The Influence Of Avant-garde Art Movements On The New Typography

The term avant-garde, originally a French term translating to vanguard, means ‘advance guard’ and is used to describe the shock troops which went ahead of an army (Kostelanetz, 2013). In terms of art and design the term means art that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox (Picchione, 2004; 63) and work that is exploring new forms or subject matter, it was first used in reference to art by Henri de Saint-Simon in early nineteenth century, he was a socialist who believed that artists were leaders of a new society. Early avant-garde art was strongly influenced by socialist ideas, Henri da Saint-Simon viewed art as a powerful way to communicate and express thoughts and ideas. The socialist avant-garde was then succeeded by modern art movements (Sackler, 2005), such as Dadaism, Futurism, and Cubism.

Innovation is one of the most prominent ideologies of the avant-garde, another ideological belief is that art should be progressive in terms of social and political issues. Artists are able to be experimental, oppositional, and revolutionary due to the ideological beliefs surrounding the avant-garde (Butler, C, 2004). The early movements which were created through the avant-garde were largely influential to the development of many artistic practices such as graphic design, fine art, and fashion.

Constructivism, which originated in Russia in the early 20th century, artists began to ‘construct’ art to represent their social beliefs, this was during the same time that Russia was in a socialist state in the Soviet Union following the revolution in 1917. The work created during this period was built on abstract visual grammar and political propaganda (Cooke, 1995). El Lissitzky was a Russian artist who was a largely influential figure in the Russian avant-garde. He was described as “the man through whose exertions the new Russian ideas became generally understood in Western Europe” (Hamilton, 1940). His work Beat the Whites with Red edge is a lithographic soviet propaganda poster which symbolizes the White movement losing to the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Constructivism and El Lizzitzky were a source for modernist graphic design. The New typography, ‘which built on the findings of Russian Suprematism, Dutch Neoplasticism, and especially that of Constructivism (Tschichold, 1928)’, wanted to liberate the conventions of traditional typography and began to use textual elements in their work through experimenting with forms of typography, which did not relate to conventions of fine art, this style of graphic design was visually exciting and influential to younger generations of graphic designers. About two squares by El Lissitzky in 1920 was revolutionary to typographers as they began to express new forms and ideas in the graphic design field (Stirton, 2019). Lissitzky was interested in improving communication, he, among other avant-garde artists were influential to the visual development of graphic design and heightened the importance of aesthetic approach and communication. The work of avant-garde artists allowed graphic design to be recognized as something more than an art form and viewed with consideration to communication, social significance, and aesthetics (Bennett, 2006). The work created through the Constructivism movement led to the acceptance of the minimalist colour pallete, which is still popular in the graphic design industry today.

Futurism was also largely influenced through the avant-garde, it originated in the 20th century and was a symbol for modernity through its emphasis on technology and the industrial city and represented the victory of technology over nature. Futurists wanted to represent a dynamic vision of the future and were largely influential to future art movements such a vorticism, Dadaism and constructivism (Loss, 1992). Dadaism artists began to use photomontage, which can be seen through the work of Raoul Hausmann. The movement was inspiring to artists through is innovation and protest to society (Elger, 2004). Dadaism also helped create popular culture and new printing technology. The work created in this movement reflects on the far-left socialist ideas. They were three concepts relating to the ideology of the Dada movement, spontaneity, negation and absurdity (Kristiansen, 1968).

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was an avant-garde graphic designer who began the Futurist typographical revolution in 1912. His words-in-freedom works reflect on the power of language, his book ‘Zang Tumb Tumb’, published in 1912 express the sounds of war through phonetic sounds which express themselves on the page rather than phrases and sentences (Lupton, Lustig Cohen, 1996). This movement was largely influential to graphic designers, before the innovation of movable type graphic designers used a horizonal and vertical structure and designers began to use typography as an expressive visual form. Futurism did so well because its psychological and sociological factors prevail over its aesthetic factors. Futurism and Cubism are two closely linked movements, Cubism was a turning point in modern art and is argued to be one of the most influential movements in the 20th century, as it was the first abstract style in art movements it shocked traditional painters. The focus of cubism was to change elements for aesthetic purpose and was an avant-garde led movement which sparked abstract expressions in art and design and graphic design (Barr, 2019). A popular trend and stylization among the graphic design market is the use of geometry shapes to create illustrations. These are taken from the cubism movement; this demonstrates the influence and relevance of avant-garde movements in the current graphic design market.

These past avant-garde movements were all largely influential to graphic design, fine art, photography and many other practices that embraced the avant-garde through innovation and positive influence on society. Avant-garde was leading the way forward and creating art, which was described as ahead of its time, however, by the 1980’s it was argued that it was beginning to become obsolete. Keith Haring was a popular artist whose work inspired the reconsideration of social, political, and cultural roles. The work of Haring was defining to the New York avant-garde scene, his work saw the absence of any style and communicated through the forms of symbols (Sassower, Cicotello, 2000). Keith Haring was an avant-garde artist who created a crossover of pop-art and graffiti while using principles of graphic design to create simple but a piece of work that has its own narrative.

The debate of urban and public space also was raised through the work of street artists like Haring, street art is used as a weapon against oppression, social and environmental injustice and is argued to pry open the cracks in capitalism. Bill Posters said that street art in public spaces gives power to change society’s perception of itself and it is a reaction to injustice (Posters, 2020). It can be argued that the work of Keith Haring was considered avant-garde due to his use of urban space and moving from being consumers of culture to being creative producers of culture. This led to artists believing that they had the right to author, change and create public space and have their own right to the city. Sung Hun Choi wrote that graffiti is a visual vernacular graphic design source, the contemporary street art which is being produced in recent years are a communicative language which has become a significant influence on graphic design practices through the use of communitive, aesthetic and symbolic design system (Choi, 2007).

This leads to the argument that the ideology behind what is avant-garde is considered malleable, the 1970s saw the avant-garde begin to blend into popular culture and many theorists considered the avant-garde to be extinct, however, new, and innovative art was being created. Crane said that avant-garde should be determined through aesthetic, social content and the production and distribution of artwork (Crane, 1987). Pop art is an avant-garde movement which began in the 1960s, it redefined aesthetic and social dimensions of art and changed the representation of art and the artists involved in this movement saw the involvement of modernist aesthetic traditional, which could be seen in early movements (Crane, 1987). Pop art and artists like Andy Warhol became icons of postmodernism, pop culture and the avant-garde.

To conclude, early avant-garde movements saw massive influence and development for artists and designers which led to revolutionary ideas and works being created which changed the way that artists thought about the meaning and the process surrounding their work, however, in recent years it can be argued that the avant-garde has been revolutionized in itself and its meaning, it has transformed from being a new and unpopular phenomenon which aimed to change the conventions of outdated works, theorist Renato Poggioli began to question if they were an avant-garde any more in his ‘The Theory of the Avant-Garde’ published in 1962 (Poggioli, 1962), however, the works of Haring, Warhol and contemporary artists such as KAWS show that it is possible to still be avant-garde, through new and experimental ideas. The ideology of the avant-garde changes depending on which theory of the avant-garde you are working with and which trajectory you fall into as an avant-garde artist. Some theorists believe that avant-garde work needs be progressive, rather than innovation, this brings the question of does all avant-garde work need to have contentions of opposing ideas? The possibility of still being considered an avant-garde artist is still attainable, evidencing this is the Turner Prize awarded by the Tate Gallery and contemporary fashion, such as the works of Barbara í Gongini. The relevance and influence of the avant-garde in early movements helped shape contemporary artistic practices to what they are now and allowed consumers to become more accepting of new ideas. The term avant-garde has become a deplorable term through being outdated, however, it can be argued that contemporary art is avant-garde and that the ideology of creating unorthodox and experimental ideas is still, very much so, relevant in current artistic practices, street art specifically could be considered to be an avant-garde art form, graffiti uses its power to take over public space to address social and political issues and it is influential to other practices, such as graphic design, through the methods and styles of graffiti.