Alfons Mucha & Art Nouveau

http://www.publicdomainday.org/mucha

Alphonse (Alfons) Mucha 

1860-1939
Moravian painter

• Moravia: a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic and one of the historical Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Czech Silesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravia) 

• at time of Mucha's birth, Moravia was a part of Austro-Hungary 

Influential in creating the Art Nouveau movement
raised Roman Catholic

• symbolism evident in his work 

unable to gain admission to Academy of Visual Arts in Prague

• worked as stage set assistant until a fire closed down the theater his company worked for 

1884: Began to attend the Academy of Visual Arts in Milan
Chairman of the Association of Slavic Painters at Milan
1888: studied at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi in Paris despite formal training
couldn't support himself as a painter

• Began to find work as an illustrator 

Designed first advertising poster in 1892: Gismonda

• revolutionary design: emphasis on illustration over text; strongly vertical layout 

Dismissed his connection to Art Nouveau

• believed his art was rooted in local tradition 

Partnered with Georges Fouquet to create jewelry for the 1900 World's Fair
1898: began teaching drawing at the Academie Carmen
Considered his Art Nouveau work frivolous and unimportant
1918: Helped design documents for the Republic of Czechoslovakia

• mostly widely printed is the postage stamp, for which Mucha asked only enough compensation to cover his expenses designed money for the new Republic 

 The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej) was his attempt to paint the history of the Slavic peoples

• 18 years 
• 20 canvasses 
• Not received well by most, possibly due to change in political and artistic shift 
• Currently on display at Morovsky Krumlov 

Politically for an independent Czech nation

• encouraged a “true Czech style” (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2012/08/how-alphonse-mucha-designed-the-nation-state-of-czechoslovakia/) 

Was arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi controlled Czechoslovakia right before World War II for his nationalist work; died in prison in 1939

Art Nouveau 

Roots in Art & Crafts movement
Popular at end of 1800s and in early 1900s; “first new decorative style of the twentieth century” (http://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.shtm)
“the attempt was to eradicate the dividing line between art and audience” http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/mucha.htm
Most important to the decorative arts
Reaction to academic art and Industrial Revolution
International style, with local flavor
transition between historic classicism and modernism

Mucha was a gifted painter who developed a truly unique style. His passion for popularizing art influenced art beyond his designs and style. What were considered “low” forms of art when he was first becoming a household name have since become pivotal mediums for the modern artist—popular art such as magazine illustration is no longer demonized as it once was by art world.

The rise of popular art, in the form of advertising, illustration, and furniture design, certainly has its place in modern museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This museum combines more traditional art exhibits, such as painting, photography, and drawing, with a space that is consciously designed to be a modern piece of art. They have frequently showcased pieces of art from design, along with paintings from more traditional artists. Pioneers of the popularization of art such as Mucha have enabled such spaces to exist; this is, in my opinion, the most important contribution to the world of art from the Art Nouveau period.

Mucha combined his artistic training with his politics, something which seems very modern, but has roots in history. We saw earlier how the invention of the printing press led to the dissemination of information, which had great impact upon the political landscape. Because of print media, Martin Luther became more than an obscure German monk who disagreed with the Catholic Church. Because of his patriotism and artistic talent, Mucha was more than a graphic designer who made theatre posters. Around the same point in time, propaganda posters come into prominence both in Allied nations and German and Soviet nations.

The modern world has been shaped in part by politics, art, and the intermixing of the two. We likely wouldn't have the technology that we do without the push for quicker means of disseminating information, and it certainly wouldn't be as well-designed as it is if not for schools of thought like Art Nouveau which advocated bringing art to the masses.

Resources:
Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley and Sons. 2011. Kindle Edition.
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/mucha/muchabio.html 
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/mucha.htm
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/mucha.html 
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2012/08/how-alphonse-mucha-designed-the-nation-state-of-czechoslovakia/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau 
http://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.shtm

Module 4: On Chromolithography

library.unt.edu

Chromolithography

• began to gain popularity in 1840 in the US
• used to print images and type for various industries, including packaging labels, greeting cards, and posters, as well as scientific and medical texts
• stone or zinc plates can be used
• planographic printing
  • images are printed from a flat surface, rather than incised (intaglio) or raised (relief) surface
• led to development of lithotints (in which the oil-based medium is applied with a brush)
• allowed for cheaper illustrated texts
  • important for creating medical texts
• allowed for cheap color printing for the first time in history
• irregular dot pattern present in prints
• William Sharp was first American to use chromolithography
• Offset printing replaced chromolithogrpahy in the 1930s (1)

Process:

• artist creates watercolor sketch
• design is transferred to Bavarian limestone slab
• designs drawn in black oil-based medium (such as crayon, or pencil), reversed
• lithograph artist had to determine how colors would be created by interactions of various layering
  • gradient colors made by over-printing; over-printing creates tonal shift
• lithographic stones needed to be registered accurately in order to recreate design
  • registration is a process by which several different lithographic images are lined up, so that different layers of color printing print correctly
• after printing was complete, the stone was washed off to be reused

Lithography

• created by Bavarian printer Aloys Senefelder circa 1798 (2)
• “oil and water do not mix”
  • by drawing an image with an oil-based medium, and wetting the remainder of the stone with water, oil-based inks can be applied to the stone—oil ink will stick to the parts of the stone that have been drawn on with oil-based medium, and a printed image can be obtained by pressing paper to the stone

Color separations

• modern way to print color
• replaced chromolithography

The Industrial Revolution led to a profusion of efficient, reproducible machinery which could accurately (or accurately enough) duplicate the mundane tasks of industry. The ability to create nearly identical replications of a work with nearly minimal effort revolutionized all aspects of human endeavors. This was certainly troublesome for individual artisans who specialized in crafts like type-setting, or manuscript creation; on the other hand, the profusion of information snowballed. In about 150 years, we went from the steam engine, to the internal combustion engine, to the internet--well, a bit more than 150 years to get from the steam engine at the start of the Industrial Revolution to the internet at the start of the Information Age, but technology has boomed in the last 150 years. Chromolithography is one feature of this technological boom which combined ingenuity with knowledge gained from predecessors.

Chromolithography was a step towards modern color printing methods. It came about because of a need for cheaper techniques for color printing. The drive for less expensive methods for sharing information has led to the modern information age, where information is cheaply available on the internet (where the quality of the information isn't always assured, but there certain is a lot of information for very little money).

Chromolithography certain enabled the public appreciation of art. It allowed for most everyone to own art which they could hang in their homes. It's easy to take color posters hanging on your wall for granted, since we live in a world in which color printing technology is ubiquitous and inexpensive. In the days before chromolithography, when color needed to be applied by hand to printed images, the only people who could own color images were the wealthy.

References:

Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley and Sons. 2011. Kindle Edition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography (September 2012)

http://chicagoantiquesguide.com/archives/20060216135609.php

http://seeing.nypl.org/planographic.html (2001)

Citations: 

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolithography (September 2012)
2. http://www.johngrossmancollection.com/id13.html (2006)

Recommended further reading:
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/color/lithogr.htm

Module 3: On Claude Garamont

The influence of writing as a model diminished in Garamond’s work, for typography was evolving a language of form rooted in the processes of making steel punches, casting metal type, and printing instead of imitating forms created by hand gestures with an inked quill on paper. –Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. (2011-11-02). Meggs' History of Graphic Design (Kindle Locations 2737-2739). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.

Garamond: The Family of Fonts

sample of Garamont's original typeface

source: Wikipedia

• Garamond is considered one of the most legible fonts.
• Modern Garamond fonts are derived from designs by Claude Garamont and Jean Jannon, a punch cutter in the 1600s 
• Jannon's fonts were first misattributed to Garamont by the French National Printing Office in 1825 
• In 1926, it was revealed that fonts under the Garamond name were actually derived from Jannon's work 
• The American editions of the Harry Potter books are set in Adobe Garamond. 
• Characteristics of the typeface include: 
• small bowl of the “a” 
• small eye of the “e” 
• Long extenders (1) 
• Granjon, Sabon, and Adobe Garamond are famous modern fonts which derive in part from Claude Garamond's original Roman typeface 
• "The only complete set of the original Garamond dies and matrices is at the. Plantin-Moretus Museum, in Antwerp, Belgium.” (1)
• The modern italic fonts derive from Robert Granjon's work
• Robert Granjon was a contemporary of Garamont
• Designed Civilité typeface; designed Parangonne Greque typeface “a counterpart to Garamond's Grec du Roi” (2) 

Several modern Garamond fonts

source: wikipedia.org

Adobe Garamond: A Legacy 

• Based on Claude Garamont's work 
• Created by Robert Slimbach; released in 1989 
• “The Adobe Garamond font family has been widely used, including the instantly recognizable Google logo.” (3) 
• Used in famous books series such as Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and Dr. Suess' books for children. 

 

Claude Garamont: The Man 

• “Garamont” is how he spelled his name 
• transition to “Garamond” spelling of his name came after his death in 1561 
• has also been spelled “Garramond” 
• Early training with Antoine Augereau (1510) 
• Augereau is first French printer to engrave Roman letters 
• Augereau is later executed for heresy (4) 
• Later assistant to Geoffroy Tory 
• Tory introduced the apostrophe, accent, and cedilla to French 
• became official printer to King Francis I in 1530 
• Garamont became official printer to King Francis I of France after Tory
• Garamont is credited for eliminating the supremacy of the Gothic fonts throughout Europe (but not Germany) 
• First to establish type foundry to sell type to printers 
• “a first step away from the all-in-one 'scholar-publisher-typefounder-printer-bookseller' that had begun in Mainz some eighty years earlier” (Meggs Kindle locations 2733-2734). 
• Grec du Roi typeface created in 1541 for a series of books by Robert Estienne for Francis I 
• Estienne was royal typographer to King Francis I of France 
• Henri Estienne, Robert's father, was an early printer in France. 
• Simon de Coline, Robert's step-father and partner to Henri, was first to use Roman typeface instead of Gothic standard in France 

Ties between various printers and typeface designers are manifold. In the early days of typography, everyone was influencing each other, learning from each other, and improving upon each others designs. This influence has reached us today in the form of the Garamond family of typefaces, the most popular and widely-used being Adobe Garamond (and its derivatives). I'm currently typing this journal in Adobe Garamond Pro. Claude Garamont, in designing such clear and balanced fonts, essentially shaped the future of typography. That is, you can be assured, no small feat.

We are, of course, fortunate that the Garamond punches and matrices were preserved after his death. Without the availability of these original typefaces, later generations would likely have not had the benefit of the Garamond fonts which were developed.

It has to be noted, too, that the work of Jean Jannon, a punchcutter who worked about 60 years after Garamont's death, is equally important to the history of typography. While Jannon has largely gone under-credited for his work, the typeface he created for the French National Printing Office certainly impacted modern typography immensely.

References:
Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley and Sons. 2011. Kindle Edition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldus_Manutius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Garamond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroy_Tory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Estienne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_de_Colines
http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2011/04/garamond-or-garamont.html
http://www.fonts.com/font/adobe/adobe-garamond
http://www.linotype.com/414/claudegaramond.html
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Antoine_Augereau/
http://www.pointlessart.com/education/loyalist/typeTalk/garamond/biography.html


Citations:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamond
2. http://www.linotype.com/2028/robertgranjon.html
3. http://www.fonts.com/font/adobe/adobe-garamond
4. Macmillan, Neil. An A-Z of Type Designers. New Haven : Yale University Press. 2006. (via Google Books)

Module 2: Chapters 1-4

“A cartouche, an oval frame around the glyph of an important figure, is also the French word for “bullet,” the frame’s shape.” (Meggs Kindle Locations 417-418)

Egyptian pharaohs were given several names, including the Horus name, the Nebti name, the Golden Horus name, the prenomen, and the nomen. The cartouche wasn't used until the 4^th Dynasty, and was only primarily for the prenomen, and occasionally for the nomen.

Development of pharaoh names:

• The Horus name was given beginning in the Pre-Dynasty; also called banner name or Ka-name; the name was framed by a serekh (a representation of a palace facade) (2)
  • The serekh is the precursor to the cartouche.
  • Pharaoh gained this name when they ascended the throne; not their birth name
• The Nebti (or nebty) name was given to pharaohs after Upper and Lower Egypt were unified.
  • No serekh or cartouche is used
• The Horus of gold name (or Golden Horus Name) may have signified the triumph of Horus over Seth, or it may have signified the eternal life of the pharaoh
  • Gold represents eternity in Ancient Egypt
  • Horus is used as a representation of the pharaoh, the god-king
• The throne name, or prenomen, is the pharaoh's name in a cartouche
  • Official royal name
  • First came to prominence in the Third Dynasty
  • accompanied by hieroglyphics that indicate the name belonged to a ruler of both Upper and Lower Egypt
• The personal name, or nomen, was given to pharaohs at birth
  • use started in Fourth Dynasty
  • indicated the relationship between pharaoh and god
• Full title of pharaoh will include Horus name, Nebti name, Golden Horus name, prenomen, and nomen (where applicable; earlier titulary for pharaohs will have been less elaborate).

Full name of Thutmose III

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Full name of Thutmose III: 

• Horus name - Kanakht Khaemwaset - Horus Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes 
• nebty name - Wahnesytmireempet - He of the Two Ladies, Enduring in kingship like Re in heaven
• Horus of Gold - Sekhempahtydjeserkhaw - Horus of Gold Powerful of strength, Sacred of appearance 
• praenomen - Menkheperre - He of the Sedge and the Bee, Enduring of form is Re 
• nomen - Thutmose Neferkheperu - Son of Ra, Thutmose, beautiful of forms (1) 

• Hatshepsut: pharaoh of Ancient Egypt in the 18^th Dynasty, was referred to as both male and female in full titulary (3)

• The cartouche came from the elongation of the shen ring (4).
  
• The shen ring “derives its name from the root shenu (to encircle), it was almost always a symbol of eternity” (5); also a symbol of protection (5).
  
• “In the Eighteenth Dynasty, royal sarcophagi were constructed in the shape of the cartouche” (4).
  

The symbolism used in writing the names of pharaohs, who were seen as gods-on-earth to rule in Egypt, indicates that writing was seen as a powerful tool, not only to keep records. That the prenomen, the throne name (and possibly the most important name given to a pharaoh), was enclosed in a cartouche (shenu is the Egyptian word for the oblong enclosure) tells us that ancient Egyptians probably thought that the written word held power in the real world—more so than the modern idea of changing minds with words. The cartouche protects the name of the king, and by extension is supposed to protect the king.

This suggests that the words used for people, places, and things weren't seen as abstractions of the things (as we commonly viewed words today), but were seen as stand-ins for the things in question. This is reminiscent of cave paintings—markings indicating that spears or some such tool were thrust at the paintings have been found on paintings of hunted animals. The representation of the animal seems to have been linked in these ancient people's minds with the actual animal. In a similar fashion, I don't think it's a stretch to speculate that ancient Egyptians considered the names of their pharaohs to be more than abstract representations of their god-king; that is to say, the name is the thing, and the thing is the name.

Grain of salt moment: Unless (or until) we develop the technology to travel back in time, all such speculation of the motivations of ancient peoples is purely speculation. We can't be certain of how ancient peoples saw their world, and any speculation upon their mental processes is going to be rife with a modern bias. But, boy is it fun.

Citations:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praenomen_%28Ancient_Egypt%29. 23 September 2012
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serekh. 17 March 2012
3. http://hatshepsut.bediz.com/cartouche.html
4. http://www.egyptianmyths.net/cartouche.htm. 1997-2010
5. http://www.egyptianmyths.net/shen.htm. 1997-2010

Resources:

1. Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. (2011-11-02). Meggs' History of Graphic Design 5^th Edition. John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartouche. 9 October 2012
3. http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html. 25 July, 2009
4. http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pharaoh/explore/carto_b2.html. 1999
5. http://www.egyptianmyths.net/cartouche.htm. 1997-2010