Arts  & Crafts

Arts and Crafts was a movement which was initially developed in England but was then later popularised in Europe and North America between 1880 and later emerging in Japan in the 1920s. The three main people who inspired the movement were John Ruskin, Augustus Pugin, and William Morris. Many Arts and Crafts designs often had plural patterns of some sort, either had a lot of nature within it or something of that sort, this is probably why Art Nouveau advocated nature as the true source of all good designs. The Movement took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. 

Most patterns or designs within the style often consist of traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and it often used medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. 

Examples of Arts and Crafts:







As displayed within the images, the floral pattern is very distinct. Similarly to Art Nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement was greatly influenced by nature but unlike art Nouveau with its whiplash curves, Arts and Crafts consist of curves which are quite rectilinear. The decorative details on objects such as such as vases and tiles were hand crafted.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist who was born on December 16, 1866 but sadly died on died on December 13, 1944. Kandinsky is most well known for his paintings being seen as the most pure form of abstract paintings. 

Kandinsky originally studied law ad was very accomplished within his profession but the decided to begin painting studies at the age of 30. Whilst Kandinsky was still alive, he taught at the Bauhaus school of arts and architecture until it was closed down by the Nazis.

Kandinsky is said to have been the founder of the avant-garde group called 'The Blue Rider' and this was after a successful exhibition of his avant-garde work.

Examples of Kandisnky's work:

Kandisnky said, "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul", this is probably due to the fact that he was a very spiritual person and also he was a skillful musician. 

Kandinsky's believed that every colour had an inner voice and a meaning, this explains why he claimed that using colour was a valid art form in itself and that it did not need to be used to define recognisable forms and objects. His works which consist of streaks and blobs of colours were painted using a palette knife and made them "sing" with intensity. 

In my opinion, Kandinsky's work is very free and you can tell that he is trying to express himself in his painting and his paintings are an expression of his music and this is very obvious as many of his paintings don't take a single form. I personally think that many of his paintings seem animated and when I stare long enough at his paintings, its like I can see them moving although they obviously are not. Although many of the figures seem to be all over the place to the untrained eye, artists and anyone who appreciates art can clearly see that they have been placed in a specific manor, so that no form overshadows or stands out more than the other.

My work influenced by Kandinsky:

This is my piece which was influenced by Knadinsky;'s style of painting, I tried to interpret the music I was listening to which was "Faneto" by Chief Keef and this was a very aggressive song, it was rap, and the way I painted this piece was in a way that it showed what I saw in my head when I listened to the song. Violence, death and destruction are represented by the gun, drugs, mushroom cloud, and decaying bear which can be seen clearly within the piece. Although Kandinsky didn't show any form within his work, I tried to do so but it failed as the things I have listed are clearly seen but I tried to make up for it with the other shapes and forms which have clearly been influenced by Kandinsky. The only colour scheme I was sure about was the background, I made it green due to the fact that I wanted it to contradict with what I was going to paint as what I was going to paint would be violent and the green background was suppose to represent tranquility. I personally want who ever sees my painting to have their own interpretation about what my work means because I believe in everyone having their own opinion and I would like to know what others would think of my work or what it would mean to them. As I finished with the painting, I was satisfied with how it turned out because it turned out how I envisioned it. If I was to do this task again, I would try to pay more attention to how I blended colours because I'm not exactly great at painting but I would try to improve on how the colours transitioned into each other.

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is a Canadian architect who was born on February 28, 1929. A wide variety of his buildings are famously known for being great tourist attractions, including his private residence.

A couple of Frank Gehry's most well known buildings include the Guggenheim Museum, Louis Vuitton Foundation, 8 Spruce Street, and the EMP Museum.

Frank Gehry did a few things before he finally decided to become an architect, he was a truck driver and a radio announcer, then he decided to go to Harvard to study city planning which would allow him to be an architect. 



Frank Gehry also made a line of furniture and jewellery but his most famous production line was called "Easy Edge" and this consisted of furniture which was constructed out of card that had been glued together in alternating directions. The Wiggle Side Chair was one of his most successful pieces of furniture and one of his most famous. The production of Easy Edge furniture didn't last because the prices did not conform to his philosophy that furniture should be affordable. Gehry then decided to abandon furniture designing and focus on just architecture.



 Examples of Gehry's buildings:







Gehry's architectural techniques are said to be in the style of Deconstructivism. The way Gehry's architecture is, his materials such as corrugated metal allows Gehry's buildings to show an unfinished and a raw essence of beauty. The fact that Gehry's buildings continued and consistently had the essence of raw beauty, his works were and still are very distinct and recognisable .

I personally like Gehry's style of architecture due to the fact that it is unique and it is different, it does not abide to the way society sees and says buildings  or anything should be. He does things the way he wants to and this is why he is as successful as he is today.