​Born in 1908, Max Bill was a Swiss artist and designer who specialised in combining maths and geometry into his art practise. As an ex student of the Bauhaus, he later co-founded the HfG in Ulm where he was the head through the 1950s. He specialised in architecture and product design during his time at HfG, however his work fell into many categories including painting, sculpture and graphic design. Max Bill later resigned from HfG due to conflict regarding how the school should progress. There was no doubt that he was an outstanding artist/designer, but the school needed to focus more on industrialisation and manufacturing to gain income, rather than the art aspects, and Bill struggled with this concept.

Project 2 involved us recreating 3 different pieces, all which have a different media. One piece in pencil, one in ink and one using scraper board. This was a very interesting brief, which I really enjoyed as it really helped develop skills. ​

This week, Tony held a lecture about the Aesthetic Movement, looking at how Japan influenced art and design throughout Western culture. It became clear that, from the 1860's, many artists such as Van Gogh, Whistler and Degas, were being greatly inspired by Japanese art, particularly Ukiyo-e (wooden block prints). Before this time, Japanese art wasn't really valued due to the fact that there was no industrial society. However, it became much more popular once the craze for collecting Japanese art began - where the first samples were seen in Paris.
Vincent Van Gogh was greatly inspired by Japanese art. For example his piece 'Japonaiserie: tree in bloom' (1887), is almost a replica of a particular piece from Hiroshige, 'Flowering plum tree in the Kameido garden' (1857). Van Gogh had learnt the importance of vivid colours by the Ukiyo-e masters, and therefore chose to copy some of Hiroshige's pieces, using bold, brilliant colours. Due to the fact that Japanese art was hidden for so long from the West, when Japan eventually opened up to the world, the prints were an instant hit since they differed so significantly with their bold colours and their clever use of space. Therefore, when Van Gogh discovered this influence, he used it to make his own work more interesting and exotic. If you look at Van Gogh's early works, such as 'The Angelus' (1880), we can see a drastic difference particularly in the use of colours since he only used dull colours during this period. In my opinion, his work before the Japanese influence especially lacks boldness, in both terms of colour, subject, and composition.
Another artist who was inspired by Japonism was Gustav Klimt. A significant characteristic of the Japanese art is the pillar format, which Klimt used frequently in the late nineteenth century. One of his pieces 'Three children and a young woman' (1898), which I found in the book 'Japonism" by Thames and Hudson, uses this pillar format. It was a popular composition due to the fact you could produce spatial illusions that couldn't be achieved in a standard frame. Klimt could have been influenced by the piece 'Night scene: young girl on a horse with a young man' by Isoda Koryusai (1770s) which demonstrates a 'snapshot' with lots of detail, where a close up is thoroughly explored. One of Klimt's older pieces, 'Seated Young Girl' (1894), is completely different however. This piece is struck with a traditional appearance, which in my opinion lacks interest in comparison to pillar pictures, and we can therefore see that there was a significant change in Klimt's work throughout this era.
In summary, it is clear that Japonism was a key movement in regards to the western culture, where artists were mainly influenced by the Ukiyo-e wood block printing. Japonism provided inspiration for various elements such as colour, composition, subject, and more, and we can see the drastic shift in artist's work.