Contemporary Designer - Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck was born on the 18th January 1949 in Paris. He is a French designer, who also worked as an architect. Starck is very well known for his outstanding designs such as; interior design, household design, boat, watches... his influences are mostly from his father who was an aircraft engineer. He studied in Ecole Nissim de Comando, Paris. In 1968 opened his first company which produces flatable objects. In the 1970s, Starck started to create and design interiors and two of his first projects were La Main Bleu done in 1976 and Les Bains-Douches done in 1978, which are both nightclubs, which gain a lot of attention especially the President Francois Mitterrand. Then the same President asked him to make a refurbishment to his own Private apartments named the Élysée Palace (1983–84), in Paris. This refurbishment made an increase to his popularity.

Then he started to design and produce households such as lamps, chairs, kitchen utensils and such other thing like motorbikes, wind-turbines electric cars, hotels, and boats. Starck wants to make the world a better place to live by creating innovative designs which most are expensive and some are at a good price to reach everyone’s pocket. He also wanted to have the element of humour in his designs.

Juicy Salif juicer

His main characteristics which could be found in every design he does are fluid lines, organic forms and playful designs. His designs are beauty which sometimes means wealth. "above all he is a man of honesty, in the purest tradition of the Renaissance artists."

He is also known for the Juicy Salif juicer for the company Alessi, watches for Fossil, television design for Thomson Multimedia, luggage design for Samsonite, “Urban Fittings” for Decaux, office furniture for Vitra, eyeglasses for Alain Mikli and the Optical Mouse for Microsoft.

Then he is mostly known for buildings such as “Asahi Beer Hall (1990) in Tokyo, an austere, block like granite building topped with a bulbous orange shape resembling a flame, and the Unhex Nani-Nani office building (1989), also in Tokyo, which has been described as a biomorphic shed.”

In 1997 he got an award from Harvard Graduate School of Design for ‘Excellence in Design’.

Miss Lacy chair

'Miss Lacy' chair, by Philippe Starck.

This is an example of Starck’s design of a chair. It is made out of stainless steel. It is originally inspired from natural leaves of botanical. It is very elegant because of the material used; it makes it look more expensive. As I looked at this chair, immediately William Morris came up to mind because he used to use natural leaves pattern for his designs and maybe Starck was influenced by him. The design is also influenced from Baroque Art. Technique used for this chair is melting and casting which is an ancient technique.

The Pibal bike

The Pibal Bike

This bike is designed by Starck and it is manufactured by Peugeot. It was created to encourage people use these bikes instead of cars which is better for the environment and people’s health. It has an automatic two-speed hub, comfortable seat and also a part to rest your foot as it makes it look like a motor scooter. From the beginning of this year, about 3,000 or 4,000 bikes were expected to be manufactured by the Peugeot Company.

In my opinion, this bike is very unique as I’ve never seen this kind of bike before. Its original colours are yellow and gray, which reminded me of Pop Art. Pop Art has the characteristics of bright colours sometimes mixed with black or gray and this bike has almost the same characteristics of colour. 


MAMA Shelter Hotel - Interior Design 

The MAMA shelter hotel Marseille, Paris interior is all designed by Philippe Starck. He designed this hotel in an innovative way that it is welcoming and comfortable to all cultures. It is full of a mix of art and furniture which is a very interesting aspect in his design. This hotel includes a live stage, game area, dining hall, boutique, meeting room, etc... which has six floors. As I can see from the images it has a positive mood which comes from the bright colours used. Again in these designed interiors I notice that it has the characteristics of pop art from the colours used and from the look of the ceiling because it has a lot of writings which might Pop Art had been the influencing source for this project. For me this is a splendid talent to just combine and mix furniture with Art. Everything in this hotel designed by him is different in a way we don't usually see them.

"Elegance and honesty are two mandatory parameters for any human production." – Philippe Starck's quote.

My Overall Thoughts: Philippe Starck is an innovative designer who changed everything in his own designs. I really like and admire his designs because he does things which are very unusual in a modern way. He is able to create designs for every generation or for all generations in one design. While I made my research about him I got to know his style more and I never thought that he could design everything such as small things to huge things. Designs which I didn't really like were of the cars, I didn't find them attractive at all.

 Bibliography:

Starck, Jonathan Wingfield, January 2013, Biography -  PHILIPPE STARCK SHORT BIOGRAPHY, [online] Available at: http://www.starck.com/en/philippe_starck/biography/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Design Whitin Reach, Anon, n.d., Philippe Starck France (1949). [online] Available at: http://www.dwr.com/category/designers/r-t/philippe-starck.do [Accessed 21 April 2014].

Britannica, John Zukowsky,n.d., Philippe Starck, [online] (Last update 18^th June 2013) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1233446/Philippe-Starck [Accessed 21 April 2014].

Trustmedesigner.com, Onrej Chudy, 26^th November 2013, The first twenty Pibal Bicycles by Philippe Starck arrive in France. [online] http://trustmedesigner.com/2013/11/26/the-first-twenty-pibal-bicycles-by-philippe-starck-arrive-in-france/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Designcollector.com, Arsney Vesnin, 22^nd February 2013, Philippe Starck’s PIBAL an Urban Hybrid Bike/Scooter, [online] http://designcollector.net/philippe-starcks-pibal-an-urban-hybrid-bikescooter/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Design Boom, Danny Hudson, 22^nd September 2012, philippe starck: MAMA shelter hotel, Marseille, [online] http://www.designboom.com/architecture/philippe-starck-mama-shelter-hotel-marseille/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Pop Art (Design)

Pop art started in Britain in the 1950s and became popular in the 1960s. It exploded in popularity in New York City where artists such as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns were the main artists in this movement. It was mostly used for commercials and advertising products or celebrities. Popular products which were advertised with pop art were Coca-cola and Campbell’s soup. The Pop art movement was meant to be fun and attract a lot of people particularly young people. Some of its characteristics are normally bold bright colours, flat; make use of images that are popular and mostly used in comics. This type of Art has many different variations of art such as photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. This art movement later had an increase in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture.

Marilyn Monroe (1962)

Frank Powolny, Marilyn Monroe,
gelatin silver print, 1953.

This painting is done on a large canvas and Monroe’s head is at the centre in a rectangle and it is very small for this huge canvas. Its background is covered with metallic gold or bronze paint. The original photo was in black and white photo of Monroe which was taken for the film 'Niagra', in 1953 and then Andy Warhol the artist, painted it with bright colours to make it a pop icon. This is a great memorial of Marilyn Monroe which the photo was taken at her last photo session before she died and this painting was done after she made a suicide. This art work was inspired or influenced from traditional painted icons from the past such as the ‘Byzantine Madonna’. 

Andy Warhol made also alot of the same photo but with different colours and experimentations.

“Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe,

 Silkscreen ink, Silkscreen ink on synthetic

 polymer paint on canvas”.

Jim Fitz Patrick's Poster of Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Jim Fitz Patrick has been a bit controversial for his art work and this artwork might have been one of them. This poster of Jim Fitz Patrick named Che Guevara after the name of the man in the image, which became very popular. It was done in May 1968 and was published in Bolivia after Che Guevara’s death. This poster “became the iconic image of the anti-Vietnam war protests worldwide and today is the symbol of F.A.R.C. in Columbia and the Zapitistas of Mexico in their fight for freedom and autonomy”.

Andy Warhol's

This photo was also experimented in many different ways in Pop art as it doesn’t have any copy right. Even Andy Warhol made his version of this image which in my opinion it is better than Jim Fitz Patrick because Warhol’s are more bright in colour and attractive. 

Bibliography:

About.com, by Beth Gersh-Nesic, n.d., Pop Art - Art History 101 Basics, [online] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/Pop-Art-Art-History-101-Basics.htm [Accessed 20 April 2014].

Smarthistory, speakers Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker, Text by Virginia Spivey, n.d., Warhol's Gold Marilyn Monroe. [online] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/pop-art.html [Accessed 20 April].

Jim Fitz Patrick, Anon, n.d., Che, [online] Available at: http://www.jimfitzpatrick.com/che/ [Accessed 20 April 2014].

Cubism (Art)

Artillery, by Roger de la Fresnaye
(an example of Cubism Art).

Cubism was a very important movement in Art because it caused change to happen in art. It started by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between the 1907 and 1914, where they worked together and they were the only artist in Cubism at that time. Their main subjects were still lives and portraits. The early time of Cubism there were links from Primitivism and non-Western sources which changed the understanding in Art. Cubism was a very influential movement of the early 20th century. Characteristics of Cubism are that paintings have abstract geometric forms to build up the composition in the paintings. Cubists didn’t want to copy nature or to paint like the traditional techniques of perspective, modelling and foreshortening. Cubism was a modern Art of innovations during the 20^th century. At this time artists thought that the illusion of space and mass became less important. Normally Cubist’s work should have a narrow range of colours. Some more characteristics are that artworks have different viewpoints, overlapping planes and that encourages the viewer to be actively involved in the artwork. Cubism innovations included lettering and collage.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist. He was born in Malaga Spain on the 25^th October 1881 and died in 1973. He was able to draw before he could speak and he started to show his artistic talent from an early age. He was mostly known as Cubist artist who changed Art. He was also a very important artist for the 20^th century. He was a son of an Art teacher so that helped him improve and gives him courage in Art. He lived in Barcelona, Spain then he moved to Paris in 1904. An important painting of Picasso was ‘Les Demoiselles D’Avignon’ which was “revolutionary work” that led to the new movement of Cubism. He worked together with George Braque in the Cubism movement. Another important artwork of Picasso was ‘Collage’ 1912, which was made up of “cloth, newspaper or advertising to his paintings”.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

 Oil on canvas.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was a very important painting for the Cubism period. This could be described as a “rough painting” and “revolutionary work”. It was done as experimentation as it was the first Cubist painting. It has a flat look without the usual perspective of what we normally see in other paintings. The colours are varied from warm to cool colours. It has a lot of visible outlines which are done boldly. We can notice that at the bottom in the centre of the painting there’s a still life of fruits.

A good description from research I've done: “So far, we have examined the middle figure which relates to Matisse’s canvas; the two masked figures on the right side who refer, by their aggression, to Picasso’s fear of disease; and, we have linked the left-most figure to archaic Iberian sculpture and Picasso’s attempt to elicit a sort of crude primitive directness.”

In my opinion I found this painting very confusing and didn't understand its meanings very well and even the colours make you confused. Also it makes you keep looking at it to make you curious about its meaning and composition.  

Bibliography:

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Sabine Rewald, October 2004, Cubism, [online] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm [Accessed 17 April 2014].

BBC, Anon, n.d., Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/picasso_pablo.shtml [Accessed 17 April 2014].

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, James Voorhies, October 2004, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), [online] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pica/hd_pica.htm [Accessed 17 April 2014].

Smart History, Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker, Anon, n.d., Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, [online] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/les-demoiselles-davignon.html [Accessed 17 April 2014].

The Arts and Crafts Movement (Design)

"Detail from a season ticket for The Arts &
 Crafts Exhibition Society,
 by Walter Crane, England,
UK, 1890. Museum no. E.4164-1915. ©
 Victoria & Albert Museum, London"

“The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the most influential, profound and far-reaching design movements of modern times.” This movement started in Britain during the Victorian period in the 1880s. It spread across America and Europe. In this movement were born new ideas in art. Some of its characteristics are simplicity of form, plain linear lines, handmade, looks more geometric and abstract, has influences from nature, has rejection of industrialization and traditional crafts. The Arts and Crafts Movement improved the standards of decorative designs. The two main founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement are William Morris and Ruskin. Its name emerged from ‘The Art and Crafts Exhibition Society’ founded in 1887.

William Morris

William Morris

William Morris was born on 24 March 1834 in Walthamstow and died 3 October 1896. From 1852 till 1855 he went to the Exeter Collage in Oxford to become clergyman and earned a degree and after worked as an architect. From the 1860 ha spent two years working to decorate the interiors and furnishings. Morris was a reformer like Pugin and wanted to reform society. He was an educationist, theorist, writer and lecturer. He created art in different way such as in textiles, wallpaper, furniture, stained glass, book design and tapestry. He was a founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement and he was also associated with the Pre-Raphaelites brotherhood. His main concern and dedication was to produce beautiful things with a lot of decoration and detailed work. He lived during the Victorian era. some of his inspirations were Medieval Art, natural motifs, colours, figuration and high pattern.

William Morris’s well known quote: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

St George Cabinet

St George Cabinet

Designed by Webb Philip and painted by William Morris. Materials used for this cabinet are gilded mahogany, pine and oak wood with some copper mounts. It was made between 1861 and 1862. This painted work by Morris on this cabinet is very rare because he is more popular for textiles and nature motifs. Its inspiration is from Medieval Art. An interesting fact in this artwork is that it is a 3D structure and has art painted as a 2D on its flat surfaces. This decoration gives us the idea of Morris's pattern designs that he started to do later.  

Bibliography:

Class notes

V&A, n.d., The Arts & Crafts Movement. [online] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-arts-and-crafts-movement/ [Accessed 15 April 2014].

V&A, n.d., Biography of William Morris. [online] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/biography-of-william-morris/ [Accessed 15 April 2014].

Primary Facts by James, 11 July 2012, William Morris Facts. [online] Available at:  http://primaryfacts.com/143/william-morris-facts/ [Accessed 15 April 2014].

V&A, Anon, n.d., St George Cabinet. [online] Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O8144/st-george-cabinet-cabinet-webb-philip-speakman/ [Accessed 15 April 2014]

Art Nouveau (Design)

Art Nouveau is a new style of art which started in the 1880s till the World War I (1914). The development of Art Nouveau happened in the Western Europe and the United States, but started in Belgium. Art Nouveau was being inspired by some aspects of nature. It influenced art, applied arts, architecture, graphic world and illustrations. Art Nouveau has different names in different countries such as ‘Sezession stil’ in Vienna/Austria, ‘Jugendstil’ in Germany, ‘Stile Liberty’ in Italy, ‘Modernista’ in Spain and more. Each country has its own style of Art Nouveau. “Sinuous lines and "whiplash" curves were derived, in part, from botanical studies and illustrations of deep-sea organisms such as those by German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834–1919) in Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature, 1899)”.

Short biography of Georges Fouquet:

Georges Fouquet was a French jeweller, in Paris. He was born in 1862 and died in 1957. He stared his job of a jeweller in 1891 with his father in a family business, then the company became his in 1895. In 1919 Fouquet’s son started to work for his company. Fouquet’s style was based on the Art Nouveau and the Art Deco movements. He was known that he worked with artist Alphonse Mucha to create jewellery from his designs for the Pavilion of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 1900 World Fair, in Paris. Alphonse Mucha was an Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist.

Brooch 1898 - 1901
Materials used: Gold, pearls, mother of pearl, delicate pliqué à jour enamel. 

This brooch was designed by Georges Fouquet inspired from paphiopedilum lawrenceanum orchid and designed by Charles Desrosiers, Fouquet's main designer. the large middle pearl is very interesting and it is the main focus of this brooch. It has the charecteristics of Art Nouveau because it has those ''whiplash'' curved lines. It has an expensive look as it really is because it is made out of expensive materials. 


Bibliography:

Paul Greenhalgh, 2000, A New Style For A New Age. [online] Available at: <https://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.shtm> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

Cybele Gontar - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d., Art Nouveau. [online] Available at: <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

 Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries, n.d., Biography for Georges Fouquet. [online] Available at: <http://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Georges+Fouquet> [Accessed 14 April 2014].

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2005, Jewellery. [online] Available at: http://www.scva.ac.uk/collections/anderson/index.php?collection=29&collection_object=29 [Accessed 14 April].

Exhibition

Title of exhibition: Xebgha Nies

Date visited: 25^th February 2014

Name of artists: Debbie Caruana Dingli, Andrew Diacono, Marisa Attard, Steve Bonello, Moira Zarha, Mark Scicluna, Paul Scerri, Saviour Baldacchino, Kenneth Zammit Tabona.

 Name of artwork: 'Backstage' by Moira Zahra

In this painting the artist used different medias such as pencils, Indian ink and watercolours which are very interesting to use them all together as we can see in this painting. The main focus in this painting is on the woman’s figure because of the colour. The painting has a contrast between warm and cold colours. As we can see the woman is looking at herself in a mirror. The room looks like a huge mess because there are drawers opened and much more things placed around randomly. Two things that you will notice are the cat behind the mirror and the huge spider on the mirror. The painting is unrealistic because the spider couldn’t be that large in reality and the perspective and proportions aren’t real.

 Name of artwork: 'In-nemmiesa' by Steve Bonello

This painting is done by technical pens, coloured inks and polychrome Medias. This is showing two men stalking a lady from her behind and she is aware of them and looks annoyed. The mood in this painting is calm. It is showing a typical Maltese country side with a chapel in the back. Its style looks like animation and also has an old style as you can see from their clothes. The colour of this painting is very light. The people in the painting are unrealistic.

 Name of art work: 'Clown' by Andrew Diacono

This sculpture is made out of different Medias. It is very unrealistic because the proportions of the figure are not right. This is showing an unusual clown dancing and balancing something on his huge nose, and he is trying to be funny. The mood in this sculpture is funny and sad at the same time because the colours are very dull which aren’t showing happiness. The message of this sculpture is that a clown is very funny for the audience but from the inside he might be sad, and that shows that some of us are usually like that, the appearance is not everything.

Name of artwork: 'Family' by Andrew Diacono

This artwork is a relief on wood.  It is a family portrait but made in a sarcastic way because the figures aren’t proportioned. This family consists of mother and father, four children and a baby. I think that it is showing obesity. Its colours are dull and it has a lot of outlined lines to look cartoonish. The mood of this relief is calm.

Name of artwork: 'Pride of George' by Saviour Baldacchino 

The artist used mixed media on board for this painting. This painting is a bit colourful and has a contrast between the red and the whole background. The mood of this painting is aggressiveness. It is also showing victory against the enemy.