INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 11

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

MODERN DESIGN

INFLUENCES AT WORK

In continuing his course of WJE.A'. lectures, Mr. E. C. Simpson, 8.A., tooq as the subject of his third lecture thq influences which had made it possibly for present-day machine manufacture to produce articles of genuine artistiq value.

"The modern designer is, on the onq hand, a constructive engineer, and far as he adapts ideals of proportion tq functional aims, he becomes as well aij abstract artist," said the lecturer. "Buf the finest examples of form depend foi| their aesthetic appeal on more subtlo proportions than the mathematical re-, lations of the engineer; they depend iq fact upon the irrational and intuitive guidance which is shown in the finest abstract works of art. Provided thai the machine product be designed by an artist sensitive to formal values, thai product can, and does, become an abi stract work of art in the subtler sense. "For many centuries the beauty oj certain abstract shapes, the circle, thq helix, and helicoid, and other plain and simple forms, has been universally recognised. The absolute beauty o< such forms is recognised in the mai terial form of wheel and axle, spiral spring, screws, propellers, and pistons, As a result of today's perfection oi material and precision of engineering technique, such simple shapes approach more nearly than ever before to purq abstract geometrical forms.

BEAUTY IN NATURE. "Such beauty as this is perhaps a mere by-product, and as such mav seem trivial. But the beauty of spiral spring is met again in the helix of thq snail shell, and it is probably owing tq the fact v that simple geometrical shapes occur so frequently in Na-< ture that they appeal as beauty* And so the machine or tool, though produced without benefifl of artist designer, satisfies through, its integrity, due proportion, and clarity. The knowledge of satisfying abstract shapes, whose beauty isi dependent on intuitive and not on mathematical proportions," is the pur* pose of the abstract artist's work and research. And here the artist anticipates the spirit of the times, for as early as 1908 Brancus'i was engaged in a quest of absolute proportion, resulting in abstract works of art of finite simplicity. It was left to a group oi artists calling themselves 'Construetivists' to carry the research further and make, use of art to solve problems of the modern world by translating art into mechanistic terms. Their productions were made in typically modem industrial materials and in reacting from the sentimental and individualist angle they made it possible for the modern designer to plan with a wide® and more, objective human outlook. WORK IN GERMANY. "The school of design set up in Germany and known as the Bauhaus, seems almost a symbol for the meet-; tag of abstract art and.modern engine eering in their formation of the industrial design of the present day. In this institution the direction was in the hands of artists and architects, and! each studio or shop group was under] the direction of two masters: one anj experienced artist, the other a technician. They accepted the machine the essentially modern vehicle of form,, and in the workshops of the were evolved practical designs for; present-day goods. These designs werei conscientiously worked out and servedi as models for mass production. In this way abstract art n&s proved. Its value as a pure art, controlling the development of formal art, as in in« dustrial design. This abstract art may be said to bear the same relation to industrial design as pure mathematics to the practical sciences." At the conclusion of the lecture the, students requested an extension of thei course from four to six lectures. These will take place on succeeding Moa« days. .