Maggie's Graphic Arts Blog: Assignment #5 Graphic Artists

Graphic Artists

Maggie Merkin

ARTH 230.1

T. Long

Over the course of this class we have discussed the various early periods of graphic arts history and have talked about the various influential graphic design artists that had a profound impact on graphic design as a whole movement. Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley are two of those artists who each have had such an influential impact in the graphic arts. Lautrec (1864-1901) turned to drawing and painting at the age of thirteen after having (supposedly) been in an accident that broke both of his hips, leaving him crippled (although theories of genetic mutation and familial incest are attributed to this disability as well). Despite this disability, Lautrec became a part of the Art Nouveau period, in which his poster design and other works made milestones, featuring simplified symbolic shapes, dynamic spatial relationships, as well as form and communicative images. He immersed himself in the culture and city life of Paris, haunting dance clubs and cafes while sketching and gathering inspiration for his posters. Although he produced only thirty posters, he used techniques that rivaled the style and talent of other artists such as Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen, and paved the way for a more fluid, reportorial line and flat color style of art that other artists started to use in their work. Beardsley (1872-98) also had a profound impact during the art nouveau period, as his penmanship, graphic black and white works, and exotic and stylized imagery began to make their way in monthly, illustrated, typographic installments. Unlike Lautrec (who used a lot of flat and bold color and imagery), Beardsley was influenced by the contrast of organic and geometric shapes, the strangeness of the distortion of human figures, and powerful black and white shapes. His work (despite the criticism of others, like fellow artist William Morris, and the banning English censors) resulted in numerous commissions, and helped him to establish himself as art editor for London’s Yellow Book. Towards the end of his life, Beardsley was an invalid (and ultimately died of tuberculosis at the age of 26), and when he could work on his art, his style shifted to a more naturalistic tonal quality, and the bold and harsh lines of his previous work became softened and less pronounced. These two artists (despite their separate artistic styles and differing inspirations and influences) were similar in the fact that they each were visionaries in their talents and continued to produce art that changed the way society looked at and considered the various facets of visual communication during that time.

"La Goulue au Moulin Rouge" (1891) Lautrec