Herbert Bayer: a man of many talents

Herbert Bayer was born on April 5th, 1900 born in Haag, Austria. First, Bayer apprenticed in a architectural design and graphic arts studio ("Herbert Bayer"). At this studio under the artist Georg Schmidthammer in Linz ("Herbert Bayer (1900-1985)"). In 1921 he enrolled in the recently established design school called Bauhaus. Bauhaus was founded in the city of Weimar where the main goal was to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts ("The Bauhaus, 1919 -1933). Bayer continued his education at Bauhaus and farthered his stay at the school by becoming the most prominent faulty member. At Bauhaus, Bayer worked in a wide range of fields including painting, sculpture, typography, advertising, and architecture. While teaching at the Bauhaus, working as an Art Director for the Container Corporation ("HERBERT BAYER").


Before moving to the United States, he spent time as the Art Director of Vogue magazine's Berlin office ("HERBERT BAYER). One of Bayer's many contributions at this point in time was a typeface called "Universal".

Bayer, 1925, "universal typeface"

In 1938 when he first moved to the United States, he created an exhibit called "Bauhaus 1919-1928" at the New York Museum of Modern Art ("Herbert Bayer, Art Directory"). He represented a number of important exhibitions including Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism,and Art and Advertising Art ("About this artist: Herbert Bayer").


In 1946 Bayer moved to Colorado where he designed for a local architecture and posters for the local community ("HERBERT BAYER"). In 1959, Bayer designed another sans-serif typeface called "fonetik alfabet", which contained special characters for the endings -ed, -ion, -ory, and -ing ("HERBERT BAYER").
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Bayer, "Bauhaus poster forKandinsky",1926

For several companies Bayer worked as an artistic consultant for including, "Container Corporation of America" and "Atlantic Richfield Company". At this time he was also a design consultant for the Aspen cultural center. Bayer oversaw the acquisitions from within Arco Plaza, the newly-built twin 51 story office towers in Los Angeles.

Bayer, "Double Ascension", 1973

He also worked for the Container Corporation of America (CCA) in Chicago from 1945-1956 as consultant designer and then as chairman of the Department of Design from 1956-1965 ("About this Artist: Herbert Bayer"). He designed and edited the World Geographic Atlas for the CCA between 1948-1953 and was art and design consultant for the Atlantic Richfield Company in 1966. 


Bayer, World Geographic Atlas. A Composite of Man's Environment, 1953.

In 1976, Herbert Bayer moved to Montecito, California. By this time Bayer began to exhibit more of an interest in painting (About this Artist: Herbert Bayer). In his paintings combined geometric and organic abstract forms. An example of this style is through his works like Colorado as seen below.

Bayer, Colorado, 1948.

Continuing with his painting, Bayer uses geometric forms of spheres and cones that appeared frequently and were used in designs for the environment like the structure displayed below called Anaconda.

Bayer, "Anaconda", a marble fountain

Reference:
"About this artist: Herbert Bayer". 2014. Oxford University Press.

"The Bauhaus, 1919-1933". 2013. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Herbert Bayer". 2013. Graphic Design Archive Online. RIT Libraries.

"HERBERT BAYER" 2012. RIT Design Archives. RIT Libraries.

"Herbert Bayer". 2011. Art Directory.

Brief Career of the Beggarstaffs

In 1894, William Nicholson and James Pryde started an advertising design studio. In order to hide their identity they became the Beggarstaffs after seeing a sack of corn labeled "the Beggarstaffs Brothers". The Beggarstaffs started a brand new technique, called collage (Meggs, Purvis 276). This new technique did not follow the traditional trend of art noveau of floral patterns, but instead focused on posters with powerful colored shapes and silhouettes. The Beggarstaffs transformed the history of art with a series of bold, simple designs using flat images and silhouettes (Apatoff, "The Beggarstaff Brothers"). They chose basic designs, because they believed ..."a man on the street, who may be in a hurry, would not take in too many details..." (Raimes, Bhaskaran 32). This explains why these artists designs were made of simple shapes and a general outline that would have an association with a product. 


Above: J. W Beggarstaffs. 1898 Hamlet. Web. 18 February 2014. 
http://www.yaneff.com/html/artists/beggarstaff.html

Before the two artists started their company they collaborated on a poster for Edward Gordon Craig (Innes, Christopher). Craig was preparing to go on tour with the Shakespearean company of W.S. Hardy, to play to role as Hamlet (see above). Pryde and Nicholson designed and produced a poster for the production, making it their first collaboration. 


Above: J.W Beggarstaffs. 1900. Kassama. Web. 18 February 2014. 
http://www.yaneff.com/html/artists/beggarstaff.html

The Beggarstaffs are well known for their collage technique, where they cut pieces of paper,and moved them around on a board in order create an image for the viewer to decipher. One of the most famous example of this is the poster for Kassama Corn Flour (as seen above) where only black and yellow colors are used ("The Beggarstaffs..."). 


Above: J.W Beggarstaffs. 1898. Don Quixote. Web. 18 February 2014. 
http://www.yaneff.com/html/artists/beggarstaff.html

One of the Beggarstaffs most famous artwork was also the start of their financial problems. Their famous poster, Don Quixote (as seen above), made for Sir Henry Irving's production at eh Lyceum Theatre, was never printed, because the client decided, "it had a bad likeness." ("The Beggarstaffs...")

Unfortunately after only a couple years and only twenty posters made, the Beggarstaffs were forced to close due to the inability to find clients. Even though at the time they were unsuccessful, they are considered innovators in the genesis of modern graphic design (Raimes, Bhaskaran 32). Their designs would become influential to artists in Europe and America when the Early Modern era begins (Megg, Purvis 276). 

Even though their collaboration did not create initial success, after separating both continued their careers in the arts. Nicholson returned to his interest in theatre, where he made designs for various plays, but his famous one was in 1904 for the original production of Peter Pan. William Nicholson was also well known for his illustrations in children's books, including Margery William's 'The Velveteen Rabbit' ("Nicholson, Sir William). After the Beggarstaffs company fell through James Pryde supplemented his income by taking various small parts on stage. As an artist however he is known for his distinct dramatic and sinister styles. One of his more famous pieces of work is in 1930 he designed the sets for Paul Robeson's memorable Othello at the Savoy Theatre in London ("Pryde, James"). 

Reference:
Apatoff, David. "The Beggarstaff Brothers" Illustration Art. 2011. Web. 18 February 2014.
http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2011/02/beggarstaff-brothers.html

Meggs, Philip and Alston Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 2012. Print.

Innes, Christopher. Edward Gordon Craig: A Vision Of Theatre, Routledge Harwood Contemporary Theatre Studies, Volume 28 (2nd. edition). Amsterdam: Harwood Academic.1998. Print. 

Raimes, Jonathan and Bhaskaran, Lakshmi. Retro Graphics. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC. 2007. Print. 

"The Beggarstaffs-Sir William Nicholson" Yaneff International Gallery. 2011. Web. 18 February 2014.
http://www.yaneff.com/html/artists/beggarstaff.html

"The Beggarstaffs (aka Sir Willaim Nicholson & James Pryde), British. RO Gallery. 2013. Web. 18 February 2014.http://rogallery.com/Beggarstaffs/beggarstaffs-biography.html

"Pryde, James" The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. Ed Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press 2009 Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.

"Nicholson, Sir William" The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. Ed Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press 2009 Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press 

William Morris vs. Renaissance Period

The Arts and Crafts movement developed in the late 19th century. This new style that designers soon adopted challenged the specific tastes of the Victorian era, and were influenced by social reform thinkers ("The Arts and Crafts Movement"). One of these thinkers was William Morris (Meggs, Purvis 177). In this particular blog I will be focusing on Morris's path in context to his artistic and designer abilities. William Morris is best known for his designs that were on fabrics and wallpaper. He gave value to art by focusing on hand-crafted artwork instead of factory-made. I chose William Morris as my second blog reflection, because I believe that his artwork from the 1800's has a strong Renaissance influence. 

Above: Hollyer, Frederick. William Morris. 1884. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 1 February 2014.

The Arts and Craft movement involved many artists like  William Morris, who believed that the Industrial Revolution was destroying the trade of traditional skill and moving toward machine only production ("William Morris: Father of the Arts & Crafts Movement"). Morris had the idea that any hand crafted goods were better quality than goods that were created by any type of urban factory. When looking at many of Morris's designs they all have a strong Gothic art style, but to also incorporate nature as much as possible. Morris believed that "nature was the perfect example of God's design," ("William Morris (1834-1896)"). When Morris creates his artwork, he believed through his practice he was glorifying God ("William Morris (1834-1896)").   

Above: Morris, William. Trellis. 1862. ArtyFactory.com. Web. 1 February 2014.

'Trellis' was Morris's first wallpaper designs. As seen above, you can see how not only is nature highly influenced, but there is a Renaissance style to his artwork. It copies a lot of the illuminated manuscripts and tapestries that were popular in that time period’s art. Today Morris's wallpaper designs are still published in high quality, like 'African Marigold' or 'Tulip and Willow'. This shows how strong Morris’s influence has been throughout the years. 

Above: Morris, William. African Marigold. 1876. ArtyFactory.com. Web. 1 February 2014.


Above: Above: Morris, William. Tulip and Willow. 1873. ArtyFactory.com. Web. 1 February 2014.

Another influence William Morris had on the Arts and Crafts Movement is Kelmscott Press. Morris's Kelmscott Press was founded in 1891, and continued Morris's view on hand-crafted art ("William Morris (1834-1896)"). Kelmscott Press produced hand-printed books, which all had a Renaissance style. Along with Kelmscott Press printing books, he also created three typefaces: Golden, Chaucer, and Troy (Jones, "William Morris: Father of the Arts & Crafts Movement"). When looking at the typefaces, the style especially Troy and Chaucer, have the same look as Italian typeface designed by Ludovico Vicentini in 1522. 

Above: William Morris. Typefaces. 1897. Web. 1 February 2014.


Above: Ludovicus Vicenrini. 1522. Web. 1 February 2014.

Overall, looking at William Morris style, I believe that he has adopted not only the Renaissance style in fine arts, but also the lifestyle by emphasizing hand-crafted artwork versus factory made. I believe that this is a relevant argument in today's society when it comes to art, local stores, or anything made in the USA in general. I quite agree with Morris's philosophy on fine arts. I believe that hand-crafted items have a higher value due to the immense work and passion artists of any kind put into their masterpieces. 

Reference:
Devroye, Luc. "Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi da Vicenza". McGill University. 2014. Web. 1 February 2014.
http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32497.html

Jirousek, Charlotte. "The Arts and Crafts Movement." Art, Design, and Visual Thinking. 1995. Cornell University. Web. 1 February 2014.
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/artcraft/artcraft.htm

Jones, Ralph. "William Morris: Father of the Arts and Crafts Movement". The Arts & Crafts Society. 1995. Web. 1 February 2014.
http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/wmorris.shtml

Meggs, Philip and Alston Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 2012. Print.

"William Morris (1834-1896)" Artsy Factory. 2014. Web. 1 February 2014. http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/graphic_designers/william_morris.html