keen on.

Clements incorporates tables throughout his book. These tables showcase a chronological order of set films as well as other data used in his arguments. One of the data tables that he used in an argument is table 9.1 (183 pp). This table shows the ten most viewed Japanese films at the US box office. The table is in the Pokémon Shock chapter which he highlights on the foreign market. Clements argues that these films have a limited success within the cinema exhibition community which indirectly relates to a smaller subculture. The anime subculture is predominant in America it ranges from 15 to 20 million anime fans while those who just watch films are over 1 billion. It is true that there is limited success due to sheer numbers of people interested in it.

In conclusion, Clements focuses on the origin of anime as well as the creator and their influences that helped shaped the anime. He also explores how they transformed the nature of subsequent productions. He doesn’t focus primarily on anime itself, but focuses more on the behind-the-scenes of the creators of these animations while also hitting at the industry and subculture of anime. Clements provides accurate and detailed information on the creation of anime as while as highlighting the industry behind such anime. He provides more information than many anime history books that are out there.

 

 

Design: The Invention of Desire

Design: The Invention of Desire. By Jessica Helfand. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. 228 pp.).

Design matters. It does not require an expensive art education to realize its value. However, the reason why design matters, as Jessica Helfand argues in her book Design: The Invention of Desire, is not because it utilizes compositional principles that are visually pleasing or because it creates the qualities of character that consumers believe a product can provide. Design matters because people matter. Helfand asserts that design “is an intrinsically humanist discipline” (p. 24), one that shapes people’s beliefs, perceptions, curiosities and desires. She contends that design is not about what is created, but rather why it is created, and, in an industry defined by aesthetic concerns and production values, a shift in focus from the outer to the inner may be difficult to reconcile.

While Helfand’s book may be a philosophical splash of water in the face of the seasoned designer, it is ultimately a sincere reminder of what it means to be human, a call to arms to regain sight of the delicate inter-workings that unite each and every person. Helfand analyzes the “conscience-driven rules of human engagement within which design must operate” (p. 24), dissecting her writing into twelve concise chapters: authority, fantasy, identity, consequence, compassion, patience, solitude, melancholy, humility, memory, desire, and change. In a parallel exploration, each of these chapters is accompanied by a histological painting, a rendering of a microscopic biological structure that composes the human body. Images of components like the pituitary gland, bone marrow, heart ventricle, and mitochondria serve as visual metaphors to the level of introspective examination of which, Helfand argues, the field of design—and modern humanity for that matter—is in such a dire need.

The ability and willingness to look inward is a steady theme throughout Helfand’s book. In chapter one, “Authority,” she proposes a sad, modern twist on Descartes’s proclamation of selfhood, writing, “We post, therefore we are” (p. 38). She questions modern humanity’s heightened tendency to look outward, through social media for example, for validation of personal merit and value, a practice that reveals a diminished trust in the internal as a source of self-affirmation. While her questions are critical in their nature, they are not accusatory in tone. Helfand never isolates the reader by divorcing herself from the issue at hand, but rather offers personal anecdotes that acknowledge her own shortcomings, a tactic that unites her with the reader and provides a glimmer of hope that recognition is the first step towards a shift in thought (perhaps even practice). Furthermore, Helfand’s philosophical ponderings rarely end in ex cathedra-like answers. Instead, her approach is more akin to a guide through introspective thought, which, while at times can be unsatisfying in its lack of definitive conclusion, ultimately reinforces her call for a more internal and less external mode of thinking.

Taking a more design-centered look at the importance of self-reflection, in chapter seven, “Solitude,” Helfand tackles the messy realm of co-creation, that is to say producing things in teams and even creative crowdsourcing (all of which she clearly separates from collaboration). She disputes the impulsive adoption of group work that has taken the design field by storm. While recognizing that at its core design is a social discipline, Helfand argues that “to a considerable degree, [design] benefit[s] from the ruthless objectivity that comes from imagining alone” (p. 130). She points to countless quotes from literary and artistic luminaries like Franz Kafka, William Wordsworth, and Ingmar Bergman that attest to the necessary practice (albeit a difficult one at times) of solitude, serving “as a catalyst to original thinking” (p. 124). For Helfand, solitude facilitates a pure and honest search for truth that can ultimately lead to the discovery and creation of something new. While she clearly asserts that individual creation trumps that of the group, Helfand does not end the discussion on a note of praise. Instead, she explains the origin of the groupthink approach to design, even acknowledging the strategy’s potential ability to inhibit rash, inappropriate design decisions through its checks and balances system. Helfand also analyzes the two-faced dilemma of artificial connectedness and false solitude that technology has created. This thoughtful exploration of the many facets of design methodology and practice is representative of her entire book. Helfand scrupulously considers each angle of an idea, exposing the truth that may lie in seemingly conflicting concepts, a marker of a well-developed philosophical examination.

Helfand asserts that design is to civilization as cells are to the body, “design as DNA” (p. 21). Much like the histological paintings that open each chapter, she distills design down to its core elements. To design is to be human, to be alive, to be awake to the motivations and consequences of every thought and decision. It is precisely this approach that opens the pages of Helfand’s book not only to those working as ‘designers’ but to anyone who cares to reconsider how humans communicate with one another. With that said, Helfand’s target audience is unclear at times. While she often seemingly speaks to all of humanity, her casual references to specific artists, movements, and works of art with minimal explanation may, at worst, leave some material indigestible for the lay reader, and, at best, leave a bit of research on the hands of even those readers with a background in design history. But with obscure visual examples aside, Helfand takes the reader on a peregrination through popular culture, world history, and personal anecdotes that eschews the stylistic, technical, and business-oriented concerns of design and reveals its deeper emotional, ethical, and humanistic roots. Design: The Invention of Desire is undoubtedly a reminder of the blood and bone that holds everyone together and an inspiration for the work of tomorrow.

Avant-Garde in Everyday Life

 

The anothology Avant-Garde In Everyday Life, edited by Matthew Witkovsky, outlines the lives and works of Avant-Garde artists in the 1920s and 30s. The Six artists described include John Heartfield, El Lissitzky, Gustav Klutis, Ladislav Sutnar, Karel Teige, and Piet Zwart. The book begins with an introduction that eases the reader into the subject by briefly explaining the Avant-Garde artist’s goal to transform the daily life of average people. The remainder of the chapters each feature a short overview and biography of a specific artist, followed by an in-depth description of their artistic experiences and impact. There is an extensive assortment of images included to help reader to visualize the work and environment of the artist. The artists featured in this book participated in a variety of Avant-Garde movements, such as Dadaism, Constructivism, New Typography, and more. The specificity of subject matter and amount of text written about each artist makes the book an ideal subject for scholarly studies. The chapters are each written by a different artist, all who clearly did extensive research on their respective artist, including minute details and specific analyses. Although the book is successful in conveying a large amount of knowledge through these specialized authors, the title infers a desired purpose which remains unfulfilled. The editor clearly wanted to discuss the impact of these artists’ works on “everyday life”, but it turned into something more encyclopedic, a collection of six individual Avant-Garde biographies.

Despite differences in style, location, and language, all six artists have one thing in common: at one point or another in their careers, they used their art for political activism. This connection is relatively vague when considering that political polemics were hard to avoid because of WWI. All the artists were either German, Czech, or Russian, each artists dealing with different frustrations in each of their WWI environments. The German Artist John Heartfield was a radical leftist against the war, so he used his art to protest the violence, turning to Dada and photomontage. During the German revolution he teamed up with the KPD to create “inescapable” propaganda, such as posters, magazine covers, and even children’s books. Guztav Klutis also supported a communist Russian state and believed that “artists had [responsibility] in shaping the new Soviet society”(p.57). Klutis used Vladimir Lenin as a prominent subject in many of his propaganda posters, believing that artists were necessary to agitate the citizens and help promote socialism. An interesting parallel could have been made here, comparing today’s artists’s political efforts to those made back during WWII. The topic of socialism is a very controversial one, however it remains popular in creative communities, just as it was back during the times of Klutis and Lenin. Despite detailed  historical recollection, the authors failed to take advantage of the opportunity to relate these artists and their work to our everyday lives, or anything else for that matter, besides the past environments which their artistry occurred.

This book is packed full of information about each of the six featured artists, however the title and appearance are both very misleading. When reading the title Avant-garde in Everyday Life, one expects a book that focuses on the presence of the Avant-Garde influence in today’s daily life. On the contrary, the book focuses much more on biographies of individual artists, and only mentions their pertinence to everyday life during the era which they were alive. A better title would instead describe the Avant-Garde artist’s role in spreading socialist values, which is what a much greater portion of the book is about. Themes of utilitarianism and anti-capitalism are mentioned a great deal more throughout the book than themes of everyday life transformation. In fact, only one artists, Ladislav Sutnar was shown to have made household items that would truly be of everyday use. Most of the artists mentioned exclusively created posters or magazine covers, which while may have transformed the appearance of urban areas, did not actually invade the daily domestic area of the average person. A true to title version of this book would have focused on the Avant-Garde style itself, rather than the artists themselves, relating and comparing the designs created back then to the designs we see in Everyday Life now. Although this was a successful series of biographies, it was not a successful analysis of Avant-Garde’s role in any era’s daily life.

 

Resources

Witkovsky, Matthew S., and Jared Ash. Avant-garde Art in Everyday Life: Early-twentieth-century European Modernism. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011. Print.