Luica’s Blog

My friend Vanessa bought me ‘The art of looking sideways’ for my birthday a couple of years ago and it was an introduction for me to Fletcher’s work. It is a 533-page collection of “anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes, memories – all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind” - a fascinating book with lots of inspiring ideas.

I always like the Design Museum and it was handy to find out that they are hosting the ‘Alan Fletcher: Fifty Years of Graphic Work (and Play)’ exhibition, which was an amazing presentation of Fletcher’s work and ideas. I loved his creative letterhead and logo designs, as well as the playfulness in his other work such as his A2Z boxes/drawers. It was indeed very sad news to the creative world when he died on the 21 September 2006.

My only discontent was that the exhibition wasn’t very big and certainly wasn’t big enough to give a good reflection of a designer as prolific as Fletcher. I am definitely going to read ‘The art of looking sideways’ again tonight.

Founded by the poet Andre Bréton in 1924, Surrealism was one of the most influential art movements of the 20th century. An admirer of the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, Bréton defined Surrealism as ‘Pure psychic automatism… Thought’s dictation, in the absence of all control execrised by the reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.’

Source: Essential Design by Catherine McDermott

I didn’t need much encouragement to go to see the Undercover Surrealism exhibition as I have always been a fan of Salvador Dali.

However, the reality didn’t live up to my expectation. Although the Hayward Gallery was a great venue to host this exhibition - with a sense of darkness and mystery - the details were missing. I am no expert in Surrealism and would appreciate a bit more explanation and narrative on the collection. It was easy enough to curate the exhibition based on the Documents magazine founded by Georges Bataille, but I was hoping for more insight into the reasons behind the selection or some interpretations.

On the bright side, I’m pleased that I went to see it as it urged me to find out more about Surrealism and how it can apply to films and music. It’s always good to discover a subject that is worth investigation.

Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art and architecture, music, literature and design which emerged in the decades before 1914. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19^th century academic and historicist traditions, and embraced the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world. - Wikipedia

It was my first visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and I was impressed with the architecture and the large variety of collections they house.

However, my focus was on the latest modernism exhibition, which consists of a large range of objects – from architectural, interior, furniture, product to graphic, painting, film and photography. It certainly helped keep my concentration when looking at objects of different nature and use of the same theme.

As a photography enthusiast, I enjoyed looking at the architectual photos. The furniture part was interesting and some of the selected chairs such as the Marcel Brauer ones were quite familiar. The interior of the Frankfurt Kitchen was worth spending time at. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more products though.

The exhibiton will last until 23rd June at the V&A.