Crucible Steel - Majestically mod.

Here's one thing I miss about the fifties. Also, it's a thing I miss about the sixties. Not that I lived through much of either, but I mean it would be nice to live in a time where art like this can still be found in - would you just shut up and let me get to the point?

Crucible Steel. We need steel, etc., etc. Yeah great. Nice illustration! This kind of drawing doesn't enjoy a name that falls easily to hand. Cubism? Sort of. Abstract Kookiness? No. Mod? Meh.

Something without a handy name becomes hard to research, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this kind of "midcentury modern" visual style grew out of the  cubism movement, which began in the early 1900's and had it's peak in the 1940s and 50s.

Cubism was the newest crazy thing anyone had ever seen, in 1912. Loads of people still can't stand it today. It's "too weird". There were a bunch of artists who got in on the ground floor, but the rock star of cubism was... say it with me... Pablo Picasso.

By the fifties, cubism was more widely accepted. After World War II, everyone wanted to forget the past and plan the new exciting future, free of Nazis and war (hah!). The postwar optimism led to the embrace of simple and geometric designs in furniture, art, and pretty much everything. If one wanted to dig through the psychological implications of it, you may speculate that the simplicity of "midecentury modern" expresses a desire to reclaim innocence and put aside the "ickyness" of WWII. One may also speculate all day and forget to eat lunch. Inference of this sort is fun because you can sound smart and nobody can prove you wrong. But, you can be proven a wanker.

The archetypal animation house of this style was UPA. Art dorks will know that name, but you other people I'll just call "normals" probably won't. UPA animated Mister Magoo and Gerald McBoing Boing. Their work is beloved not so much for it's hilarity, but for the super cool look. You can spot it a mile away. Flat color. Clean lines. Simplicty with style and sophistication.

Gerald McBoing Boing can be a little hard to find, but if you have a copy of Hellboy on DVD, check the extras on the disk. You may have a couple GMcBB (as we used to call him [not really]) cartoons already.

So you may get the impression that all this kind of art is a thing of the past? Well, your impression is an idiot. Artists are still in love with the Mid Mod style. Don't believe me? The Increibles: BLAM! That'll learn ya.

There's also a guy Named Josh Agle who has built himself a crazy little empire doing paintings under the name of Shag. His stuff is colorful, wacky, and makes piles of cash off of the nostalgia of a fictionalized era when girls in cat glasses and capri pants danced with wolfmen at tiki parties. I wish I'd done that. (The empire thing, not danced in capri pants thing.)
So, in 1952, you could flip through a magazine and find an ad that looks all mod and kooky like this one for Crucible Steel. Now, the ad would show a loving father taking the affordable, strong training wheels off of his son's affordable, strong bicycle for the first time. What a load of BS.