Art Deco

I love Art Deco. It is one of the art movements within Modernism that has been very popular for many years and still has a strong following, especially in Graphic Design circles after a full century.

When Art Deco began it was really it was almost an homage to previous Modernist traditions such as Cubism and De Stijl artists. from the beginning, however, it was not restricted to canvas art. From its early days in Paris at the start of the 1900s it became featured as a style in architecture and consumer products as much as in galleries.

One of the big reasons for Art Deco being so popular was that in its national search for a specific "American" art style, the USA sent delegates across to study art styles current across Europe. They took back elements of several styles, but were clearly influenced by Art Deco. They added elements of style from , for example, Italian Futurism and developed a streamlined version of the European style.

Once America had taken the movement on board it was inevitable that it would be taken on board by the exciting new developments in architecture - especially the growing trend of high rise "buildings as statements" such as the Chrysler Building. It was also a big influence on artists such as Le Corbusier.

Hollywood had a big role to play. Cinematic posters were amongst the most common ways for ordinary people to experience "Art". They film studios took to Art Deco in a big way.

In the "Roaring 20s", the period of of excess in style and the boom time for the US, Art Deco really flourished. It was seen in Clothing, advertising, cigarette lighters, jewelry, cars and other forms of transport,household goods such as lights, lamps, etc. It was everywhere. It had come to represent style and a sense of "feel good" exuberance.

No wonder I, like many others, still see the value in a style of art that could influence so much of everyday life, whilst bringing on such strong positive feelings.

I have tried to produce a range of modern images, produced using digital technology, to reflect that era. To see a selection visit The Digital Modernist website.

For more detail on the Art Deco Style and galleries of artwork see the section on The Digital Modernist site

Who are the Suprematists ?

When I first came across the term "Suprematists" I had a vision of extreme right wing politically motivated activists. Even worse was the thought that they would also be involved in racism of the worst kind - Cross Burning, murdering fascists. But NO. That was not the case, thankfully.

Suprematism is the name given to a group of mostly Russian artists of the 20th Century. The interest in being supreme was merely to do with their Art. What they were interested in was developing the most "pure" form of art. For them pure art was that which was a reaction to the previous Western ideals of getting  closer to "reality" in their work. Realism was, to them, the antithesis of art. It was a distraction from the nature of expressive art. The ultimate expression of artistic supremacy was a work by the movement's founder, Kazimir Malevich, which consisted simply of a painted black square.

The nature of Suprematist Artwork was that it was abstract. It was a development of the Cubist Style but also contained influences from the Italian Futurist movement. It went further than Cubism in the sense that it abstracted even further from any hint of "realism". Instead it concentrated on basic shapes - rectangle, triangle, circle, square - and with block colors. 

Whilst the movement was essentially established by Kazimir Malevich, it was an artist who was influenced by the Suprematist style, El Lassitzki, who developed it and made it more acceptable to the mainstream Abstract movements. The style was also a big influence on Wassily Kandinski, who went on to influence the Bauhaus  and the De Stijl movements.

* To find out even more about the Suprematists and their work, take a look at The Digital Modernist website. 

* For short introduction see The Digital Modernist video, "Suprematist Art",  which contains lots of examples of the group's artwork as well as more detail on what they stood for and where they came from.