AVANT GARDE I

The Avant Garde is a series of modernist design movements dating from 1910 to 1940.

Futurism, Dadaism, Constructivism, De Stijl and Bauhaus are the major Avant Garde movements.

Each movement wrote a manifesto to explain their philosophy, and had at least one journal to communicate with designers of like philosophies elsewere in Europe. The manifestos outlined how their art should be viewed and seen. The art was usually created after the manifesto, the reverse of what had been true.

Avant Garde objects were created for the populace, who had the least interest in them.

Most artistic concepts of the 20th century were conceived of by the Avant Garde.

They used page space to give a sense of sound, time, space, pause and volume.

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Futurism
Futurism is primarily an Italian, primarily Milan, movement dating from ca. 1910-1920

Futurists are interested in technology, simultinaity and the future.

Artists were Balla and Boccioni, deisgners are Filippo Marinetti and Soffici.

In order to print their manifestos, designers went into print shops and became fascinated with letterforms as an image. The Futurists up turned the type case onto the page.

As part of simultinaity, the Futurists and Dadaists tried to represent sound.

The books of the poetry of Tullio d’Abisolo are examples of Futurist design, all pages unique, heavy-duty steel cover and bindings and brilliant color.

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Dadaism
Anti-establishment in nature, the Dadaists wanted to destroy museums and all that had preceded them. They meant to shock the public.

Surrealism was an offshoot of Dadaism. They were active during and after WW I and were influenced by the pessimism, death and misery caused by the war.

Dadaists met in Zurich during the war to discuss their theories of art and develop a manifesto.

Marcel Duchamp was the leading Dadaist and someone who explored all non traditional media and ideas. He used collage, assemblage, painting and design to carry very personal messages. His Nude Descending a Staircase is an example of multiplicity of views, simultaneity, and Cubist planar views. It was in the Armory Show and shocked American audiences.

Dadaist took existing work and reworked it to give it new or multiple meanings.

Dadaists, such as Schwitters or Tzara, took poetry and created visual representations of the sounds of the poetry through type size, weight and placement.

Dadaist began to use photography in place of illustration.

Dada pages were blocks of type and anything else in the type case, going in different directions mandating the handling of the object.

Tristan Tzara was one of the leading French Dadaists.

Dada journals carried the messages of local groups to a wider audience.

Theo van Doesburg used the name I.K.Bonset as a dadaist.

Dada was extremely active in Germany. The Dadaists of Berlin tended to be politically motivated while Kurt Schwitters and those of Hanover were more commercially directed.

Schwitters earned a living as a designer working for his Merz journal, Pelikan inks and other firms in Hanover. He developed a design form called Merz, based on and an abbreviation for the commerz.

John Heartfield used dada design in journals and posters, incorporating montaged photography.

Dadaism continues through concrete poetry and happenings of the 1960’s and Neo-Dada.