Automatic Drawing - Degenerate art

Degenerate Art

What it was:

The first thing I found out was how the term degenerate art was created. It started when Hitler could not paint in the style of modern artists of the time such as Jean Metzinger and Emil Nolde but painted photo-realistically instead.


Because of this he got rejected from art school. When Hitler came to power he decided to put on an exhibition of all the modern artists who painted in a modernism style. he called this exhibition "degenerate art". The exhibition included work from the Dada movement, Impressionism, Fauvism and Bauhaus. He believed this art was degenerate because it did not show the true form of the world and was not what he wanted Germany's art to be. The exhibition was the more successful art exhibition in all time with around 3,000,000 people going to visit it.


The artists who's work was labelled "degenerate" were often sanctioned and some were banned from producing more artwork. Many art students at that time went to see the exhibition for fear of never being able to see the artworks again. However the works were hung in such a way it was clear they were not to be idolised and admired. They were clumped together in dim lighting in an attempt to make it seem more "degenerate". their aim was to make to rest of the nation also believe this work was hideous, useless and "degenerate". For a lot, this was successful. however, there were many who disagreed with what Hitler was doing to the art but could not speak up for fear of the consequences.


My Views:
As a strong believer in the subjectivity of art I couldn't disagree more with what Hitler and the Nazi party did. I believe just because one person doesn't like a piece of art work doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the population will find it equally bad but may find it desirable. I think that Hitler was actually just a little bit jealous. He hadn't gotten into art school because he was unable to paint in a modernism form which the world wanted at that time so he got rid of it, replacing it with the art he could do. He attacked and described the artists work as "degenerate" and had it shown in such a manner where you couldn't appreciate their work.


Artists included:

• Jean Metzinger

major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes, developed the theoretical foundations of Cubism.

• Emil Nolde
• Wassily Kandinsky
• Paul Klee
• Max Beckmann
• George Grosz

Set Designs - Bauhaus automatic drawing inspired

I decided from my initial thoughts after looking at Bauhaus to think of set design and my pathway for this project. Thinking in terms of "Parade" i had decided i wanted two vocal points of the stage; one being the backdrop and the other to be the arch around the stage.

I started with quick designs for both elements which came from my automatic drawings i'd previously done.

From these i chose which shapes i wanted to change and manipulate into what i wanted and how i wanted to use them. colour was to be a large part of the project for me so i looked back at previous bauhaus research and decided on the colours to apply to my designs. they're mainly primary colours with few secondary to tie them together.

i'm happy with how my ideas developed as it is clear to see how they have progressed into further designs through the week. starting from automatic drawing allowed my designs to be exactly what i was thinking and i think the confidence within the shapes and designs shows in my work.

Automatic drawing based around parade and Bauhaus

to loosen up ideas about design work based around Parade we spey half an hour doing automatic drawings based around Bauhaus. I really liked the automatic drawings I produced. I'd given automatic drawing a shot the other day when on the phone so I slipped into it relatively easily within about 5-10 minutes. I added a lot of geometric shapes having influence from Bauhaus artists such as (insert artist). I chose to use a black sharpie and fine liner colurs because I wanted quite a bold line like what I'd seen in research of artists to look at.

After half an hour of automatic drawing I stood back and took in what id drawn over the pages. I needed to rein in what i'd done and start making a little sense out of them.

Bauhaus artists

Wassily Kandinsky

 

Paul Klee

Johannes Itten

 

lyonel Feininger

Gerhard Marcks

Oskar Schlemmer

Bauhaus documentary

The first thing that I learnt from the documentary was that the movement came from a school founded by Walter Gropius just before the second World War in Dessau. I didn't know this before and was clueless to how the movement was created.

I learnt a number of other things from the documentary such as it was the first for workshop training for artists. it was the first to focus on these skills and the artists were evolved with classes for furniture making, stained glass, fabric making, ect. It was the first time that art students were taught about their materials. These classes were taught by master crafts-men and the aesthetic side to the school was taught by artists.

The school later developed an architecture department headed by Paul Clay. Their first major project was to design a housing estate in Dessau.

How they began to make pieces suitable for mass production led me to feel quite cold towards Bauhaus. They placed an emphasis on geometry and colour.

Almost acting homeless

Today my head isn't working. I don't know if it's because I can't sleep recently or because of uni stress. Either way, I can't think of anything for my project, I've hit a wall. So in an attempt to overcome this-I'm sat in a box. A big cardboard box. I needed to take away outside influences and just sit and forget about everything else. However I've now been in here for about half an hour and I'm just getting annoyed with myself that it isn't working. Hopefully I just need to sit for a little longer. I've got some Doritos, a galaxy bar and water so I'm set to stay for the next hour if I need to.