Frank Gehry chairs

Frank Gehrys wiggle side chair 

The wiggle side chair was first designed and produced in 1972. this chair was constructed entirely out of corrugated cardboard, fiberboard and round timber 

cardboard furniture became increasingly popular during the 1960 as the furniture was incredibly light and very cheap alternative to the normal traditional furniture . at this time attempts were made to reinforce the support of the single layer cardboard offered by using  folds, tabs, slots, and other device. however the use of cardboard was unable to compete against its biggest rival plastic, this was because of property's such as the plastics being water proof (meaning the products being able to be used outside) and easy to mold under heat (opening up a greater field of designs) plastic in general was also in general alot stronger and lasted longer. Frank Gehry discovered a process that ensured cardboard furniture-making a new burst of popularity. he said “One day I saw a pile of corrugated cardboard outside of my office – the material which I prefer for building architecture models – and I began to play with it, to glue it together and to cut it into shapes with a hand saw and a pocket knife.”  because of this it was then possible to turn massive bits of card board into sculptures. gehrey named this cardboard edge card board which consisted of layered corrugated cardboard running in alternating directions. in 1972 he introduced a series of works of cardboard furniture named easy edges. these card board designs where exteamly sturdy and due to there surface quality had noise reduction in the room. the "easy edges" did not take long to succeed as they bought Gehry fame over night as a furniture designer. however Gehry decided that he was not a furniture designer but an architect and therefore simply stopped designing the chairs. Gehry made an international breakthrough as an architect in the late seventies, among other things with the design of his private residence in Santa Monica, California, in 1978.

Art Deco

Art Deco 

The term Art Deco refers to a style that spanned the boom of the roaring 1920s and the bust of the Depression-ridden 1930s. It affected all forms of design, from the fine and decorative arts to fashion, film, photography, transport and product design. In 2003, the V&A hosted the major exhibition Art Deco: 1910-1939.Art deco began in Europe, particularly Paris, in the early years of the 20th century, but didn't really take hold until after World War I. It reigned until the outbreak of World War II.

by the 1930s mass production of design ment everyone could live in the art deco style. while travlee become increasingly popular. things such as african safaris were all the rage and animal skins, ivory and mother of pearl, tortoiseshell began to appear in homes across the UK. after tutankhamuns tomb was discovered where pyramids an sphinxes took over everything

the art Deco style incorporated geometric and angular shape,chrome, glass, shiny fabrics, mirrors and mirror tiles, stylised images of aeroplanes, cars, cruise liners, skyscrapers, nature motifs - shells, sunrises, flowers theatrical contrasts - highly polished wood and glossy black lacquer mixed with satin and furs

famous artists who where based in the art Deco periods such as Eileen Gray, Raymond tempiler, clarice cliff, Rene liqueur

Gerrit Rietveld chair research

the famous chair designed and by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917. it represents one of the first chairs made in the De Stijl art movement in a 3-D. the chair was made out of beech wood, however the actual chair was not painted until the early 1920s, before this rietveld decided to keep the chair plain however a memeber of de stijl architect Bart Van Der Leck, saw his original model of the chair and gave him the idea to paint the chair with bright colors. Rietveld then built another new model out of a thinner wood named lacquered wood and painted the chair entirely black with with areas across the chair cover in primary colors aimed towards the de stijl movement with the use of the color scheme of red yellow blue and black with the main colors of red black and blue which gives it the name of the "red and blue chair". the colors had a strange effect on the chair as when it was placed against a black wall the base of the chair seemed to disappear giving an almost transparent look, because of this the chair look as if it was floating.

art nouveau

art nouveau is said to be the first 20th century modern style. it was the first style that to stop looking backwards in history and taking inspiration from things that it saw round it such as nature and the natural world in general.

the art nouveau style consisted of sinuous, elongated, curvy lines. it also consists of natural objects which are often found in nature such as stylised flowers, leaves, roots, buds and seed pods. the art nouveau style was mainly influence by the art and craft movement, art nouveau shared the same belief in quality good and fine craftmanship but was happy with mass production, it was also influenced by rococo style and botanical research

Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe and beyond, the movement issued in a wide variety of styles and Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously been popular.

josef albers paintings

malevich and his black square

Gordon Parks

Gordon parks was a renowned photographer, writer, composer and film maker best known for his films shaft and learning tree. 

Born on 30^th November 1912 in Kansas City (birth name) Gordon roger Alexander Buchanan parks was born on November 30^th 1912 as his father (Jackson parks) who worked as a vegetable farmer and lived a very modest life.

As a young black American Gordon faced great racial discrimination as a child as he attended through the whole of secondary school and was not allowed to take place in certain activities throughout his school life just because of his skin colour. The teachers also took a great roll in discrimination of Gordon as they would constantly discourage Gordon (and anyone who was of African American decent) from seeking any form of higher education. Later on in life Gordon’s mother sadly pasted away when he was at the age of 14, causing Gordon to leave home and live with relatives before setting off and looking for whatever odd and strange jobs he could find

At the age of 25 Gordon invested in in first camera after getting inspiration form images of migrant workers in magazines. Gordon’s original photos ended up catching the eye of Marva Louis who was wife of the very famous boxing champion Joe Louis who encouraged Parks and his wife (sally) to move to Chicago in 1940

Once parks moved to Chicago he began to gain great interest in the low-income black neighbour hoods on the south side. Parks then won a fellowship with the ‘Farm Security Administration’ for the images he produced in the inner city. In his fellow ship parks created some of his best work including one of his most famous pieces “American Gothic Washington D.C.” which showed a picture of one of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.

Once the FSA had broken up Parks continued to follow and peruse his passion for photography turning a freelance photographer for vogue. Parks ended up working for Vogue for a number of years, creating a name in which he developed a distinctive style in which emphasized the look of models and garments in a motion shot rather than just a boring static pose.

Parks then ended up relocating to Harlem where he continued to document city images and characters whilst also working in the fashion industry. While working an photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader which won him a position as staff photographer for Life Magazine. He ended up working for Life Magazine for the next 20 years, producing photos on subjects such as fashion and racial segregation and discrimination.