Fri 10 Oct 2008
“Untrustworthy”, “Erratic” … what ever happened to …
Posted by Dick Swart under 1
Posted at 11:05 am
“trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”?
Fri 10 Oct 2008
Posted by Dick Swart under 1
Posted at 11:05 am
“trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”?
October 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Whatever happened to just plain feckless?
October 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Here’s a story on Picture Book Candidates
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/books/review/Handy-t.html
It is interesting how The Saturday Evening Post covers and advertising illustrations visualized American life for several generations.
The work of Norman Rockwell, Douglas Crockwell, NC Wyeth and J C Leyendecker among many others may be recognized as art or propaganda or ‘kitsch’ but their influence on perception and creating eidetics is unquestioned.
Propaganda art is another whole topic. I saw a show recently with a collection from many countries and covering a number of years. It is interesting to see graphic styles reflect many particular art movements. This may be because the artists themselves were progressive or were tapping into styles that were ‘au courant’.
But one thing I noticed: when the message was a glorification of a set of attributes, sentimental realism was the style of choice.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
“I saw a show recently with a collection from many countries and covering a number of years.”
Is this up anywhere that we might see? Is there a websight we could look at? Fascinating stuff.
And whatever anyone may think of Norman Rockwell, if these issues interest you, be sure to go to the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge next time you are in the Berkshires.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
“website” opps
October 11th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Larry -
It was just one of those lucky finds. I went to see the ‘Ian Flaming and James Bond’ exhibit at the Imperial War Museum and there it was - ‘Weapons of Mass Communication’.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/posters/exhibition.htm
300 posters from their immense collection.
In the late 80’s I had the fun of using Douglas Fraser in a series of ads for Allen-Bradley on factory automation. He works in the heroic WPA-style and was perfect to project tough, reliable, dependability. Zero-defects and the sigma wars were just beginning. Strength on the factory floor!
http://www.fraserart.com/
October 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Interesting article by Bruce Handy. Indeed our next president has one heck of a challenge ahead of him.
And speaking of propaganda type art, I have always been intrigued by the WPA murals that one can see in government buildings across America. We have a beautiful one in our local post office. The themes of ‘pride in country’, the labor force, the ‘American dream’, etc, are a sign of those times and the hope that was needed. Considering all the factors now present (the economy, the possibility of our first african-american president), etc, we may be heading into a contemporary version of that kind of movement.
That style of artwork is also interestingly similar to the gorgeous Chinese poster art that was created to encourage nationalism, the power of unity, etc.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Sophmom -
Yes! And great examples from North Korea in an entirely closed society. Ther are a ton of knock-out art books available
The WPA style was also abundant in sculpture done for the same buildings as the murals. I contacted a company in Chicago running tachtiscoscopic research for some design measurement. The principal, whose name I can’t remember, had a terrific collection of perhaps 30 pieces he had collected from buildings which were being torn down. They were lined up in front of windows that that looked out on Lake Michigan and were stunning!
Has any reader ever used this measurement service. It is driving me nuts (a short drive) that I can’t remember, and his name was synonymous with the service like Politz or Nielson.
Help!
October 11th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
LOL, Dick…sorry I can’t help you. Besides that destination that requires a ’short drive’ in your case, is one where I mostly reside. Names and dates have never been my strength. My memory seems to rely on visuals and emotions evoked…which can make for rather ’sloppy’ thinking at times.
What is “tachtiscoscopic research”, BTW?
Speaking of the WPA buildings and sculpture, wasn’t there a predominant ‘Deco’ influence?
October 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Sophmom -
A tachtiscoscope (writing the word now I feel as if I’m describing ‘phrenology’) projects words or images on a screen in diminishing measures of a split second. The idea is to see how quickly the image can be understood. The shorter the time, the better. This useage and its applications have certain negative connotations - notably- Subliminal Advertising.
I(bullshit)never(bullshit)used this(bullshit) practice in any(bullshit) of my(bullshit)work.
‘Deco’ was around before the WPA. Deco, to me , is characterised by the use of geometry, angularity and repeat. More akin to Art Nouveau moving into Czech Cubistic moving into Art Deco. These were international styles (except for Chech cubistic which did ihave influence.
WPA is a specific reference to the Works Progress Administration which kept artists, writers, and musicians of various stripes gainfully employed. Mark Blitzstein, the composer, is a part of the WPA. I believe while I used it as a catchall for a style, I should have been more precise. ‘WPA’ refers to many works produced during a particular time period of the Great Depression in many particular variations.
The work of the Rockwell style are better characterised by ‘realistic genre’ as opposed to Maxfield Parrish of the 20’s who might be characterised by ‘realistic fantasy’. I see him as a root for the 70’s ‘hyper realism’. We actually used the Hildebrant Brothers to make a commercial.
WARNING
All of the above is complete blather and not sustainable to the criticism of anyone who knows anything.
October 11th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
“WARNING
All of the above is complete blather and not sustainable to the criticism of anyone who knows anything.”
(Well…I have no criticism of your “blather, so come to your own conclusions.)
I don’t know much about the WPA except that the concept was admirable, and certainly produced some worthwhile results. Some of the buildings were terrific as well.
As for what you say about the speed at which images are expected to produce a subliminal message… it seems like that speed just gets faster and faster. At what point does it just become a blur? And what price do we all pay for accustoming ourselves to such speed?
For heavens sake, I get ridiculously impatient if my computer takes more than a second to load something! And I’m probably a relative slowpoke compared to true techies.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Dick -
Thanks so much. I’m going to order the book. There’s much to think about.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Humble footnote of sorts: ‘art nouveau’ is rendered in Czech as ’secessionizi’ (”transliteratiing”)– a sort of bow to Moholy-Nagy’s experiments with using a tach- to display successive aluminum plate images (and examine the effect)– and to the political nature of the movement in Eastern Europe (think: T.S. Eliot).
I’m afraid it’s a short series of steps from this to the Russian scientific cities, through Speer and Spandau, to the BauHaus to your house.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Not one single black face at any of these rallies. Not one. Palin and McCain are out of control.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:41 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/former-mccain-strategist_n_133523.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw3o3y77MaA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiKtR9Z95m4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYzritaQEn4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFWahLTdUo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HKz9Mup_1g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnsw1t8Ls1c&feature=related
We can and will do a lot better than this.