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Exercise 2.5: Using reference

Brief

Collect as much reference as you can find for the1950s period. Catalogue the information you find according to these categories:
People and costume
Architecture and interiors
Art – painting, drawing sculpture
Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising
Transport
Film and TV
Surface pattern and decoration.
Be eclectic in your sources. Identify the visual qualities that are universal within the categories – shapes, textures, colours, style and other features.
In your learning log write a short review of the 1950s from a visual perspective.
Describe the characteristics that typify the decade and the ideas and visual trends that were prevalent at this time.
Are there reflections of the 1950s in any areas of contemporary art, design or culture? If so what– give examples? It may be useful to look both at what preceded and followed the 1950s to gain a sense of the broader context of this era.
Now make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts to give a teenager an idea of the 1950s.

Analysing the brief:

  • 1950s collection
  • People and costume
  • Architecture and interiors
  • Art – painting, drawing sculpture
  • Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising
  • Transport
  • Film and TV
  • Surface pattern and decoration
  • Short review of the 1950s from a visual perspective
  • Describe the characteristics
  • Are there reflections of the 1950s in any areas of contemporary art
  • Make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts

1950s history

The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the “Fifties” or the “’50s“) (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959.

Throughout the decade, the world continued its recovery from World War II, aided by the post-World War II economic expansion. The period also saw great population growth with increased birth rates and the emergence of the baby boomergeneration.

Despite this recovery, the Cold War developed from its modest beginnings in the late 1940s to a heated competition between the Soviet Union and the United States by the early 1960s. The ideological clash between communism and capitalismdominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the United States, a wave of anti-communistsentiment known as the Second Red Scare aka McCarthyism resulted in Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress. In the Soviet Union, the death of Joseph Stalin would lead to a political campaign and reforms known as “De-Stalinization” initiated by Nikita Khrushchev leading to the deterioration between the relationship of the USSR and the People’s Republic of China in the 60s.

The beginning of the Cold War lead to beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 and the United States would create NASA in response in 1958. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as RDS-37 and Upshot–Knothole) called the arms race, the tense geopolitical situation created a politically conservative climate.

The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia also took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade albeit would lead to several conflicts throughout the decade and so on. Wars include the First Indochina War, Malayan Emergency, Korean War, the Algerian War, the First Sudanese Civil War, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Revolution, and the Suez Crisis. Coups include the Egyptian revolution, the Iranian coup d’état, the Guatemalan coup d’état, the 14 July Revolutionin Iraq, and the Pakistani coup d’état in 1958.

Television, which first reached the marketplace in the 1940s, became a common innovation in American homes during the 1950s culminating in the Golden Age of TV. This led many to purchase more products and upgrade whatever they currently had resulting in mass consumerism. While outside of America, it would take a few decades for TV to become commonplace in other countries.

The 1950s saw a turning point for polio with the successful discovery of the polio vaccine. Following the widespread use of poliovirus vaccine in the mid-1950s, the incidence of poliomyelitis declined rapidly in many industrialized countries while it would gradually decline for the next few decades in developing countriesreducing the number of death rates from this disease.

During the 1950s, the world population increased from 2.5 to 3.0 billion, with approximately 1 billion births and 500 million deaths.

1950s People and costume

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s leading industrial power. Generous government support for education and home loans coupled with a booming economy meant that Americans in the postwar era had more discretionary income than ever before. In the 1950s and 1960s, the bumper crop of children born after World War II, known collectively as the baby boomers, grew into teenagers and young adults. As the largest single generation up until that point in American history, the baby boomers had a tremendous effect on popular culture thanks to their sheer numbers. Starting as early as the 1940s, savvy marketers identified the baby boomers as a target demographic and marketed products and entertainment geared to their needs and interests.The baby boomers developed a greater generational consciousness than previous generations. They sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. The music of the day, especially rock and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of 1950s popular culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.

1950s Architecture and interiors

The 1950s were a decade of immense change. After the Second World War, many families were moving out of crowded inner-city apartments and into newly built suburban homes. This shift had a profound impact on interior design. Suddenly, there was a need for furniture that was both stylish and functional. In response, many designers began experimenting with new materials and methods of production. As a result, the 1950s saw the rise of popular mid-century modern styles such as Danish Modern and Italian Modern.

These new styles emphasized simplicity and functionality, and they quickly became extremely popular with homeowners looking to update their interiors. In addition to furniture, the 1950s also saw an explosion in the popularity of home appliances. Refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers were all becoming increasingly common in American homes, and their sleek design helped to further popularise the mid-century modern style. By the end of the decade, the look of American homes had been completely transformed.

1950s Art – painting, drawing sculpture

The story of 1950s art begins at the end of the Second World War, because it was such a rupture to the body of the world, that the post-war art beginnings extend from mid 1940s to the next decade. Slowly, as the world start recovering from the war trauma, new art movements used to develop worldwide. Major influences on the 1950s art were made by 1920s avant garde movements, modernism, surrealism and abstract painting.

There are only few art styles continued even throughout the period of the war, and those were withheld by individual practices of influential artists from pre-war era such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp. For many artists, World Wars of 20th century brought the migration, and significant authors of 1950s decade were escaping Nazism in Europe by settling in the United States, which made New York the world’s capital of art.

Another style of abstract art, born in New York scene of 1950s was Color Field painting, which is largely influenced by European Modernism and its sublime geometric abstraction. As the name suggests, color was the main subject of the paintings, liberated from any objective context or the meaning in favor of expression of the sublime human emotions. One of the most significant authors within the movement was artist Mark Rothko who even denied his connection to abstract art, insisting on mystic spirituality of his canvases, while Clifford Stills landscapes contained primordial reminiscence on nature or human history. Robert Motherwellpainted great open fields of colors, composited with lines and shapes and Barnett Newman tried to reflect Jewish history and tradition through the language of pure colors.

1950s Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising

The 1950s was the post-war era, so designers developed a feeling of idealism. After all the horror and tragedy of the second world war, the design shifted to accommodate the need to rebuild and reconstruct, making things more open and democratic. As a result, there was a sense of social responsibility among designers. Many experiments were happening. The high modernist period started to be broken down, rationalised and codified. The so-called “international typographic style” or Swiss-style emerged. 

Moreover, as Swiss designers were driving innovations in the 1950s, Helvetica was also invented during this period. This was because there was a need for rational typefaces that can be applied in all kinds of contemporary information. Whether it’s sign systems or corporate identity, there was a need for the visual expressions of the modern world to be accessible to the public in an intelligible, legible way.

1950s Transportation

The 1950’s was known as the ‘Golden Age’ of flying. Quanta’s flights were luxurious and involved wide aisles, lots of leg room and an endless supply of drinks from the cocktail bar. The only issues seen were that of smoking cigars and cigarettes as the air inside the plane became thick and difficult to breath.

Underground train systems also became popular in the 1950s. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane. But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system.

1950s Film and TV

Films of the 1950s were of a wide variety. As a result of the introduction of television, the studios and companies sought to put audiences back in theaters. They used more techniques in presenting their films through widescreen and big-approach methods, such as Cinemascope, VistaVision, and Cinerama, as well as gimmicks like 3-D film.

1950s Surface pattern and decoration

The late 1940s to the 1970s was a remarkably creative era in British textile design. Aided by post-war confidence and growth, a new wave of designs was produced, influenced by art and design from around the world. Designers created markedly contemporary, buoyant styles that elevated textile design to new heights, lifted public spirits and transformed the home, despite ongoing austerity and restrained colour palettes. 

During the war, in 1941, the British government introduced the Utility Scheme – a regulatory scheme which aimed to ensure the general population would still have some access to consumer goods, despite cutbacks. At the end of the war, ongoing austerity and material shortages meant that textile design remained limited to simple woven and printed patterns which were cheap to produce. One of the chief practitioners of the day, Enid Marx designed abstract geometric pieces with small scale repeating patterns such as Spot and Stripe, Honeycomb, Ring and Chevron, which the manufacturer Morton Sundour Fabrics trialled. Once approved by the Board of Trade Design Panel, these designs went into production.

Illustration

The brief asked to make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts to give a teenager an idea of the 1950s.

I used the collection that I gathered earlier for this exercise for some inspiration.

I started with some sketches in different part of a house. The location, I chose was a living room with a housewife and a baby surrounded by different objects from 1950s. Then I used Procreate to make my illustration. I added some pictures of the 1950s art and sculptures to my illustration.

For my colour palette, I collected some colour swatches from 1950s. Then based on that I made my colour palette that I used for my illustration.

Colour palette

Final illustration

Self – reflection

This exercise was very interesting. I’ve learnt a lot about 1950s history. I specifically enjoyed making the illustration.

Overall, I’m happy with the illustration. I think it’s covered everything that the brief asked. I used Procreate to create my illustration. If I had more time I liked to use another media as well to be able to compare them and choose between them.

Sources

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