Section Two

2-Visual Examples

    This artistic advert (fig.1) by Cassandre subscribes to modernist principles of

clarity and geometry. The human form has been abstracted and flattened entirely but

still conveys the message clearly as well as looking pleasing. The same principles can

be found in modernist architecture.

       Art and design often merged within Modernism. Another principle that united

them was the depiction of truth rather than knowledge or desire. Expressionist

illustrators, like Franz Masereel, used bold, dramatic lines to capture not just an event

but the emotions surrounding it as well, based on the notion that sight and knowledge

could not be separated. (Fig.2)

    The search for truth also encapsulated modern thinking as regards psychology.

Illustrators and artists drew from their own unconscious to find reality unhampered by

reason. Expressionists showed this by expressing the inner state rather than realism,

and surrealists, like Max Ernst, worked imaginatively, loosed from the fetters of

conscious reality. (Fig.3)

     Society was moving towards introspection, and art/design used this on a national

scale. Rather than look to religion for direction and social commentary, artists and

designers started reflecting politics, using that to help change the world. John

Heartfield is one whose work clearly reflects his times and the political climate

around him. (Fig.4)

A key tenet of modernist design and illustration was its quasi-religious desire to

change the world and predict the future. As a result, a lot of early modernist works

were very futuristic, like the work of Fortunato Depero, whose work also triumphs

technology and futuristically aligns humans with machines. (Fig.5)