Modernism

According to the Tate, Modernism started around 1850, the term “modernism” or “modern art” came from architects and designers who self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. This concept proposes new forms of art that are more appropriate to the present time. It is also often characterized by constant innovation. Modernism has also been influenced by different social and political movements. Those ideas were often utopian, and modernism was in general asscociated with ideal visions human life, society and a belief in progress.

The term “modernism” and “modern art” are also often used to describe the succession of art movements that followed Realism and abstract art. Today modernism has become a dominant in Art, particularly interior design and architecture.

I particularly like Sheats Goldstein Residence. The house was designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by America architect John Lautner in Beverly Hills, California. The building itself was conceived from the inside out and built into the sandstone ledge of the hillside; a cave-like dwelling that opens to embrace nature and view.

“The purpose of Architecture is to improve human life. Create timeless, free, joyous spaces for all activities in life. The infinite variety of these spaces can be as varied as life itself and they must be as sensible as nature in deriving from a main idea and flowering into a beautiful entity.” — John Lautner. 16 July 1911 – 24 October 1994

Sources:

-http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=174

-http://chrisnadebruyn.wordpress.com/

Camilla Akrans

I wanted to do a post on Camilla Akrans, but it was quite hard to get a hold of her biography anywhere. I did find that she is a Swedish photographer who started in 1999. She first wanted to become an artist but quickly abandoned her artistic beginnings to approach photophraphy from a painter's view as well as drawing influences from movies.

Akrans’ work is a real breath of fresh air, her romantic shots in pastel colours hold a certain simplicity that make her shots amazing. Unlike many photographers who prefer the security and control of a photographic studio, Camilla prefers to shoot outdoors. Her use of lighting is also quite original, I think and adds to her style. An other thing I think she is really good at is directing the poses for her models.

The Swedish photographer is regularly approached by magazines like Vogue, Numero, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Style Magazine for their fashion spreads. She has immortalized models such as Leah de Wavrin, Coco Rocha and Caroline Trentini.

After shooting campaigns for Hermès, Neiman Marcus, Tommy Hilfiger, Missoni and Erès, she has recently signed on for projects with Sisley, Bebe and fellow Swedish H&M.

You can have a look at her work here: http://www.managementartists.com/#/b/portfolio/0/1/200/

Sources:

-http://www.managementartists.com/#/b/portfolio/0/1/200/

Semiotics

Semiotics or semiology is the study of signs, sign systems, and the way meaning is derived from them. The life of signs in society. Here are some images from google when I typed in the word “semiotics”.

What I got from semiotics is that it's quite complicated and that a same image/photo can mean different things to different people. The first semiotic definition of “sign” came from by Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course on General Linguistics (1915).

The sign (or word) is made up of two parts, a signifier which is the image itself and a signified which is the mental concept. In other words The signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image. It is in the interpretation of the signifier that meaning is created. On the other hand, the signified is the concept, the meaning, the object indicated by the signifier. It need not be a “real object” but some kind of referent to which the signifier refers.

So I guess in conclusion semiotics seeks to describe how meaning arises from a set of differential relations specific to a given sign system (language), and it assumes that there are no "positive" meanings.

Sources:

-Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes.

-http://faculty.smu.edu/mhouseho/Teaching/ENGL2311/Semiotics.htm

-http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html