Design as Art: Bruno Munari (Penguin Modern Classics)

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In 1948, Munari, Gillo Dorfles, Gianni Monnet and Atanasio Soldati, founded Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC), [6] the Italian movement for concrete art. During the 1940s and 1950s, Munari produced many objects for the Italian design industry, including light fixtures, ashtrays, televisions, espresso machines, and toys among other objects. [7] Cubo ashtray designed for Danese Milano (1957) Falkland pendant light designed for Danese Milano Best known on these shores for the English translation of his 1966 volume Design as Art, the Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari (1907–1998) eludes any definitive classification: graphic designer, photomonteur, sculptor, furniture designer, industrial designer, author, painter, xerographer, children’s book author and aesthetic provocateur. Almost exactly contemporary with experiments by the American sculptor Alexander Calder, Munari is credited with the development of his own version of the ‘mobile’ during the 1930s. Composed of hanging quadrilateral units, Munari called these pieces ‘Useless Machines’, a designation indicative of the wide-ranging artistic formation which shaped his work between the World Wars, and a prelude to his enduring and prolific output until his death late in the century. While nowhere near comprehensive (a feat nearly impossible given the dimensions of Munari’s oeuvre), this rather uncommon exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery affords a fairly representative cross-section of his output.

Munari, Bruno (1966). Arte come mestiere[ Design as Art (literally: Art as Craft ]. ISBN 978-0-14-103581-9. the proliferation of quotations: 'Concern yourself with things before they come into existence.’ (Tao Te-ching); ‘The greatest freedom comes from the greatest strictness.’ (Paul Valery); ‘To understand means to be capable of doing.’ (Goethe) Munari is a giant of 20th-century Italian design, a figure of incredible depth who helped define the role of the designer as we know it today. Design as Art, originally published in 1966, is probably not his most important book, but it represents an interesting journey through his thoughts. It is useful for young people aspiring to a design career as well as for experienced designers who want to improve the communication of their projects. Revisiting Munari’s iconic words is at once a reminder of how much has changed, and how little— but mostly a timeless vision for design’s highest, purest aspiration. Munari, Bruno (1968). Design e comunicazione visiva. Contributo a una metodologia didattica [Design and Visual Communication. Contributions to a Teaching Method]. Roma-Bari: Laterza

Instead, the emphasis now is on formal coherence — as seen in nature, like in the example of the leaf. Bruno Munari: The Lightness of Art, ed. by Pierpaolo Antonello, Matilde Nardelli, Margherita Zanoletti (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017). Bruno Munari (1907-1998), born in Milan, was the enfant terrible of Italian art and design for most of the twentieth century, contributing to many fields of both visual (paint, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphics) and non-visual arts (literature, poetry). He was twice awarded the Compasso d'Oro design prize for excellence in his field. We know that only the technical means of artistic achievement can be taught, not art itself. The function of art has in the past been given a formal importance which has severed it from our daily life; but art is always present when a people lives sincerely and healthily. In the preface to his 1966 classic Design as Art ( public library) — one of the most important and influential design books ever published — legendary Italian graphic designer Bruno Munari, once described by Picasso as “the new Leonardo,” makes a passionate case for democratizing art and making design the lubricant between romanticism and pragmatism.

Each topic area covers a bunch of sub-topics. Some stuff I skipped or skimmed, some stuff I was genuinely interested in, I read all the way through. Francesco Franco, Bruno Munari. Dalla copertina alla coperta, fino al riciclaggio del ciclo, in "BTA – Bollettino Telematico dell’Arte", 21/3/2007, n. 451, [3]. Any knowledge of the world we live in is useful, and enables us to understand things that previously we did not know existed." (82) Another interesting insight in the book is how Bruno Munari thinks about Japanese design. He begins by pointing out how the word for art in Japanese, Asobi, also means game and reveals that is how he processes to design as if playing a game, trying different strategies to see what works. He goes on to talk in praise about the simplicity lightness and adaptability of a traditional Japanese home. Image source: https://www.iconeye.com/images/news_december2008_images/DSC_0014.jpg I approached Munari's book with high expectations (since it's so highly rated), but ultimately found little of interest to latch on to.In the Darkness of the Night: A Bruno Munari Artist's Book, Princeton Architectural Press, 2017. ( ISBN 978-1-61689-630-0) A poem only communicates if read slowly: only then does it have time to create a state of mind in which the images can form and be transformed." (68)

Munari died in Milan on September 29, 1998. [8] Munari's grave at the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, Italy, in 2015 Design and visual communication works [ edit ] Swing into books, Book week, November 1–7, 1964 In his later life, Munari, worried by the incorrect perception of his artistic work, which is still confused with the other genres of his activity (didactics, design, graphics), selected art historian Miroslava Hajek as curator of a selection of his most important works in 1969. This collection, structured chronologically, shows his continuous creativity, thematic coherence and the evolution of his aesthetic philosophy throughout his artistic life. While Munari’s precise level of ideological involvement with the regime remains a question of some controversy, his body of work far exceeds any facile reduction to propaganda, or even politics more broadly. Munari remained his own man, producing a mind-boggling range of experiments which straddle different media, discipline, genres and affects. His Illegible Writings of an Unknown People (1973) reveal a light-hearted meditation not only upon typeface design and legibility, but anthropological and linguistic mysteries (the latter evoked, too, in his famous 1958 Talking Fork). So, too, his Theoretical Reconstruction of an Imaginary Object (1971) combines the practical mechanics of engineering with an almost metaphysical play upon systems theory. Perhaps most striking on view at Kreps – amidst a striking range of experiments – are two Fossils from the Year 2000 (1959), which sandwich unrecognizable valves and mechanized parts between some transparent substance. Recalling Duchamp’s The Large Glass ( The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, 1915–23), the works conjure up a future where even the ‘futuristic’ apparatuses of modernity bear all the obviated mystery of some fossil frozen in amber. A natural material ages well. Painted material loses its paint, cannot breathe, rots. It has become bogus”.

Today it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra-intelligent people. It must be understood that as long as art stands aside from the problems of life it will only interest a very few people. Culture today is becoming a mass affair, and the artist must step down from his pedestal and be prepared to make a sign for a butcher’s shop (if he knows how to do it). The artist must cast off the last rags of romanticism and become active as a man among men, well up in present-day techniques, materials and working methods. Without losing his innate aesthetic sense he must be able to respond with humility and competence to the demands his neighbors may make of him. What I'd like to be". London (23 Lower Belgrave Street, London SW1): Printed and made in Italy and published by the Harvill Press. 1945. What I appreciated about the essays, is that there are global references, about art and design in other countries, which is nice to have context about, as a creative person. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2015-12-04 16:46:28 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA1151911 City Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Donor Bruno Munari joined the 'Second' Italian Futurist movement in Italy led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the late 1920s. During this period, Munari contributed collages to Italian magazines, some of them highly propagandist, and created sculptural works which would unfold in the coming decades including his useless machines, and his abstract-geometrical works. [4] After World War II Munari disassociated himself with Italian Futurism because of its proto-Fascist connotations. [5] Later life [ edit ]

Con la penna fu un genio del designer e un ottimo scrittore. Cose che non coesistono obbligatoriamente, insieme a molte altre che attiravano l’eclettismo di Munari. Design] is planning: the planning as objectively as possible of everything that goes to make up the surroundings and atmosphere in which men live today." (35) For example, we call upon graphic designers to make posters for events — and not the artist. This is because the artist is comfortable only with the easel, but the designer is much more competent for this case of visual communication. With all the knowledge of printing, and paper types and technicalities, the designer almost seems like a genius. He works keeping in mind the printing techniques right from the start, he designs work that fits the psychological functions, and this makes him so much more valuable. After all, the form follows the function.In this book, I like the Munari's insight of 'wearing' best. He asks us to look at how objects become worn in their everyday use. Should we design objects on the sole merit of personal aesthetics and upon the Platonic plane of Ideal Geometry? Or should we design objects according to a limited sampling of user-needs study? Or as Munari suggests, should we design objects according to how it has been worn across time?