Author: Ann

Aleksander Rodchenko

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Aleksander Rodchenko was a Russian Constructivism artist and designer across many medium such as photography, painting and advertising. Rodchenko was influenced by the Russian revolution of 1917. He was member of the Productivists who pushed art into everyday lives, which is what modern-day graphic design is (Design History).

Rodchenko’s focus was on painting before he moved to the career of a graphics design. Most of Rodchenko’s work was for Dobrolet, a Russian airline company, he produced logos, poster, advertisement and packaging for them. He also created many book covers, illustrations and photo-montages for other clients (Design History)

In 1921 Rodchenko declared ‘The End of Painting’ when he exhibited three monochromatic canvases of the colours red, blue and yellow. He stated that he “…reduced painting to its logical conclusion and exhibited three canvases: red, blue, and yellow” (The Independent, 27/1/2009).

Rodchenko has influence many designers in the 20th Century such as Barbara Kruger, plus a number of album covers among them are Mike and The Machanics Word of Mouth Album and the cover of Franz Ferdinand You Could Have Had It So Much Better, (Wikipedia) both have variations of Rodchenko’s Ad for Lengiz (Armstrong and Lupton:52).

Barbara Kruger is an American artist and designer that is influenced by Russian Constructivism and the designer Rodchenko. Kruger had a career in magazine design at Condé Nast Publications. She initially worked at Mademoiselle Magazine and later at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. (Kruger).

Kruger focuses her work around feminism, consumerism, classicism and individual desire and autonomy. Kruger layers “photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text” and her work consists of trademark black letters with a red background(Kruger).

 

Architecture and literature 02

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Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s essay “One-way Street,” a book of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, the invisible web of relationships between Jews and Germans, and the unfinished last act of Arnold Schoenberg’s opera “Moses und Aron,” he created the “Voids” – concave cavities that lend the museum a unique atmosphere. In the misunderstood reception of the Holocaust as “Jewish history,” Libeskind’s design came to be seen as a symbol for a “Jewish” museum.

 

Architecture and literature 01

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I.M. Pei
Miho Museum, Kyoto, Japan
The path leading up to the MIHO MUSEUM is based on a Chinese poem called “Peach Blossom Valley”, about a fisherman who finds a mysterious cave that leads to paradise.
He enters the cave… (note that the tunnel is curved so you cannot see the way out, and the walls absorb sound, so there are no echoes)
…finally, he sees a light…
In “Peach Blossom Valley”, the fisherman spends a few days in the village, feasting and enjoying paradise before returning home through the cave. However, when he attempts to return another day, he cannot. The path has disappeared. At the MIHO MUSEUM, we saw ancient treasures from around the world, ate delicious food, and experienced “another world”, away from civilization. Lucky for us, the cave never closes, and we can go back anytime.

Xubin: Background Stories

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…at Babel

This event sent by God was the ultimate cause of the early separation of mankind, their dispersal throughout the Earth, and their division into races and nations.

After the Flood, as the human population quickly grew, some descendants of Noah built a tower to prevent their dispersion; but God “confounded their language” (Gen. 11:1-8), and they were scattered over the whole Earth. Up until this time “the whole Earth was of one language and of one speech.”