10 Comments

If I didn't know any better, I'd say there were from a 1980's o-level art project, and a bad one at that.
His style has little grace about it. Fair enough his wood cuts and pictograms were produced in a simpler time, but it was one of elegance and great style!...Both of which seem to be more than a little lacking. True, we expect a lot from designers now, and have come to rely too heavily on what a machine can do, rather than use our brains. However, it's plain to see that this isn't a golden oldie.
Curator
2011-02-15 12:07:32

The genius is in their simplicity. Looking at the whole collection together they are timeless and beautifully crafted – http://www.gerdarntz.org/isotype
Endless
2011-02-15 13:10:45

Agree. Icons are total genius.
Simon Watson
2011-02-15 13:14:00

Curator I think you need to check out the website to understand a little better - http://www.gerdarntz.org/isotype

Thanks Endless for posting, I recognise his stuff from over the years a treat to see it in one site and know the artist now.
Emily
2011-02-15 15:35:25

Emily. What makes you think I didn't carefully research Arntz 'stuff', Otto and Marie Neurath, and Isotype before posting my comments?

Could it be simply because I don't agree with your opinion?

Arntz work is interesting in a purely archaic social sense...but hardly genius: After all, pictograms have been in existence for thousands of years.

We are not commenting here on the political reasons behind the Vienna Method, it's involvement with social conditioning of children and the Soviet Union. We are commenting on Arntz design skills, which I find somewhat clumsy.

However, 'De moderne mensche ontstatt' by Neurath is very interesting, in the same way that 'Information is beautiful' by David McCandless is very enjoyable.
Curator
2011-02-15 19:44:40

Mr. Amtz design skills are OK,what I would like to comment is that suastikas are not "genius","timeless icons"-they are symbol for a murderous ideology.As an artist,is important not to help the banalization of the evil.
ilana deweik
2011-02-16 13:21:38

I am upset with Creative Review using the swastika as a poster, monograph, whatever and especially as its first pic in its newsletter. I don't care if it is for historical, novel, or provocative reasons. You lost points with me. I really have to wonder who buys this.
Tammy Dekel
2011-03-07 10:32:00

@ Tammy

Gerd Arntz created these pictograms in the 1930s: we have featured them in a collection of his work published in our Monograph series. One of his commissions was to design an infographic that looked at the rise of political extremism for which he created pictograms depicting Nazism, anti-Nazism and communism. He was a socially and politically engaged designer who saw it as his role to comment on and reveal the world around him. It would be remiss of us not to include some of Arntz's most important work in our collection.
 PatrickBurgoyne
2011-03-07 10:52:43

I like these - I have really strong memories of seeing them when i was younger. They opened my eyes to how creating simplicity could intact be complicated.

Granted they don't look too modern anymore - but you know, modern is sometimes people simply reduce to a style.
I find these really interesting now though, they almost stand up as portraits of an age. - the figures look, strong like workers from a bygone era, woman in tabards and guys in flat caps slouching on seats looking depressed.

a really interesting project - which is obviously creating a good debate - thank you for the link.
owen
2011-07-25 15:43:40

I felt I had to respond to the two absolutely idiotic comments above. Gerd Arntz was a council communist, and therefore diametrically opposed to Nazism. However, he was a German graphic designer and political artist in the 1930s. You may not be aware of this Tammy Dekel and Ilana Deweik but Nazism was quite a hot topic in 1930s Germany, especially for German political artists. So swastikas are going to appear in contemporary artwork. If you do not like to see images from the world around you, it would be advisable to stay indoors and not look at the Internet.
Steven Johns
2012-02-05 16:24:49

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