2020 Foundations

During the Blue Rider Period, an expressionist art movement, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky underwent a metamorphosis in his artistic style. This shift saw his colors more vibrant, his lines more free, and his subjects more abstract. Rather than attempting to depict scenes, Kandinsky took inspiration from music, spirituality, and the feelings of his inner soul when painting his masterpieces. Shown are a selection of some of his grand works from this era, with a few holding city-like qualities that could serve as inspiration as we move forward into our next project.

Two artists I found via Pinterest. I think these works of theirs in particular could communicate other abstracted ideas, like found in Invisible Cities.

More of Nishi Sagami’s work:

https://menomemo.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/nishi-sagami-poster-illustrations/

More of Eiko Ojala: http://ploom.tv

Jennie C. Jones is an American artist working in Brooklyn. Her works incorporate ideas around minimalism, abstraction, Jazz, and Black history.

Some of her works are done on acoustic panels. Her works focus on the connection between sound and visual art, including her audio installations that explore experimental jazz, through the lens of minimalism. 

You can listen to her sound works here: https://soundcloud.com/jcjones-1.

For Project 1.3, interpret and translate your reading of one of the stories Calvino’s Invisible Cites. Use new tools (textures, blur, transparency) to represent time, depth, place, memory, etc. Feel free to experiment with the scanner.

How does one create meaning or mood in an abstract design?

More here.

A teacher from my school teaches this book to one class a year, and they spend a whole month doing projects on it. She didn’t do it with my class, so I don’t have my own work, but she sent me a collage she did based on the city, Hypatia.

“a city of beautiful blue lagoons but where “crabs were biting the eyes of the suicides, stones tied around their necks”

Kiel Mutschelknaus’s animations render typography into a new dimension. Check out his generator here and get lost in all the awesome presets and functions of the environment.

Thanks to Katie Shia in Practicum, my other class….

If you’re interested in contemporary experimental music—something to listen to while designing—you might start with Terry Riley and Brian Eno.

We’re going to try and get over to see this show on Tuesday — check it out as you get into Project 1.3

Persian Garden, 1965-66
Three color lithograph
25 1/2 x 20 (64.8 x 50.8 cm)

See earlier post here.

Read details here.

Adrian Frutiger’s Form and Counterforms is a graphic artwork series that features a common concept of using black filled forms to produce counterforms that are the result of the ‘negative space’ that is contained by the initial black forms.