I shall now take a look into John Heartfield’s artworks.
Heartfield lived between; 1891-1968. He is famous for
creating wonderful photomontages. As we know there are many different styles of
art. Certain periods of time have their dominant art style whilst other periods
may have individual artists marking that era standing alone. Art is a form of
expression through one of our most vital senses, sight. Therefore an artist’s
aim is to create a so called visual eye-candy which would in turn correspond
with the brain to think and imagine.
John was an expressionist artist producing some
interestingly aggressive illustrations. One of his distinct features is his use
of typography in which he combines freely drawn lettering with heavy typefaces.
Here we see how
simplicity can have a shockingly powerful message.
This improvised
swastika is basically comprised from 3 images; an axe, rope, the background.
One must remember
this was all done by hand.
When one looks at the
software Photoshop one can clearly see the influence early photomontages had on
our digital age.
The message is clear
and shocking.
It is amazing to see
the skill put into this for it to have not been by any software.
As far as I can tell
he uses the same concept of layering when creating such a work. It looks as if
Hitler is the first layer then there it’s the x-ray ribs, then the money
digestive system. And last but not least this swastika.
He also uses heavy
contrast to pop Hitler out of the background.
Sasso F. (2006) Design
History: Photo Manipulation Pioneer John Heartfield [online] http://abduzeedo.com
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