I have taken a post-modern approach to this design of this site. I believe that Post-modernism allows an artist to take concepts from past art movements, place them in a virtual blender, press pulse, and produce a wonderful blend of previous approaches to explaining the world. For this project, my post-modern virtual art blender mixed up three primary styles: deStijl; Constructivist; and, Abstract Expressionism (post 1945).
In October 1917, Piet Mondrian wrote, "The New Plastic in Painting", in which he expresses the ideas for a universal, elemental art divorced from the need to serve representation: "The new plastic art...can only be based on the abstraction of all form and colour, i.e. the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour." Feeling that Analytical Cubism did not go far enough, did not represent pure reality, Mondrian developed what became known as Neo-Plasticism. His new style reflected the desire for standardization in the contemporary machine age. Its precision and purity were perfect for the "new man" in Utopian society. This new society became known as deStijl, "The Style". It's influence on web design is clear and profound and, in my opinion, requires little justification.
After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Constructivism was embraced by most of the avant-garde artists. They tried to apply the laws of "pure" art to objects of utilitarian purpose and mass consumption, and to "build a bridge" between art and the new "savior" of the people. The Constructivists heralded the death of easel painting and asserted that the artist was a researcher, an engineer, and an "art constructor." Thus, Constructivism was essentially re-adapted to fit utilitarian purposes and to fulfill (if only unconventionally) the material needs of the people.
Abstract Expressionism was an art movement which began in New York City. After WWII, with images of the Holocaust everywhere they turned, it seemed redundant for socially-aware artists to paint these same images ... a photograph at the time was much more powerful. Therefore, to have no subject matter ... no imagery at all, seemed to be "the thing to do". Artists began to explore color and shape and to paint an entire canvas orange or blue was not an odd thing to do (Color Field Painting). The ideas of existentialism also played a large role in how artists created. Artists began to wonder: "If there is no God, what are the reasons for our being here? Why do we do what we do?" The result was a period of self discovery and there was a sense that one could do and say anything and everything. With no rules, many creative minds could explore ideas freely - hence the splish splash creations of folks like Jackson Pollock - otherwise known as "Jack the Dripper".
The appeal of Abstract Expressionism to me is that it is a form of art in which the artist expresses himself purely through the use of form and color. It is form of non-representational, or non-objective, art, which means that there are no concrete objects represented. Now considered to be the first American artistic movement of worldwide importance, the term was originally used to describe the work of Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. The movement can be broadly divided into two groups: Action Painting, typified by artists such as Pollock, de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Phili Guston, put the focus on the physical action involved in painting; Color Field Painting, practiced by Mark Rothko and Kenneth Noland, among others, was primarily concerned with exploring the effect of pure color on a canvas.
I trust that you, the guest to steveholland.com, have discovered that I am not your typical Web Creative. My site is intended to be reflective of my contrarian perspectives and post-modern approach to the current state of web design. It is my intention for it to be bright – for I believe the future is. It is my hope that is easy to use, for the web should be. Now the question is what do you think? email me and let me know, I am curious.
