FEATURED ARTIST   -  September 2007

Retro Art  

Retro Art, or Retro Clip Art, is the term which commonly refers to advertising artwork which was created mainly during the 1940s and 1950s. Although a certain amount of color artwork was also produced during that era, many printed materials were limited to one color due to the often rudimentary printing methods found in many cities at the time. As a result, professional illustrators were forced to develop a style of artwork which could be reproduced easily with a low degree of printing technology if necessary.

At the turn of the century came the Art Nouveau revolution in France, which featured highly simplified, graphic drawings; a style which was largely frowned upon by art experts at the time. This style was quickly followed by Russian Constructivism during the Bolshevik Revolution in the teens, which truly solidified the trend towards simplified, graphic drawings, and helped contribute toward the Art Deco movement of the twenties.

Drink to me	Bottoms up	Drinks with a kick

By 1930, the effects of all these trends had fully seeped into the world of commercial art, at which point commercial illustrators collectively decided to do away with the meticulous cross-hatching, stippling and other intricate forms of line shading which had been the norm up to that time. This type of shading was now seen as "old-fashioned", and the trend began in earnest towards creating drawings which contained no line shading whatsoever. This technique is what is so fascinating and captivating about retro art, besides the quaint and often humorous subject matter, clothing and hairstyles. The fact that these artists could represent anything without using color or line-shading at all, makes retro art a truly unique and significant style of illustration for all times.

Hot soup	Sandwich

Retro Art has become extremely popular of late, mainly because we are so overwhelmed with unbelievable computer graphics, but also due to a recent yearning to get back to the simpler ways of yesteryear. Ironically, combining these types of simple retro images with modern layouts, provides more depth and dimension than could ever be acquired through the implementation of the most complex 3D modeling techniques! Retro Art is now beginning to achieve the same level of status and historical recognition as is accorded Art Deco, Russian Constructivism or Art Nouveau.

Dairy products	Drink more milk