Art Deco and War Posters

           Cubism continued its influence into the 1920’s and 30’s becoming what is today known as art deco. During the time period in between World War I and World War II traveling was being majorly promoted across America and Europe. Many graphic designers of the time used art deco to create posters for railways and the London Underground, as well as cruise lines and travel poster by plane. Three designers of the time really stood out to me and I found myself being captivated by their artwork: Kauffer, Carlu, and Cooper.
           Edward McKnight Kauffer lived a troubled childhood that led to him traveling to the Art Institute in Chicago and then eventually to Europe to study graphic design. In 1913 while studying in Chicago a New York Times article forced Kauffer to rethink his time at the Art Institute, which resulted in his decision to move to London where he designed many war posters. His Poster Daily Herold poster is credited to be flawed in the text, however his graphic is so inspirational it caught the attention of Winston Churchill who contracted him to design the emblem for the Royal Flying Crops. Aldous Huxley responded to Kauffer’s designs that they contradict many graphic designs of the time that carry into today’s modern advertisements flaunting money and sex as a means to grab attention. I find this to be extremely refreshing and a great tool for a designer to be able to use in their work.

Like Kauffer Jean Carlu also had a hard early life. At age eighteen he fell under a trolley car which severed his arm and forced him to learn to draw with his left arm. This proved to be a great challenge that he quickly overcame as World War I approached and he gave up his dream of architecture to apply his visual communicative skills to designing War propaganda for his France. The science mentality he had for architecture helped him to develop his designs in the art deco style. He used sharp and rigid lines to indicate tension and alertness but used curves and soft edges as breathing space signifying relaxation.

            In England during this time Austin Cooper continued the tradition of art deco after using collage designs to ignite emotional attachment and memories by compiling different cutouts of landmarks. In 1924 Cooper shifted completely into art deco by designing completely in geometric shapes and color to help further develop communication posters for the London Underground.

Edward Kauffer

Edward Kauffer

Edward Kauffer

Jean Carlu

Jean Carlu

Jean Carlu

Austin Cooper

Austin Cooper

Austin Cooper

Cubism

           Cubism has had a major role in my interest in art starting from a very young age. I come from a family of engineers and have a mother who studied art history herself so the combination of geometric patterns and shapes mixed into artwork has always fascinated me. Next to Monet and Van Gough, Picasso is one of my favorite artists. It was his work that started the cubist movement which challenged the organic design style of the Renaissance that had been prevalent for the last four hundred years. What influenced Picasso to begin to paint in this style was the geometry that was seen in African and Iberian sculpture, and fabrics. Cubism allowed designers challenged space and human emotion thru a whole new lens, by separating figures into geometrical frames the cubist artwork had multiple shapes that were visible from different angles.

           In 1910 Picasso took cubism to a new level with fellow artist Georges Braque, the two created analytical cubism. Picasso and Braque made it an intention to look at the artwork from multiple viewpoints and manipulate the artwork so that the shapes would appear from multiple viewpoints. The differences between cubism and analytical cubism are subtle but prominent; analytical cubism makes manipulating multiple viewpoints deliberate while it is simply a byproduct in cubism. Analytical cubism lasted until 1912 when Picasso and Braque introduced collage work into their design. Texture became a huge part of cubism with the influence of collage work as the pieces of collage work could signify certain objects while the painting itself could provide the color and background shapes as needed. Typography and letterforms often came into play in the new evolved Cubism, they were used to emphasize meaning more often than not.

In 1913 the art movement took a much simpler turn with synthetic cubism. This style focused more around characteristics and visuals of artwork rather than putting meaning to paper. Artwork such as Juan Gris’s Fruit Bowl 1916 is such an example of this. Gris became a very important figure in synthetic cubism; his work acting as a middle ground to geometric patterns and perception. Around this time cubism was taken away from the sharpness of past cubist’s and centered around shapes with curvature such as cones and spheres. Fernand Legar and Paul Cezanne attested to this style by advising artists to “treat nature in terms of the cylindrical, and the sphere and the cone” (Cezanne).

            Cubism was the first of many new art styles to crop up around the twentieth century due to new rises in technology. It was because of this movement that artists started connecting geometric patterns to art that paved the way for other greatly impactful styles such as futurism, dada, surrealism, and expressionism. 

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) 'Factory, Horta de Ebbo', 1909 (oil on canvas)

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Girl with Mandolin (1910)

Juan Gris (1887-1927) Fruit Bowl, Vintage Cubism Art Print