Blog Five - 2nd March 2008

The topic of today's class consisted around pure form and its features. We began the discussion with Kashmir Malevich and Suprematism. This was an essential factor in history because it established a vocabulary of geometric structure and form and was the way that pictorial representation began to occur. This discussion focused around Russia, where ther Russian Revolution of 1717 casued high influence and brought the emergence of the constructive movement. This movement was different than what futurism and dada had spurned becasue it was united with the nation in strong opposition to art as an individual expression. Rather it centered on helping the nation and on a utopian lifestyle. Proganda art spiraled out of this period, i subject which i find intensely fascinating becasue of the wide variety of tactics the government managed to use to enforce the influence and control. I feel like studying propaganda art and gaining such knowledge in that topic is an essential part in my graphic design education. This is because these forms were so widely successful and actually where able to create influenece amoungst the public. As futures designers it is important to learn from these tactics so that we can effectively convey messages in our own works of art. Some major and important artists of that time where people such as Rodchenko and El Lissitzky, who is thought to be one of the greatest graphic designers of all time.