Paula Scher

Paula Scher is well known throughout the Graphic Design scene, mostly for her controversial 'Swatch' ad. She is also well known for several other various artworks.

Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philidelphia and began her career as a record cover art director at both Atlantic and CBS records in the 70s. In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher & in 1991 she joined Pentagram as a partner.

In the 70s & 80s, her eclectic, period oriented typography became widely influential & imitated. She is also credited as a major proponent of "retro" design. Scher says she uses historical design to make visual analogies in her work.

She currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NY and has for 19 years. She is also credited with several identities we use today such as Citibank, Tiffany & Co., Target, & The New York Times.

S. Mueller

http://www.davidkrutpublishing.com/artbase/abf-artist.php?artist=109&bio=1

http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/repetitions_bios_pscher.html

http://www.pentagram.com/en/partners/paula-scher.php

Andy Warhol-Pop Sensation

Andy Warhol was one of the most popular and controversial artists that began in the 50s & 60s. He was a painter, printmaker, & filmmaker & was one of the leading figures in the visual art movement, Pop Art. He is also known for his famous line "15 minutes of fame".

As a child, Warhol became a hypochondriac & due to that was often bedridden. Missing out on so much he became an outcast with other children. While he was in bed though, he began drawing, listening to the radio & collecting pictures of movie stars, which he claims was a period of importance in his development.

Later he studed at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now more famously known as Carnegie Mellon & in 1949, he moved to NYC. There he was hired by RCA to design album covers and promotional materials. In 1968, he painted his famous 'Campbells Tomato Soup Can'. He named his studio "The Factory" & he began his silk screen methods here. He had some ups & downs in his career from that point on until his death in 1987. He is still widely popular in the art world and his works can be visited at The Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

S. Mueller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol

The Beatles

The British Invasion of music into the States was one of the most prominent musical movements of all time. I found some interesting things online that told more about how they began and ended their musical journey.

Introduction

“I have never seen anything like it. Nor heard any noise to approximate the ceaseless, frantic, hysterical scream which met the Beatles when they took the stage after what seemed a hundred years of earlier acts. All very good, all marking time, because no one had come for anything other than the Beatles...

Then the theatre went wild. First aid men and police – men in the stalls, women mainly in the balcony – taut and anxious, patrolled the aisles, one to every three rows.

Many girls fainted. Thirty were gently carried out, protesting in their hysteria, forlorn and wretched in an unrequited love for four lads who might have lived next door.

The stalls were like a nightmare March Fair. No one could remain seated. Clutching each other, hurling jelly babies at the stage, beating their brows, the youth of Britain’s second city surrendered themselves totally.”

Derek Taylor (From his book “Fifty Years Adrift”

1969

Following the White Album(and the magnificent Hey Jude) they made Let It Be and with the final regal glory of Abbey Road they left their grieving fans a legacy that will never be matched.

In the inevitable breaking down of old liaisons, there was room for growth. John met and married Yoko; Paul met and married Linda. George matured far beyond his years, settled into his spiritual space and expressed himself writing classic songs; Ringo was now writing his own numbers and was widely acknowledged as a supreme drummer and a very good actor. To everything there is a season.

That the rift between The Beatles, evolved with much public angst was a pity but this is not a perfect world is it?

Relationships anyway, were repaired long ago.

And in the end, the equation between the love they took and the love they made was intact into infinity. They still represent the twentieth century’s greatest romance.

http://www.thebeatles.com/#/history/1969

Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman is a female painter and photographer that used an experimental process to create art. Her work centered around the feminine; always elegant yet edgy for the time. I found this really interesting article about her tiredness of the world of fashion photography and how she destroyed a bunch of her negative prints in retaliation. Interestingly enough, she went back many years later to try to salvage the pieces and create something new from what she dug out of her trash can. Check out the article and some pictures!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/arts/design/17bassman.html
Alex Riggio

Eye Magazine: Meanings of Type

After reading the article The Meaning of Type on the Eye Magazine website, it was interesting to learn how much type has been through throughout the years. One thing that caught my attention the most was that the use of lowercase and uppercase letters together wasn't tampered with until the early 1920's. It was also interesting to learn how some typefaces we still widely use today came to be and how some typefaces were designed solely for the use of advertising and afterwards were used for more than that.

S. Mueller

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was the first person to be credited with creating modern abstract works. He originally was not even an artist and did not pursue that profession until his later years.

Kandinsky enrolled in the University of Moscow and studied law and economics. It wasn't until 1896, at 30 years old, that he quit his very promising profession to enroll in a Munich art school. He wasn't admitted right away so he began to teach himself art. He was influenced greatly by Monet's 'Haystacks' and Richard Wagner's 'Lohengrin'.

Kandinsky called his art 'inner beauty, fervor of spirit, and deep spiritual desire, inner necessity'. None of his paintings emphasized human beings, they were more abstract figures.

Kandinsky also was an art theorist, helping to found the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen or the New Artists Association and in 1909 he became the president. After their demise in 1911, he is credited with forming the Blue Rider Group. Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus in Germany but once that closed he moved to France where he died in 1944.

S. Mueller