Grapus Movement As the Swiss style movement reached the 1960s the younger generation was itching for

something new. The new generation was looking for something out of the box, something that spoke socially and politically, which soon came to be called the student movement. In France a group of three students, Pierre Bernard, Francois Miehe, and Gerard Paris-Clavel formed a group called Grapus in 1970 in order to bring culture to politics.

Grapus made unconventional posters to address human needs and current political issues. They used universal symbols that often contradicted themselves to convey messages with an element of shock. Unlike the Swiss movement, which was based on refined typography and technical rendering, Grapus moved toward hand rendering text, graffiti, and images with lots of feeling.

Their posters focused on the social history of the 1960s and 1970s, the political battles of the period, the liberation of the Third World, Vietnam, Chile Organised groups, trade unions, institutions and political parties shared our commitment and gave us the means to produce our images (Gerard ParisClavel)

Grapus stayed together as a group up until 1991 splitting up because the group realized that their work has reached their limit. The group became so popular that Grapus became in a sense a name brand. The group then came to the cross roads where they could either continue marketing themselves and making more money but at the cost of losing their political and social integrity.

The Modern movement in America

During the 1930s Nazism forced many to leave Europe for America, leading to the spread of the modern design. Also in the 1930s Walter Paepcke, founder of the Container Corporation of America, was a leader in design. He believed that design had a practical value, and that a trademark used on everything from advertising, packaging, and trucks, to the company's factories could promote business. As with World War I, graphic design was used for propaganda during World War II, primarily with posters. After the war Paepcke sponsored an advertising campaign for a designer from each of the 48 states to do an ad, promoting the ideal of "union of art with life".

America was introduced to modernism at the 1913 Armory Show, but it was met by public protest and initially rejected. The same reaction awaited Jan Tschichold's "elementare typographie"insert. A small number of American typographers and designers, such as: William Addison Dwiggins, S. A. Jacobs, Merle Armitage, and Lester Beall. They recognized the value of the new ideas, and modernism slowly gained ground in book design, editorial design for fashion and business magazines catering to affluent audiences, and promotional and corporate graphics. By the 1930s, modernist European design had become a significant influence in America. An important phase in the development of American graphic design resulted from the migration of many European artist and designers who fled the rise of Nazism in Europe. Alexey Brodovitch was one of those people who brought European modernism to American graphic design. http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/Lecture09/ModernMovementAmeri ca2.html http://anm102pm.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/anm102-ch17-modern-movement-in-america.pdf

The international style International Style, architectural style that developed in Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 30s and became the dominant tendency in Western architecture during the middle decades of the 20th century. The most common characteristics of International Style buildings are rectilinear forms; light, taut plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of applied ornamentation and decoration; open interior spaces; and a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction. Glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete, are the characteristic materials of construction. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style, that identified, categorized and expanded upon characteristics common to Modernism across the world and its stylistic aspects. The authors identified three principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, the emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the expulsion of applied ornament. The aim of Hitchcock and Johnson was to define a style that would encapsulate this modern architecture, doing this by the inclusion of specific architects.

The book was written to record the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1932. All the works in the exhibition were carefully selected, only displaying those that strictly followed these rules.[1] Previous uses of the term in the same context can be attributed to Walter Gropius in Internationale Architektur, and Ludwig Hilberseimer in Internationale neue Baukunst.

Op Art Optical Art is a term referring to sculptures or paintings that appear to almost vibrate because of their optical effect. Using patterns and colors, artists of the movement were able to create visual effects that disoriented its viewers. Key painters in the movement include Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely. Two sculptors who used illusion of distortion to disorient viewers were Eric Olsen and Francisco Sobrino. The artists used what they knew about perceptive psychology to create their idealized versions of their intended results. Other cousin art movements related to Optical Art include the Constructivist Art and Kinetic movements. As it developed, Optical Art gained favor with the public; however critics were more skeptical of its operation in the art world. One famous exhibit from the Optical Art movement was The Responsive Eye exhibit shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965. As a result of the exhibit, fashion designers and trendy street stores started to incorporate the style in their products. Soon after, the term became a household name.

Pop Art Pop Art was the art of popular culture. It was the visual art movement that characterised a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom of the 1950's and 1960's. It coincided with the globalization of pop music and youth culture, personified by Elvis and the Beatles. Pop Art was brash, young and fun and hostile to the artistic establishment. It included different styles of painting and sculpture from various countries, but what they all had in common was an interest in mass-media, massproduction and mass-culture.

Action Painting Action painting sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist. The Action painters had a gestural style that gave the sense of movement in their artwork. The action painting style was made popular by Jackson Pollock, one of the most popular Abstract Expressionist painters. According to a web source, In 1947, Jackson Pollock developed a radical new technique called action- painting, which involved dripping thinned paint onto raw canvas laid on the ground using wide and rhythmic sweeps of a large and loaded brush (if a brush was used) or, more usually direct from the can a far cry from the traditional painterly method whereby pigment was applied by a brush to a canvas on an easel (Visual-Arts-Cork). The action-painter Jackson Pollock used a technique of throwing paint onto a canvas on the ground which was dramatically different from the traditional methods.

The action painters artwork gave the impression of movement within the painting. According to the web source, Pollocks painting smashed all conventions of traditional American art. Their subject matter was entirely abstract, their scale was huge, and their iconoclastic production method became almost as important as the works themselves. This was because, for these Abstract Expressionists, the authenticity of a painting lay in its directness and immediacy of expression: in how the artist conveyed his inner pulses, his unconscious being. In a sense, the painting itself became an event, a drama of self-revelation. Hence the term action painting(Visual-Arts-Cork). The paintings of Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, and Lee Krasner all have works which contain the gestural style of movement and action. Action painters had a physical and almost theatrical method of painting which came through in their artwork.

Urban Graffiti Graffiti - the term comes from both the Greek term "Graphein" meaning 'to write' and the word 'graffiti' is plural of the Italian word "Graffito" meaning 'scratch' and its history can be dated back to prehistoric cave man wall drawings, it can be seen as a human 'need' for communication - "Graffiti represents man's desire to communicate" (Wechsler vi).

Graffiti has become a prominent force in urban settings in the late 20th century and mention of the word conjures up many different images in people's minds - is it art or is it vandalism? a cause of the urban decay or a product from it? The scope of attitudes towards graffiti is wide and controversial. It should be asserted here that many graffiti writers do not call their work graffiti, but rather writing. Iz the Wiz, a writer explains that "graffiti is some social term that was developed (for the culture) somewhere in the 70's" For many people graffiti is not seen as a serious area for studying mainly because there is not enough information to study. But that is all wrong. All known art forms around today have been born as a response to a social phenomenon whether it was a war, a political problem or simply a need for something new. Art is an expression; therefore the view that graffiti is not a real art practice and should be illegal is preposterous. Is it the canvases that graffiti artists use? (public buildings and trains etc) or is it that we haven't found the Pablo Picasso if Graffiti as yet? It is understandable to see how some graffiti artists can be seen as menacing because they remain unknown but at the same infamous. These graffiti artists have the option to come forward and speak about their work so citizens can better understand the reasons behind their actions. Only then can a more structured and organized movement or entity can be formed to promote the graffiti arts in a much more positive light.

Name the most important artists, graphic artists, photographers and designers of this era. Name and describe their most important work. Demonstrate with images

Most of the artwork that emerged prior to the war was widely known as "Abstract Expressionism". abstract expressionism, movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade; also called action painting and the New York school. It was the first important school in American painting to declare its independence from European styles and to influence the development of art abroad. Arshile Gorky first gave impetus to the movement. His paintings, derived at first from the art of Picasso, Mir, and surrealism, became more personally expressive. During the period leading up to and during World War II modernist artists, writers, and poets, as well as important collectors and dealers, fled Europe and the onslaught of the Nazis for safe haven in the United States. Many of those who didn't flee perished. Among the artists and collectors who arrived in New York during the war (some with help from Varian Fry) were Hans Namuth, Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage, Max Ernst, Jimmy Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, Leo Castelli, Marcel Duchamp, Andr Masson, Roberto Matta, Andr Breton, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Fernand Lger and Piet Mondrian. A few artists, notably Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard remained in France and survived. The post-war period left the capitals of Europe in upheaval with an urgency to economically and physically rebuild and to politically regroup. In Paris, formerly the center of European culture and capital of the art world, the climate for art was a disaster and New York replaced Paris as the new center of the art world. In Europe after the war there was the continuation of Surrealism, Cubism, Dada and the works of Matisse. Also in Europe, Art brut, and Lyrical Abstraction or Tachisme (the European equivalent to Abstract expressionism) took hold of the newest generation. Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Stal, Georges Mathieu, Vieira da Silva, Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein and Pierre Soulages among others are considered important figures in post-war European painting. In the United States a new generation of American artists began to emerge and to dominate the world stage and they were called Abstract Expressionists.

Artists
Serge Poliakoff Jean Dubuffet Yves Klein

Composition grise et rouge, 1964, oil on canvas, 160x130cm

Jean Dubuffet, Court les rues, 1962, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI. An example of a nonpainterly Dubuffet painting

Yves Klein, IKB 191, 1962.

Food for thought In what ways did photography of the post-war era differ from photography of the first half of the twentieth century? There is a very important factor to take into account. Early photography needed for the subject to stand still for a few seconds. Actually, harnesses and neck braces where used to assure the subject would not appear blurred. This meant the photo moment weren't natural, the poses stiff and the faces a little tense. Conceptually you weren't capturing a real moment, but a staged impression. With the modern camera one can snap photos of truly natural, unreheresed and spontaneus moments, so the outcome is very diferent. The difference can be based on the technology that was used in the different times. The types of camera used in the different times have varying specs and effects. We can say the photography for the 20th century, was better and much more advanced, as compared to the post war period.

Photographers
http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/content.php?pid=218347&sid=1814239

Wolfgang Georg Sievers, (18 September 1913 7 August 2007) was an Australian photographer who specialised in architectural and industrial photography. Sievers' work after the war was imbued with the Bauhaus ethos and philosophy of the New Objectivity he had learned in Berlin, combined with a socialist belief in the inherent dignity of labour. His photographs were often overtly theatrical, as he commonly photographed industrial machinery at night, isolating details with artificial light and posing workers for heightened effect. This can be seen in 'Gears for Mining Industry' (1967), perhaps his most well known single image. This approach was extraordinarily influential in Australian post-war commercial photography.

Female employees constructing cars at Ford Motor Company, Geelong, Wolfgang Sievers, 1951, H98.30/21

Ford Motor Plant, Wolfgang Sievers, 1952, H88.40/945.

Mark Strizic Mark (given name 'Marko') Strizic (b.19 April 1928 Berlin, d. Wallan 8 December 2012) migrated to Australia from Croatia in 1950 and became a widely published architectural and industrial photographer, portraitist of significant Australians,[2] and fine art photographer/painter known for his multimedia mural work. He, and other postwar immigrant photographers Wolfgang Sievers, Henry Talbot, Richard Woldendorp, Bruno Benini, Margaret Michaelis, Dieter Muller, David Mist and Helmut Newton brought modernism to Australian photography.[3][4] He taught photography at tertiary level in Melbourne from 1978, and in 1984 he became a full-time artist, photographer and designer. The winner of a number of photographic awards and grants, he exhibited his work widely since 1958. Strizic's work is represented in the Australian National Gallery and several state galleries and in corporate collections.[5] He settled in Richmond, subsequently moving with his wife Sue to Surrey Hills, Melbourne, and finally to Wallan in country Victoria, living there until his death in 2012. Mark Strizic viewed Australian life in the 1950-60's through post-war European eyes and he did not celebrate Australia becoming a modern industrial society as did Max Dupain. He photographed both the destruction of buildings, before, during and after the wreckers were busy and Melbourne's historical architectural beauty, with its romantic European skyline of spires, cupolas and arches that was disappearing fast.

Mark Strizic, Construction Site With Cranes, c1950s. Vintage silver gelatin photograph

Mark Strizic Humes Culverts, c1950s, Vintage silver gelatin photograph,

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustdter; 31 October 1920 23 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications." Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara "Claire" (ne Marquis) and Max Neustdter, a button factory owner. His family was Jewish. Newton attended the Heinrich-von-Treitschke-Realgymnasium and the American School in Berlin. Interested in photography from the age of 12 when he purchased his first camera, he worked for the German photographer Yva (Elsie Neulander Simon) from 1936. The increasingly oppressive restrictions placed on Jews by the Nuremberg laws meant that his father lost control of the factory in which he manufactured buttons and buckles; he was briefly interned in a concentration camp on "Kristallnacht", 9 November 1938, which finally compelled the family to leave Germany. Newton's parents fled to South America. He was issued with a passport just after turning 18, and left Germany on 5 December 1938. At Trieste he boarded the 'Conte Rosso' (along with about 200 others escaping the Nazis), intending to journey to China. After arriving in Singapore he found he was able to remain there, first and briefly as a photographer for the Straits Times and then as a portrait photographer.

Helmut Newton's 1952 portrait of Laurel Martyn, National Library of Australia Tivoli portraits, Helmut Newton, ca. 1953-ca. 1957, H83.443/15 Tivoli portrait [uncatalogued]

Graphic Artists
Paul Rand He designed logos for IBM, Westinghouse, ABC, NeXT, UPS and Enron.

IBM - Designed 1962 UPS - Designed 1961

He was responsible of new and different work. We can say that he was a witty designer. He plays with the type; sometime he creates some complicated stuff. His career began with humble assignments, starting with a part-time position creating stock images for a syndicate that supplied graphics to various newspapers and magazines. Between his class assignments and his work, Rand was able to amass a fairly large portfolio, largely influenced by the German advertising style Sachplakat (ornamental poster) as well as the works of Gustav Jensen.

Rand was part of a movement in the 1940s and 50s in which American designers were coming up with original styles. He was a major figure in this change that had a focus on freeform layouts. Rand used collage, photography, artwork and unique use of type to engage his audience. It was perhaps put most simply and accurately when Rand was featured in one of Apples classic ads that stated, Think Different, and thats exactly what he did Rand on modernism I havent changed my mind about modernism from the first day I ever did it. It means integrity; it means honesty; it means the absence of sentimentality and the absence of nostalgia; it means simplicity; it means clarity. Thats what modernism means to me

Josef Muller-Brockman He was born in Rapperswil, Switzerland in 1914 and studied architecture, design and history of art at the University of Zurich and at the citys Kunstgewerbeschule. He invented the grid system for graphic design and were the first systematically to outline the history of visual communication. He published several books, including The Graphic Artist and His Problems and Grid Systems in Graphic Design. Alan fletcer was uniquely responsible for defining British graphic design with his witty and highly individual approach. In his long career he was associated with some of the most distinguished patrons of modern design, among them the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fortune magazine, Reuters, Time and Life, IBM, furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, Pirelli, Lloyds of London

I HAVE THE PDF OF HIS BOOK " Grid Systems in Graphic Design - Josef Muller-Brockmann "

Designers - http://www.vintageseekers.com/buyers-guide/top-five-post-war-furniture-icons Charles and Ray Eames LCW Chairs, 1946 No roll call of iconic post-war design would be complete without a nod to the Eames, the husband and wife team who almost single-handedly introduced America to the mid-century aesthetic. This pair of late 40s walnut lounge chairs show the start of the mid-century campaign for lean, functional furniture from which all their other iconic seating would evolve. This pivotal design in fact stems directly from WWII - from designing splints for the US Navy, they learnt to mould plywood and put their first plywood chair into production in 1946.

Friso Kramer 'Revolt' chair, 1953 A staple across schools and offices for decades, Kramers combination of moulded plywood frame with a Bakelite seat has proven an enduringly practical design, recognised with an award for Best Interior Design Product at the 2005 Dutch Design Awards. Friso Kramer was the master of Dutch industrial furniture design, so despite the references to the moulded plywood chairs of Eames and Jacobsen in the Revolt, his individual utilitarian style is stamped on this chair.

Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair, 1958 Arne Jacobsen was enlisted to furnish the modernist glass cigar building that was the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, and this chair design for its lobby turned out to be his legacy to the world of design. Advancing Eero Saarinen's Womb armchair of 1946, the Egg was designed with the human form in mind and cocoons the body with its sweeping oval seat on a swivel base. The chair may have routinely featured in the diary room of Big Brother, but dont let that put you off; this is mid-century comfort and style in perfect harmony.