The Modern Movement in America pages 336-341, 344-350

American Kitsch or 50's art is art that is tacky, vulgar, the movie Grease, old fashioned, blue jeans and t-shirts, poodle skirts, and different hair styles.

Examples from www.google.com

1. Define what was going on when the modern art movement made it to America.

-In 1913 the Armory Show introduced modernism to America.  It generated a storm of protest and provoked public rejection of modern art and design.  This was also before WWII. So it's the period in between the two World Wars.

2. How was Tschichold's work seen in America?

-His work caused excitement and tumoil.  Some recognized its vitality and functionalism of the new ideas.  It was the start of new ideas and the boom for advertising that took off.  Typographic espressions ranged from Renaissance-inpired designs to books for avant-garde music and dance that helped define the modernist design in America.  He wanted strong, direct, and exciting visual forms.

3.  What Immigrants came to America?

-Erte Romain de Tirtoff,  Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha, Alexey Brodovitch, and Alexander Liberman.   Erte was a Russian admiral's son and was a designer of art deco.  He designed cover for Harper's Bazaar magazine and combined cubism and exotic decorativeness, and the elegance of high fasion.  Dr. Agha was the first art director design in guide the graphic design and he introduced the bleed photography, machine-set sans serif type, white space, and asymmetrical layouts. Alexey Brodovitch took over the magazine Harper's Baazar and he was known for white space and sharp type on clear, open pages, musical feeling of approach in flow of text and pictures.  Alexander Liberman from Russia, was known for using airbrush to achieve highly finished forms, strong cubist beginnings eventually came to stylized realism.

4. Describe how poster looked in WWII.

-A poster from World War II was neutrality, traditionalism, and provincialism.  Also, they were informational training materials and amaterurish cartoons.  Intense feelings about Hitler, Pearl Harbor, and the war seemed to pull powerful communications.  There was dramatic contrast in color and scale.  The point was to boost the moral of the Allied nations.  The classical Greek messenger of Gods, combines with an American flag to make a powerful graphic symbol.

5. One example of the Art work from an American artist that I find interesting.

By: Ben Cunningham