Revolutionising the Image //

Modern Life is Rubbish?: Revolutionising the Image
/ Style, Cubism & Futurism

What exactly do we mean when we talk about styles and movements in the history of art or design?
/ The Canon – See story of Polykleitos’ bronze sculpture entitled – Doryphoros (The Spear Bearer). A theoretical work which comprises a set of aesthetic principles governing the work’s proportions, meaning ‘rule’. The proportionally ‘perfect’ work of art. A yardstick – a measure of what they believed art ‘should’ be, the quintessential embodiment of ‘good’ art.

/ The Western art historical canon denotes a body of books, music and art that have been traditionally accepted by Western scholars as the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. Idea of the celebrity artist or designer and the masterpiece.

/ Canonised – accepted into the canon. 

/ Survey text – characterised by key individuals who represent styles and movements.

What is ‘style’?:
A definition: Specific rather than simply a methodology. A particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character e.g. the baroque style. Or...
/ A particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode of construction or execution in any work of art/design.

/ A way of doing something, especially one which is typical of a person, group of people, place or period (in the style of...).

/ Used to classify and to describe e.g. when, where or when something was created/developed. Used to group and match works. When we study the style of something we are looking to place it in a relationship of similarity (and difference) with other works.

/ How do we categorise and name works /movements in art and design? – Shared characteristics.
Styles or movements are dialogical – meaning that they come about as part of a dialogue or conversation with previous styles – either embracing or reacting against elements of those styles.
If something is stylised, it is represented with an emphasis on a particular style. Style was described by Meyer Schapiro as ‘a system of forms with a quality, through which the personality of the artist and the outlook of a group are visible’.

/ Art/design ‘movement’, a definition:
A tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time.