Focusing on specific examples, describe the way that modernist Art and Design was a response to the forces of Modernity?
Around the start of the nineteenth centaury the world had begun to change rapidly. ‘ The advent of the steam engine at the beginning of the nineteenth centaury brought to power Industry, and products now had to be designed for the developing production processes. Mechanization took command, from railways to textiles to agriculture, and steel bridges spanned the new era.’ Vignelli, M. (2010) ‘The Vignelli Canon’. Mulgrave, Victoria, Images Publishing pp 22.
People favored the city and began to move there for work, in factories and industry. An agrarian society transitioned into an industrial one. Urbanization of the cities meant there where more people available for work and many aspired to earn a fortune. Everyone now relied on shift patterns rather than the sun to tell what time of day it was, however this wasn’t reliable enough and so the world standardized its time globally, which meant everyone knew what time it was in their country and another. Industrialization and new inventions such as the railways meant that cities could be connected within hours, not days, mass production became a part of this new world, and the trade moved further into citied further and further away until it reached new countries, places that had never really been contacted before on such a scale. The invention of the telephone also aided trade between other cities and countries, people could speak to one another almost instantly. The world was shrinking in its distance and unfamiliarity. As well as the world expanding industrially, it also expanded socially and culturally, hard work in the factory, and city life made many feel the need to enjoy their time off. Leisure tome was a new concept in the new world. People began to enjoy activities such as the cinema, music and shopping in grand arcades, which also where an invention of a savvy business man who took advantage of the popular culture growing around him, aided by industrialization. The upper classes became wealthier and the need to show off visits and objects from far away countries grew, people aspired to travel, although many could not afford, it was a symbol of status. And so the world had become more connected and that meant people had a need to understand each other, there was a drive towards internationalism and standardization.
In 1925 Bayer, a member of the Bauhaus, a new progressive art and design institute formed out of modernity, designed the typeface ‘universal’. ‘ Bayer hoped to transcend the transient whims of culture by basing his designs on timeless objective laws. Considerations of style and self-expression were subordinated to the “purity” of geometry and the demands of function. This method culminated in Bayer’s attempt to design a typeface with letterforms so essential they would be understood as universal.’ Lupton E. Abbot-Miller J. (1993) ‘The ABC’s of Bauhaus and Design Theory’, Thames and Hudson. pp 38. Bayer felt the need to be functional and understood by many. He wanted to standardize type; he wanted to make it universal and to do this he made sure that the typeface wouldn’t contain any social or historical backgrounds, like typefaces such as Times New Roman, which hinted at the Roman Empire, it suggested power and nationality. As did Fraktur Font which was designed after Universal during the Nazi regime, it looked gothic and therefore Germanic, it was meant to represent again power and a strong historical background and nation. ‘ The successful promotion of these strains of Nazi Ideology required a scapegoat, which was found in the internationalist, anticipatory and socialist culture of Modernism.’ Crowley. D, Jobling. P, (1996) ‘Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation since 1800’, Manchester, Manchester University Press. pp151. This also shows that even the Nazi’s believed that the modern style was international and had aimed to appeal and communicate to a wider audience, beyond the restraints of their own country. They also seeme