For the past two weeks I have been thinking the Why is That Art? actually does a decent job of outlining the major artistic movements. Barrett even gives pretty good examples to contextualize the ideas behind these movements. I have always considered art one of the most interesting and important communication artifacts to exist throughout history. When the right words are out of reach, visual content can speak for itself, defying boundaries of culture, religion, linear interpretation and even time. Art allows us to better understand a life outside of ourselves, something that is bigger than us, maybe even something we have not personally experienced but maybe something we have.
Regardless, I do believe there is a significant difference between art and beauty as well as art and design. There is art the absolutely drives me crazy. The Kazimir Malevich work, White on White makes me physically cringe when I look at it. As designers, we are not meant to provide our audiences with an unsettling aesthetic. Nor are we necessarily meant to provide our clients with something ‘beautiful.’ I think that the way in which art theory can be incorporated successfully into the iMedia field is through knowledge of the context in which a piece was created and more importantly why it ‘got the people going?’
Clearly, as design professionals we need to know what came before us. A basic art historical knowledge is important for many reasons. We don’t want to recycle ideas and we need to know why a work of art or a movement was successful. Understanding why art speaks to the masses is essential to the creation of aesthetic material. To know what type of visual content elicits a strong reaction from large groups of people and why they can react to it, either positively or negatively, is half the battle in communication through visual aesthetics. Hopefully we can take this basic knowledge and channel it toward creating an effective design aesthetic. Understanding what a client needs in a specific context can catapult us far above our professional competition. Knowledge of art history also gives us as creators the courage to take risks in the decision-making process.
So, even though I hate White on White and think Malevich was an absolute loon, I know the content exists, understand the avant-garde nature of the work in its time period and can see why it delivered a message of freedom and breaking boundaries to its audience. I still hate it, but hey, at least I get it and maybe that’s all that matters in the realm of communication.