1. The Second World War erupted in 1939
and for 6 years the world was plunged
into a demanding industrial war, ending
finally with the dropping of the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.
The war had a huge impact on the
implementation of modern design and
experimentation with new materials and
processes.
In Europe, Italy, Germany and Spain fell to
In the end, the United States was one of
Fascist dictatorships. Propaganda and state
the few countries emerging from the war
architecture, although influenced by the
with little or no damage on its own land
techniques and ideas of experimental
– a fact that explains its post-war
modernism, referred back to classical
dominance of modern design.
examples as a way of stating the traditional
values these governments stood for.

2. The onset of World War II brought a
boom in graphic design through the
need for propaganda. Posters and
other propaganda forms emerged
from the graphic forms developed
between the world wars, with
Cassandre and the Art Deco style
dominating in western Europe and
New industrial techniques were
North America, and the more
developed by designers for
experimental Constructivistthe
military purposes, like ideas
prevalent in of molded plywood for
production poster designs in the
airplane Union and theand then
Soviet manufacture, east.
integrated into commercial
industrial design after the war. In
the case of molded plywood, this
technique was applied to chair
production and other forms of
furniture.

3. During the war itself, all sides patronized painted and other creative depictions of
their efforts.
The Canadian war art program had been
a success during World War II (it
continues today), but artists like Comfort
and Alex Colville were uncomfortable with
how they might express the agony of the
experience, feeling instead that their Colville
Alex
efforts were escapist in their beauty. Canadian artist Charles Comfort

4. While in the Soviet Union, much of the official art heroically portrayed the war in the
language of Soviet Socialist Realism, on occasion, painters managed to express the
pathos of the impact of the war – particularly since the country experienced a
particularly brutal invasion by Germany.

5. Mizuno Toshikatsu, Battle for Pyongyang, ca. 1895
Japan and Germany predictably produced celebratory war art early in the 1940s due to
their early military successes. Indeed, Japan’s military expansion began in the 1890s
and Japanese art between then and the mid-1940s chronicled Japanese conquests.

6. The mood of German art began to
change around 1943 as the war
began to go against them. What is
better remembered artistically is
the work that chronicles the impact
of the Nazi regime.
Franz Eichorst, Memories of Stalingrad,
1944

7. One of the most remarkable developments of the
Second World War was Nazi Germany’s systematic
attempt at “cleansing” Europe, which evolved into a
network of ghettos, work camps and industrialized
programs for exterminating human beings.
The ghettos and concentration camps like Auschwitz
used a simple system of triangles to classify the
various kinds of “degenerates” identified by the
Gestapo. The graphic markings indicating the
prisoner’s “crime” used a combination of triangles,
circles and bars.

8. Red triangles were used for political prisoners (communists, anarchists, trade
unionists, etc.)
Green was for professional criminals
Blue was for immigrants
Purple was for Jehovah’s Witnesses
Pink meant sexual deviance, usually male homosexuals
Black meant “asocial” – a wide ranging category that might include Gypsies, the
mentally ill, and alcoholics
Brown was used later specifically for Gypsies
Yellow was for Jews

9. Two yellow triangles was generally used for Jewish prisoners, although the
combination of two different colored triangles was also used to give more precise
information.
A pink or red triangle inverted over a yellow triangle denoted a Jewish sex offender or
political prisoner.
A yellow triangle over a black triangle meant an Aryan woman race defiler – in other
words, a Gentile German woman who had married a Jewish man.
Sometimes a colored bar was used instead of superimposed triangles. Circles
indicated escape risks or related to the assigned work battalion.

10. Roughly 6,025,000 Jews lost their lives during
the short 13 year Nazi reign.
Roughly 6,667,000 non-Jews were
systematically murdered.
The holocaust total for non-soldiers is around
12,692,000 people.

12. The 1945 nuclear attacks on
The 1945 nuclear attacks on
the cities of Hiroshima and
the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were defining events
Nagasaki were defining events
for the last half of the
for the last half of the
twentieth century – not just
twentieth century – not just
for Japan, but for the whole
for Japan, but for the whole
world.
world.
The unconditional Japanese
The unconditional Japanese
surrender was followed by 7
surrender was followed by 7
years of American occupation.
years of American occupation.
Japan entered the last half of
Japan entered the last half of
the 20th century, arrested,
the 20th century, arrested,
occupied, in shame for its
occupied, in shame for its
military history, and reeling
military history, and reeling
from the effects of the war.
from the effects of the war.

13. Hiroshima Nagasaki
Pop. 255,000 195,000
Dead 66,000 39,000
Injured 69,000 25,000
Total 135,000 64,000

14. Iri and Toshi Maruki were a
husband and wife team of artists.
Both were located in Tokyo, but
originally from Hiroshima when
the atomic bomb was dropped in
August 1945.
Their travel back to Hiroshima
and what they witnessed inspired
15 monumental ink and paint on
paper panels beginning with
Ghosts in 1950 accompanied by
prose-like poetry.
The public exhibition or recitation
art and literature dealing with the
bombs was banned in Japan
during the American occupation
(1945-1952)
http://www.aya.or.jp/~marukimsn/english/indexE.htm

16. Many of Japan’s post-war cultural icons,
including the anime hit, Tezuka’s Astro
Boy, and the international sensation,
the 1954 film Godzilla, were born in this
atmosphere of anxiety and shame.

17. YvesErnst
Max Tanguy
Piet Mondrian
Andre Breton

19. The 1950s was the true
The 1950s was the true
birth of a consumer
birth of a consumer
society, with all the
society, with all the
principles of Fordism
principles of Fordism
disseminated throughout
disseminated throughout
the various design
the various design
fields, strong
fields, strong
partnerships between
partnerships between
industry, government
industry, government
and design, and a
and design, and a
conservative population
conservative population
exhausted from 6 years
exhausted from 6 years
of war.
of war.
With men returning to
With men returning to
the labor market,
the labor market,
women’s roles reverted
women’s roles reverted
Design emphasis wasfashiondesign
Design emphasis wason the use of
and even on the use of
and even fashion design
new materials and designthe
new materials and designfor
went back to for
went back to the
consumer convenience rather than for
consumer convenience of the 1890s
silhouettes rather than for
silhouettes of the 1890s
larger social goals.
larger social goals.