AIZ-Magazine and the Photomontage of John Heartfield: the Aesthetics of a Political Statement

“USE PHOTOGRAPH AS A WEAPON!”

That was the slogan over the entrance of John Heartfield's room at Film und Foto exhibition that opened in Stuttgart in 1929. The room was occupied by Heartfield’s work demonstrated by his aim of using Photomontage as a tool of political protest. In 1939 Heartfield began to publish his Photomontage work in AIZ-Magazine which was based in Berlin. The name “AIZ” was formed by taking the first initial of each word (Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung) which-in English-stands for (Workers Illustrated Paper), indicating that AIZ magazine was intended to be a Pictorial/Illustrated magazine.

John Heartfield’s work corresponded with the great depression in the capitalist countries.

Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld) was born in berlin in 1891. After the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, Helmut was called up in 1914 where he served as a guard in Berlin for most of year 1915, by the end of 1915 he was discharged on the account of ill health. As a protest against the war and German anglophobia, Helmut Herzfeld changed his name and became John Heartfield.

William Morris and The Arts and Crafts Movement (Version 2)

Fig 1. William Morris.

The Arts and Crafts movement is a design movement that flourished in the nineteenth century in england throughout the Victorian era. As the name implies, the Arts and Crafts movement was primarily motived by the association of art and labor. The origins of the movement evolved as a reaction against industrialization and the long-standing division between traditional crafts, and the over-elaborate ornamentation which disguised an object or a building’s true function, urging for a revival of old craft techniques for the elevation of the applied arts.


Fig 2. Elaborate Victorian furniture.


Fig 3. c1860, The Arming of the Knight, design for the back of an armchair.


Fig 4. Sussex Rush-Seated Chairs, Page from the Morris and Co. catalogue.

The Arts and Crafts movement’s main ideological principles reflected the current suppressing social, political and artistic concerns and was mainly a reaction against the complex decorative style of the victorian era that took place in the 19th century in Britain.
The artists and architects feared that the rising industrialization would result in a loss of individuation and creativity, particularly, in the decorative arts, and rejected this opulence in favor of simplicity,and good craftsmanship urging to simplicity of design form and a revival of the medieval style of decoration and old craft techniques in search for authentic decorative styles, thus influenced decorative arts, domestic design and architecture.

The design principles of the Arts and crafts Movement was influenced by the Gothic Revival(1830-1880) which was an architectural movements that gain popularity in the early 19th century in England, the pattern designs that were often used by the Arts and Crafts designers was inspired by the British Flora using bold forms based on medieval styles in contrast to the classic styles that was prevalent in Victorian England in the 19th century along with the emphasis of simplicity in decoration forms, the Arts and Crafts designers emphasized the qualities of the materials used in favor of good craftsmanship and became an international phenomenon of enormous scope and influence that encompassed everything from architecture to town planning, metalwork and embroidery, nevertheless, The Arts and Crafts movement was initially an English design movement that took place between 1880 and 1910 flourishing particularly in Britain, America, Canada and Australia. The movement was initiated by the English artist, writer, and textile designer William Morris (1834-1896). Morris was born on March 1834 in Walthamstow in north east London. As a boy he began to read Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels at the age of four and was very passionate about reading and books. ‘a greedy reader of every book i could come across’ he recalls himself as a boy (Waggoner and Huntington, 2003, p. 89). Thus later to reflect upon his career as a poet and a writer. Morris immersed himself with great passion in medieval history and nature.

These two themes, nature and Medievalism, were to dominate his entire creative output and would recur in his art, his poetry, and his fiction through out his life.
Morris was associated with Edward Burne-Jones, who was engaged in similar pursuits. Burne-Jones, who would become one of the greatest of the Pre-Raphaelite artists had helped Morris with the drawing of the figures depicted on the satined glass lancets that Morris designed himself.

Fig 5. c 1870, Angle with a Violin (detail), Stained Glass.

In this detail from the window of St. Michael Church, Tilehurst, Berkshire, the intense red and blue, typically of the early medieval glass, serve as a foil for the dazzling stars and the sumptuous gold-patterned robe of the angle. In most of the Firm's glass commissions the drawing of the figures was done by other artists, such as Edward Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown; but the coloring and the pattern of the leading were determined by William Morris.


Fig 6. 1872, Jasmine, Wallpaper.

During the 1870's Morris produced some of his finest papers.
Jasmine is one of the first of this group. It has the fresh, naturalistic quality of the earlier designs, but here the flowers and leaves are handled with much greater assurance in the structure, so that the eye is led over the pattern. Morris's wallpapers were hand block printed and each color used was allowed to dry before the next color is applied. This time-consuming process made the papers relatively expensive.


Fig 7. 1875, Acanthus, Wallpaper.

This sumptuous pattern has something of the quality of relief sculpture that was used as a decorative element for Corinthian column capitals. The gracefully swirling leaves offer a tactile appeal while at the same time being a superb example of flat pattern.


Morris, was among the first to identify the problem caused by the mass-production of machinery that reflected upon soul-less products in contrast to those of rich, high quality material products made by craftsman.
This has resulted in neglecting and underestimating the importance of hand-craftsmanship and the quality of materials used, as mass production often requires inexpensive materials so as to manufacture as massive products, thus the industrialization has devalued the work of craftsman and turned him into a mere cog in the wheel of machinery.
William Morris believed that art and beauty are associated together and considered art to be a positive necessity in life.

Fig 8. 1877, Rose, Wallpaper.

This design epitomizes Morris's most naturalistic styles. The veins on the leaves are faithfully drawn, the rose petals carefully distinguished. Yet, as always, Morris avoided succumbing to tromp l'oeil effect. He insisted that shading must be used sparingly, for clarity, rather than to try to make an object look round. Here he used lines, in some of his later designs he chose dots. Inevitably the lines do create an impression of roundness. The background pattern is one of morris's most subtle. It might be ferns or conifer branches.


Fig 9. 1879, Cabbage and Vine, Tapestry.

This elaborately patterned hanging was Morris's first attempt at tapestry. Originally called Acanthus and Vine, it acquired it's more familiar name because of the exuberant round shapes created by the somewhat undisciplined Acanthus leaves. In this technique the design is created entirely by the weft threads, each thread being combed down on to the one below, covering the warp completely.

Having been a passionate reader and an immaculate poet and a writer, William Morris's passion for books was faithfully embodied when he founded Kelmscott Press in 1890, to revive the art of printed books. Kelmscott books used Ruskin's and Morris's own texts. The designs used were monochromatic, with an elaborate filigree quality, which is an ornamental work of fine gold or silver wire formed into a delicate tracery. skillfully achieved filigree, enhanced by various choice of stones set in a natural form carried out in silver gilt, resulted in immaculately tasteful art pieces.

Fig 10. 1892, John Ruskin The Nature of Gothic, printed and published by the Kelmscott Press, first text page with borders by William Morris.

Fig 11. 1893, Kelmscott Manor depicted in the frontispiece to the 1893 Kelmscott Press edition of William Morris's "News from Nowhere".

Fig 12. 1896, Troilus and Criseyde, illustration from the Kelmscott Press.

Fig 13. 1897, Detail of typeface samples of Chaucer, Troy, and Golden Type designed by William Morris, and Kelmscott Press logotype.

Fig 14. 1906, Endpapers of the original run of books in the Everyman's Library based on the art of William Morris's Kelmscott Press.

Bibliography: -

Kaplan, W., & Crawford, A. (2004). The arts & crafts movement in Europe & America: design for the modern world. London: Thames & Hudson.

Thompson, P. (1993). The work of William Morris. New York: Oxford University Press.

Van der Post, L. (2003). William Morris and Morris & Co. London: V & A Publications.

Waggoner, D., & Huntington, H. E. (2003). "The beauty of life": William Morris & the art of design. New York: Thames & Hudson.

William Morris and The Arts and Crafts Movement

Fig 1. William Morris, URL

The Arts and Crafts movement, as the name implies, is a design movement that was primarily motived by the association of art and labor. The origins of the movement evolved as a reaction against industrialization and the long-standing division between traditional crafts and Fine arts, and the over-elaborate ornamentation which disguised an object or a building’s true function, urging for a revival of old craft techniques for the elevation of the applied arts.

The Arts and Crafts movement became an international phenomenon of enormous scope and influence that encompassed everything from architecture to town planning, metalwork and embroidery, nevertheless, The Arts and Crafts movement was initially an English design movement that took place between 1880 and 1910 flourishing particularly in Britain, America, Canada and Australia. The movement was initiated by the English artist, writer, and textile designer William Morris (1834-1896).

William Morris was born on March 1834 into a middle-class family in Walthamstow in north east London. As a boy he began to read Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels at the age of four and immersed himself with great passion in medieval history and nature.
These two themes, nature and medievalism, were to dominate his entire creative output and would recur in his art, his poetry, and his fiction through out his life. In 1853, Morris entered Exeter College at Oxford, where he met Edward Burne-Jones, who was engaged in similar pursuits. Burne-Jones, who would become one of the greatest of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, would remain Morris's closest friend through out his life. At Oxford Morris became a member of an undergraduate aesthetic circle which was enamored of an idealized Middle Ages and heavily under the influence of Tennyson's Arthurian poems, Carlyle's Past and Present, and Ruskin's The Stones of Venice. Again, these years were formative: Morris, already possessed by the feeling that he had fell in love with Medieval art and architecture and with the Medieval ideals of chivalry and of the communal life. There too Morris began to write poetry which was heavily indebted to the work of Tennyson, Keats, Browning, and, most of all Chaucer.

Born of thinkers and practitioners in Victorian England, The Arts and Crafts movement’s main ideological principles reflected the current suppressing social, political and artistic concerns and was mainly a reaction against the complex decorative style of the victorian era that took place in the 19th century in Britain.
The artists and architects feared that the rising industrialization would result in a loss of individuation and creativity, particularly, in the decorative arts, and rejected this opulence in favor of simplicity,and good craftsmanship urging to simplicity of design form and a revival of the medieval style of decoration and old craft techniques in search for authentic decorative styles.The Arts and Crafts design movement influenced decorative arts, domestic design and architecture.

The design principle of the Arts and crafts Movement was influenced by the Gothic Revival (1830-1880) which was an architectural movements that gain popularity in the early 19th century in England, the pattern designs that were often used by the Arts and Crafts designers was inspired by the British Flora using bold forms based on medieval styles in contrast to the classic styles that was prevalent in Victorian England in the 19th century along with the emphasis of simplicity in decoration forms, the Arts and Crafts designers emphasized the qualities of the materials used in favor of good craftsmanship.


Fig 2. c1870, Angle with a Violin (detail), Stained Glass, URL

In this detail from the window of St. Michael Church, Tilehurst, Berkshire, the intense red and blue, typically of the early medieval glass, serve as a foil for the dazzling stars and the sumptuous gold-patterned robe of the angle. In most of the Firm's glass commissions the drawing of the figures was done by other artists, such as Edward Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown; but the coloring and the pattern of the leading were determined by William Morris.


Fig 3. 1872, Jasmine, Wallpaper, URL

During the 1870's Morris produced some of his finest papers.
Jasmine is one of the first of this group. It has the fresh, naturalistic quality of the earlier designs, but here the flowers and leaves are handled with much greater assurance in the structure, so that the eye is led over the pattern. Morris's wallpapers were hand block printed and each color used was allowed to dry before the next color is applied. This time-consuming process made the papers relatively expensive.


Fig 4. 1875, Acanthus, Wallpaper

This sumptuous pattern has something of the quality of relief sculpture that was used as a decorative element for Corinthian column capitals. The gracefully swirling leaves offer a tactile appeal while at the same time being a superb example of flat pattern.


Fig 5. 1877, Rose, Wallpaper

This design epitomizes Morris's most naturalistic styles. The veins on the leaves are faithfully drawn, the rose petals carefully distinguished. Yet, as always, Morris avoided succumbing to tromp l'oeil effect. He insisted that shading must be used sparingly, for clarity, rather than to try to make an object look round. Here he used lines, in some of his later designs he chose dots. Inevitably the lines do create an impression of roundness. The background pattern is one of morris's most subtle. It might be ferns or conifer branches.


Fig 6. 1879, Cabbage and Vine, Tapestry

This elaborately patterned hanging was Morris's first attempt at tapestry. Originally called Acanthus and Vine, it acquired it's more familiar name because of the exuberant round shapes created by the somewhat undisciplined Acanthus leaves. In this technique the design is created entirely by the weft threads, each thread being combed down on to the one below, covering the warp completely.


Fig 7. 1885, Flora, Tapestry

This tapestry depicts Flora, the goddess of abundance, who personifies summer, standing barefoot in flowing garments with wreath in her hair. She holds fresh flowers in her hand. The intricate floral background, inspired by the Medieval decorative technique known as Mille Fleurs (thousand flowers). The piece is also inscribed with the following verse, rendered in Gothic type: 

"I am the handmaid of the Earth. I broider fair her glorious gown. and deck her on her days of mirth. with many a garland of renown. and while earth's little onesare fain. and play about the mother's hem. I scatter every gift I gain. from sun and wind to gladden them."