Lascaux-Sottsass-Vishwakarma Puja (10-16 September)

On this date in design…

Lascaux Caves, Southwest France, anniversary of discovery 12 September 1940

Ettore Sottsass, Italian architect & designer, birthday 14 September 1917
Vishwakarma Puja, Hindu god of architecture, holiday (India), 16 September (alternatively 17 September)

When four French teenagers chased their dog Robot deep into a remote cave little did they know they were on the verge of one of the most significant discoveries of prehistoric art.  Since there have been several other sites discovered but this was an eye-opener to the world community as to the complexity and detail which the Paleolithic mind was able to communicate in visual form nearly 15,000 years ago.  Today it is still hotly debated as to the intention of the artists; from ritualistic to historical recording.  However, one cannot help but be amazed at the diversity of subjects, the depiction of seasonal changes and the overwhelmingly apparent symbolic meaning behind the images still unknown to us.  There are records of now extinct species and herds of animals that read like an encyclopedia of the hunt. 

There are even examples that appear to regress in perspective; a technique that would be rediscovered during the Renaissance.  This monumental discovery forced modern man to rethink the nature of what the prehistoric man was able to comprehend and thus paint the way for further understanding of from where we, as a species, came.

If Ettore Sottsass would have a say in what would happen to the caves paintings at Lasceaux he no doubt would say to destroy them.  This seems harsh but for Sottsass, his idea was that the future only begins when the past is completely dismantled, and its logic reduced to dust so only nostalgia remains.  He saw that the past was a jumping off point and for humanity to continue to progress. 

And to this credit, it can be believed that we as a species have considerably evolved from those Paleolithic individuals for millennia without the benefit of access to those wonderful images to guide us.  In Sottsass’s case, he went further to figuratively dismantle the design greats of the past such as Wright and create new forms.  He believed that functionalism is not enough; design should also be exciting and sensual. 

This theory lead to the formation of the Memphis group in the early 1980s (and as you may already know my personal least favorite movement).  However, in challenging the avant garde to push forward there was a creative freedom that eliminated heavy-handed design for design’s sake.  Designers who followed his mold such as Gehry & Graves were light-hearted and expressive.  To document the deterioration of the past, Sottsass always carried a camera which was confiscated on more than one occasion; once while photographing a rotting window on a police station.  The police might not have understood his fascination with the ruin but were more concerned that he was casing the joint.

Continuing on a venture into the mythical past, according to the Mahabharata legend, Vishwakarma Puja is the divine draftsman of the entire universe and the official builder of all the palaces of the gods in addition to their flying chariots & weapons.  He is depicted as wearing lots of gold topped off with a gold crown.  In his four hands he holds a pot of water, a book, a noose & craftsman’s tools.  Unlike in the west, Indian culture commemorate the day by using it as an excuse to increase productivity and be inspired to create innovative products.  Most of the festivities happen on factory floors.  However, Hindus also make the connection with the heavens by flying kites; most likely encouraged by Vishwakarma Puja to create new and exciting designs for the sky.

Links:

The Caves of Lascaux website

Sottsass & Associates, Milan & London

Sottsass for Alessi

Sottsass at the Design Museum, London

Article on Viswakarma Puja  

Schlemmer-Tange-Serlio (3-9 September)

On this date in design…

Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor, designer & choreographer, birthday 4 September 1888

Kenzo Tange, Japanese architect & Pritzker Prize winner, birthday 4 September 1913

Sebastiano Serlio, Italian mannerist architect & author, birthday 6 Septeber 1475 

It seems as though the Bauhaus gets a lot of attention here but its far-reaching impact is limitless.  With the addition of Oskar Schlemmer to the faculty in the sculpture department and eventually the theater department, the influence on the art world exceeded the oppression of the Third Reich.  One unique feature of the Bauhaus is that so many controversial and challenging individuals with conflicting ideas thrived in constructive disharmony.  Schlemmer objected to the popular abstract ideas, focusing more on the human figure and its relationship to the space in which it occupies fundamentally grounding what architecture should be.  This is illustrated by his reduction of the human form to an architectural language that emulated movement thereby “capturing” the fourth dimension in physical space.  The influence of these dancing forms can be seen today in the work of Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid who both strive for Schlemmer’s theories in the contemporary world.   

In the aftermath of the destruction of World War II, the metabolist movement took hold in Japan and one of its most ardent supporters and contributors was Kenzo Tange.  This movement is characterized by large-scale flexible & expandable structures what would grow organically as the needs of a population changed.  

It is easy to make this connection in the atmosphere of two nearly leveled cities where the architects of the time were mostly concerned with housing the demoralized population.  In the case of Tange, his design was selected to memorialize the event with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.  The museum hovers over the axis of the park in plain, unadorned concrete so as to not distract from the contents inside; the visitor is suspended on piloti in the figurative mushroom cloud. 

Not long afterward in 1953, Tange was one of the few select architects and journalist who were invited to participate in the documentation of the habitual construction of the Ise Shrine.  Historically a closed process it also marked the end of the US occupation of Japan.  Later, he was able to demonstrate to the world his talent for combining traditional Japanese design with the modernism by completing a few structures for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics; the first held in Asia.  This would make Tange’s work in demand around the world and notably, his funeral was held in the Tokyo Cathedral he designed.   

In the time of the Renaissance, the world was hungry to elevate the human experience not just societally and scientifically but artistically.  As advances in building and communication technologies arose and in his day, Sebastiano Serlio laid the groundwork for proliferation of the Italian Renaissance style throughout Europe with his influential book “I Sette Libri Dell'architettura”, a.k.a. “The Seven Books of Architecture”.  This addition to the design community enlivened the atmosphere.  It examined and definitively identified the proportions and geometries of architecture.  It combined both high quality illustration with explicit written instruction for not only architects but the builders and craftsmen of the time to achieve what could be argued perfection in built design focusing on the practical rather than theoretical aspects. 

This work is still in use today and is a phenomenal reference for the classical orders.  The comparison could be made that what Serlio did for architecture was what the Bauhaus accomplished in the 20th century.  To see Serlio’s work in physical form visit le Châteaux de Fontainebleau.    

Links:   
Oskar Schlemmer website

Oskar Schlemmer work at MoMA, New York City

Oskar Schlemmer work at the Art Institute of Chicago

Triadisches (Triadic) Ballet, 1970 reconstruction

Bauhaus Archive & Museum

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Japan

Ise Jingu Shrine, Japan

St. Mary's Cathedral, Archdiocese of Tokyo, Japan

le Chatueax de Fountainbleau, France

Ray-Ruhlmann-van Doesburg (27 August - 2 September)

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitsky), American modernist artist, birthday 27 August 1890

Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, French Art Deco furniture & interior designer, birthday 28 August 1879

Theo van Doesburg (Christian Emil Küpper), Dutch artist, birthday 30 August 1883

“Why?  Who cares?  Who doesn’t care?”  These are the questions Man Ray posed as the only American artist who played a prominent role in launching both the Dada and Surrealist art movements.  Raised in New York City, he was extremely influenced by the avant-garde pieces displayed at Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 gallery (see post our post from 9 July).  As one to originate the “BoHo” lifestyle, Ray shunned college and began challenging the formal constraints of the visual arts.  He taught himself photography and invented what would become known as the “rayograph” where he would take objects and expose them directly onto photosensitive paper, much like a sun print but in the studio environment.  By 1921, he left the U.S. and his first wife to settle in Paris where he became entrenched with the cultural elite residing there and documented many such as Picasso, Hemmingway, Dali, Stein and Joyce in striking photographs.  It is here where he met Kiki of Montparnasse whom would be his most famous subject.

Ray also worked closely with Marcel Duchamp where they developed Dada as an attempt to create work so absurd it confused the viewer’s sense of reality.  This eventually would lead to surrealism where the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery was explored in more depth.  Briefly during WWII he relocated to Los Angeles but was frustrated as American audiences only considered him a fashion photographer and never took his film or other work as significantly as he desired.  Therefore, he and Kiki returned to France in 1951 for the remainder of their lives in surrealist bliss that deliberately defied reason.

When Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann inherited his father’s painting and contracting business he quickly developed it into one of the most significant furniture & design company in Europe.  He openly despised the clunkiness of the Arts & Crafts movement remarking that it was too common for the wealthy.  Essentially, according to Ruhlmann, since the movement originated from the common people that the elite, from whom all fashion derives, would have no desire to own it.  “Fashion’s real purpose is to display wealth,” and of course provencal style did just the opposite.  His designs started out in the Art Nouveau and then morphed quite well into the Art Deco period inspired by classical elements.  Ruhlmann sought out the rarest woods and inlayed his pieces with ivory.  To protect the notoriety of his design, when he discovered he was terminally ill, Ruhlmann wrote in his will that his company was to be dissolved.  Today, his pieces hold fast as the epitome of style and luxury.  

It is no surprise when looking at their work that Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian were contemporaries, friends and collaborators who developed the De Stijl movement.  However, this relationship ended due to a heated debate over, of all things, diagonal lines: van Doesburg for, Mondrian against.  As Mondrian stuck to his abstract guns, van Doesburg ventured into a variety of movements including neo-plasticism, constructivism, Dadaism and elementarism.  His work and opinions were so polarizing that his theories nearly split the newly formed Bauhaus when he started his own architecture course in his Weimar studio. 

It is unclear whether or not he actually was hired faculty but he lured students away from Gropius ultimately laying the philosophical foundations that would become the tenants of Bauhaus principles.  What is most surprising is that for all van Doesburg’s aggressiveness and polarizing opinions, it is the reclusive, bleak and one-dimensional Mondrian who is more remembered by history.  In addition to painting he also was a poet, art critic, designer, typographer, architect and performance artist.  As the polar opposite of the De Stijl austere theories was his work in Dada “performances” where dialogue was intentionally and absurdly interrupted by a planted person in the audience who would bark like a dog.  Van Doesburg was also witness to what would be called “the end of Dada” when a performance in Paris broke out into a riot where an actor’s arm was broken by a disgruntled rival and eventually the police were called to disband the melee.  

            

Links:
The Man Ray Trust
Man Ray's work at MoMA, NYC
A brief documentary of Man Ray by Jean-Paul Fargier
Source for Ruhlmann reproductions
Article on van Doesburg by "The Guardian"
van Doesburg work at MoMA, NYC