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Modernism in Paul Rand Essay

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Modernism in Paul Rand Topic 1 Fabrizia Corsi Critical and Cultural Studies Dawn Correia (23rd April 2013) ‘Modernism’ is derived from ‘modo’, a Latin word which means “just now”( Philosophy Basics. n.d.). Modernism, in its broad explanation includes the different movements related to art in the Europe, initiating from the end of the 19th century till the beginning of 20th century (Design History Mashup, Philip S. , 2008). These latest European movements developed to reject the conventional arts of the previous times. The public, who showed initial controversy to the new ideas, gradually acknowledged them. A major portion of these European movements and the public and political protests were …show more content…

It reminds the readers of the prisoners taken away in the concentration camps and how their Christmas will be. The red dots make the design more promising and meaningful because they can be interpreted in either of the two ways. They can be the blood drops of the prisoners in concentration camps or the people who lost their lives in the war, or they may symbolize the Christmas decorations (Meggs, 2011). In this cover there is an influence from Cubism. Picasso introduced Cubism which was based upon fragmented images (Guillaume & Dorothea, 2012). Such paintings made the viewer connect the parts like a puzzle. The technique of collage was also introduced by Picasso. He represented everyday life by different pictures and materials and integrated them to make a single design. This introduced a 3D outlook on the paintings which also gave a new meaning by the combination of different objects. Rand, inspired by Picasso, followed a similar pattern in the design discussed (Bernard, 2005). He made the cover by collating a number of objects: the barbed wire, the shadow of the wire which indicates space depth suggesting texture, the name card and the double meaning portrayed by the artwork. The constructivist movement has also influenced Rand’s work. This is evident from the use of space geometrically and colors. The colors; red, white and black were prominently used by Russian constructivist

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