Tatlin Tower. Model of the Monument to the Third International

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural movement in Russia from 1919 onward (especially present after the October Revolution) which dismissed "pure" art in favour of an art used as an instrument for social purposes, specifically the construction of a socialist system. Constructivism as an active force lasted until around 1934, having a great deal of effect on developments in the art of the Weimar Republic and elsewhere, before being replaced by Socialist Realism. Its motifs have sporadically recurred in other art movements since. Image File history File links TatlinMonument3int. ... Image File history File links TatlinMonument3int. ... Model of the Monument to the Third International Tatlin’s Tower, or the Monument to the Third International was never constructed. ... Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. ... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... This article is about building architecture. ... For other uses, see October Revolution (disambiguation). ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community[1] for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Anthem Das Lied der Deutschen Germany during the Weimar period, with the Free State of Prussia (in blue) as the largest state Capital Berlin Language(s) German Government Republic President  - 1918-1925 Friedrich Ebert  - 1925-1933 Paul von Hindenburg Chancellor  - 1919 Philipp Scheidemann(first)  - 1933 Kurt von Schleicher (last) Legislature... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation). ...

Beginnings

Photograph of the first Constructivist Exhibition, 1921

The term Construction Artwas first used as a derisive term by Kazimir Malevich to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko in 1917. Constructivism first appears as a positive term in Naum Gabo's Realistic Manifesto of 1920. Alexei Gan used the word as the title of his book Constructivism, which was printed in 1922.^[1] Constructivism was a post-First World War outgrowth of Russian Futurism, and particularly of the 'corner-counter reliefs' of Vladimir Tatlin, which had been exhibited in 1915. The term itself would be coined by the sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, who developed an industrial, angular approach to their work, while its geometric abstraction owed something to the Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich. The teaching basis for the new movement was laid by The Commissariat of Enlightenment (or Narkompros) the Bolshevik government's cultural and educational ministry headed by Anatoliy Vasilievich Lunacharsky who suppressed the old Petrograd Academy of Fine Arts and the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1918. IZO, the Commissariat's artistic bureau was run during the Russian Civil War mainly by Futurists, who published the journal Art of the Commune. The focus for Constructivism in Moscow was VKhUTEMAS, the school for art and design established in 1919. Gabo later stated that teaching at the school was focused more on political and ideological discussion than art-making. Despite this, Gabo himself designed a radio transmitter in 1920 (and would submit a design to the Palace of the Soviets competition in 1930). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (Russian: , Polish: , Ukrainian Казимір Северинович Малевич, German: ), (February 23, 1878 – May 15, 1935) was a painter and art theoretician, pioneer of geometric abstract art and one of the most important members of the Russian avant-garde. ... Image:1924 Alexander Rodchenko in industrial suit by Mikhail Kaufman. ... Naum Gabo KBE (August 5, 1890 - August 23, 1977) was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art. ... The Realistic Manifesto, is a key text of Constructivism written by sculptor Naum Gabo and cosigned by his brother Antoine Pevsner. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... El Lissitzkys poster for a post-revolutionary production of the Victory Over the Sun. ... Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin (Владимир Евграфович Татлин) (December 28, 1885 (OS: December 16) – May 31, 1953) worked as a painter and architect. ... Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962) was a Russian sculptor and the brother of Naum Gabo. ... Naum Gabo KBE (August 5, 1890 - August 23, 1977) was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art. ... This term is not to be confused with supremacism. ... Narkompros (Наркомпрос) is an abbreviation for the Peoples Commissariat for Enlightenment (Народный комиссариат просвещен&#1080... Anatoliy Vasilievich Lunacharsky (Russian:Анатолий Васильевич Луначарский) (November 23 [O.S. November 11] 1875 – December 26, 1933) was a Russian communist politician. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and... The edifice for the academy was built in 1764-89 to a design by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe and Alexander F. Kokorinov. ... School of painting, sculpturing and architecture - the Moscow school of painting, sculpturing and the architecture, the largest alongside with St. ... Combatants Local Soviet powers led by Russian SFSR and Red Army Far Eastern Republic Chinese Volunteers White Movement Allied Intervention: Japan Czechoslovakia Greece  United States  Canada Serbia Romania  Turkey UK  France Foreign volunteers: Polish Italian Local nationalist movements, national states, and decentralist movements  German Empire  Mongolia Warlords Commanders Vladimir Lenin... VKhUTEMAS (Russian acronym for Higher State Art and Technical Workshops) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, and dissolved in 1930. ... Categories: Buildings in Moscow | Soviet Union | Stub ...

Constructivism as theory and practice derived itself from a series of debates at INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) in Moscow, from 1920-22. After deposing its first chairman, Wassily Kandinsky for his 'mysticism', The First Working Group of Constructivists (including Liubov Popova, Alexander Vesnin, Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, and the theorists Alexei Gan, Boris Arvatov and Osip Brik) would arrive at a definition of Constructivism as the combination of faktura: the particular material properties of the object, and tektonika, its spatial presence. Initially the Constructivists worked on three-dimensional constructions as a first step to participation in industry: the OBMOKhU (Society of Young Artists) exhibition showed these three dimensional compositions, by Rodchenko, Stepanova, Karl Ioganson and the Stenberg Brothers. Later the definition would be extended to designs for two-dimensional works such as books or posters, with montage and factography becoming important concepts. Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: Василий Кандинский, first name pronounced as [vassi:li]) (December 16 [O.S. December 4] 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter, printmaker and art theorist. ... Liubov Sergeyevna Popova (Любовь Сергеевна Попова) 1889-1924. ... Alexander Vesnin (1883-1959) was a Russian constructivist architect. ... Alexandr Rodchenko (November 23(Old Style) December 5(New Style), 1891 in St. ... 1920s. ... A word associated with the Russian Constructivists artists. ... Poster by the Stenbergs for The General by Buster Keaton, 1928 Georgii Stenberg (b. ...

Art in the service of the Revolution

Agitprop poster by Mayakovsky

As much as involving itself in designs for industry, the Constructivists worked on public festivals and street designs for the post-October revolution Bolshevik government. Perhaps the most famous of these was in Vitebsk, where Malevich's UNOVIS Group painted propaganda plaques and buildings (the best known being El Lissitzky's poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919)). Inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky's declaration 'the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes', artists and designers participated in public life throughout the Civil War. A striking instance was the proposed festival for the Comintern congress in 1921 by Alexander Vesnin and Liubov Popova, which resembled the constructions of the OBMOKhU exhibition as well as their work for the theatre. There was a great deal of overlap in this period between Constructivism and Proletkult, the ideas of which concerning the need to create an entirely new culture struck a chord with the Constructivists. In addition some Constructivists were heavily involved in the 'ROSTA Windows', a Bolshevik public information campaign of around 1920. Some of the most famous of these were by the poet-painter Vladimir Mayakovsky and Vladimir Lebedev. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Coat of arms of Vitebsk. ... Self-portrait, 1933 Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (Казимир Северинович Малевич, Polish Malewicz, Ukrainian transliteration Malevych, German Kasimir Malewitsch), (February 12, 1878 – May 15, 1935) was a painter and... A photo of UNOVIS members, with Malevich in the center UNOVIS (also known as MOLPOSNOVIS and POSNOVIS) was the name of a short-lived but influential group of Russian artists, founded and led by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919. ...   (Лазарь Маркович Лисицкий, November 23, 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Эль Лисицкий), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. ... Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский) (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 – April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Futurism. ... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including... Proletkult is an portmanteau of proletarskaya kultura (пролетарская культура), Russian for proletarian culture. It was a movement active in the Soviet Union in 1917/1925 to provide the foundations for a truly proletarian art devoid of bourgeois influence. ... Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский) (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 – April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Futurism. ...

As a part of the early Soviet youth movement, the constructivists took an artistic outlook aimed to encompass cognitive, material activity, and the whole of spirituality of mankind. The artists tried to create works that would take the viewer out of the traditional setting and make them an active viewer of the artwork. In this it had similarities with the Russian Formalists' theory of 'making strange', and accordingly their leading theorist Viktor Shklovsky worked closely with the Constructivists, as did other formalists like Osip Brik. These theories were tested in the theatre, particularly in the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, who had set up what he called 'October in the theatre'. Meyerhold developed a 'biomechanical' acting style, which was influenced both by the circus and by the 'scientific management' theories of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Meanwhile the stage sets by the likes of Vesnin, Popova and Stepanova tested out Constructivist spatial ideas in a public form. A more populist version of this was developed by Alexander Tairov, with stage sets by Aleksandra Ekster and the Stenberg Brothers. These ideas would go on to influence German directors like Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator, as well as the early Soviet cinema. CCCP redirects here. ... Russian Formalism refers to a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars (Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur) who revolutionised literary criticism between 1914 and the 1930s by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature. ... Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (or Shklovskii) (January 24, 1893–December 6, 1984) was a Russian and Soviet critic, writer, and pamphleteer. ... Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold (born Karl Kazimir Theodor Meyerhold) (1874 - 1940) was a Russian theatrical director, actor and theorist. ... Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 to March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. ... Alexander Tairov (Russian: ; 1885-1950) was one of Russias leading and most enduring theatre directors through the Soviet era. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Poster by the Stenbergs for The General by Buster Keaton, 1928 Georgii Stenberg (b. ... {{dy justified his choice of form, and from about 1929 on he began to interpret its penchant for contradictions, much as had Eisenstein, in terms of the dialectic. ... Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator, (December 17, 1893 – March 30, 1966), German theatrical director and producer who, with Bertolt Brecht, was the foremost exponent of epic theater, a genre that emphasizes the sociopolitical context rather than the emotional content or aesthetics of the play. ...

Tatlin, 'Construction Art' and Productivism

Photomontage by Tatlin showing his clothing designs, 1924

The canonical work of Constructivism was Vladimir Tatlin's proposal for the Monument to the Third International (1919) which combined a machine aesthetic with dynamic components celebrating technology such as searchlights and projection screens. Gabo publicly criticized Tatlin's design saying Either create functional houses and bridges or create pure art, not both. This had already led to a major split in the Moscow group in 1920 when Gabo and Pevsner's Realistic Manifesto asserted a spiritual core for the movement. This was opposed to the utilitarian and adaptable version of Constructivism held by Tatlin and Rodchenko. Tatlin's work was immediately hailed by artists in Germany as a revolution in art: a 1920 photo shows George Grosz and John Heartfield holding a placard saying 'Art is Dead - Long Live Tatlin's Machine Art', while the designs for the tower were published in Bruno Taut's magazine Fruhlicht. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Realistic Manifesto, is a key text of Constructivism written by sculptor Naum Gabo and cosigned by his brother Antoine Pevsner. ... George Grosz (July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group, known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s. ... Self-portrait, 1920 Grave of John Heartfield in Berlin John Heartfield (June 19, 1891–April 26, 1968) is the anglicized name of the German photomontage artist Helmut Herzfeld. ... Bruno Julius Florian Taut (May 4, 1880, Konigsberg, Germany - December 24, 1938, Istanbul), was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar period. ...

Tatlin's tower started a period of exchange of ideas between Moscow and Berlin, something reinforced by El Lissitzky and Ilya Ehrenburg's Soviet-German magazine Veshch-Gegenstand-Objet which spread the idea of 'Construction art', as did the Constructivist exhibits at the 1922 Russische Ausstellung in Berlin, organised by Lissitzky. A 'Constructivist international' was formed, which met with Dadaists and De Stijl artists in Germany in 1922. Participants in this short-lived international included Lissitzky, Hans Richter, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. However the idea of 'art' was becoming anathema to the Russian Constructivists: the INKhUK debates of 1920-22 had culminated in the theory of Productivism propounded by Osip Brik and others, which demanded direct participation in industry and the end of easel painting. Tatlin was one of the first to answer this and attempt to transfer his talents to industrial production, with his designs for an economical stove, for workers' overalls and for furniture. The Utopian element in Constructivism was maintained by his 'letatlin', a flying machine which he worked on until the 1930s.   (Лазарь Маркович Лисицкий, November 23, 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Эль Лисицкий), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. ... Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Russian: IPA: ), January 27 [O.S. January 15] 1891 (Kiev, Ukraine) – August 31, 1967 (Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Soviet-Jewish Russian writer and journalist whose 1954 novel gave name to the Khrushchev Thaw. ... Hans Richter was a Dadaist artist, filmmaker and writer. ... László Moholy-Nagy (probably July 28, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. ... Productivism is the (purported) ideology that measurable economic productivity and growth is the purpose of human organization and perhaps the purpose of life itself. ...

Constructivism and Consumerism

An advertising construction
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In 1921, a New Economic Policy was set in place in the Soviet Union, which reintroduced a limited state capitalism into the Soviet economy. Rodchenko, Stepanova, and others made advertising for the co-operatives that were now in competition with commercial businesses. The poet-artist Vladimir Mayakovsky and Rodchenko worked together and called themselves "advertising constructors". Together they designed eye-catching images featuring bright colours, geometric shapes, and bold lettering. The lettering of most of these designs was intended to create a reaction, and function on emotional and substantive levels - most were designed for the state-run department store Mosselprom in Moscow, for pacifiers, cooking oil, beer and other quotidian products, with Mayakovsky claiming that his 'nowhere else but Mosselprom' verse was one of the best he ever wrote. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский) (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 – April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Futurism. ...

In addition, several artists tried to work in clothes design with varying levels of success: Varvara Stepanova designed dresses with bright, geometric patterns that were mass-produced, although workers' overalls by Tatlin and Rodchenko never achieved this and remained prototypes. The painter and designer Lyubov Popova designed a kind of Constructivist flapper dress before her early death in 1924, the plans for which were published in the journal LEF. In these works Constructivists showed a willingness to involve themselves in fashion and the mass market, which they tried to balance with their Communist beliefs. Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonics, 1917 Liubov Sergeyevna Popova (Любовь Сергеевна Попова) (1889-1924) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist and Constructivist), painter and designer. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... An issue of Novyi LEF designed by Rodchenko, 1928 LEF (ЛЕФ) was the journal of the Left Front of the Arts, a widely ranging association of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the Soviet Union. ...

LEF and Constructivist Cinema

Aelita, directed by Protazanov, 1924

The Soviet Constructivists organised themselves in the 1920s into the 'Left Front of the Arts', who produced the influential journal LEF, (which had two runs, from 1923-5 and from 1927-9 as New LEF). LEF was dedicated to maintaining the avant-garde against the critiques of the incipient Socialist Realism, and the possibility of a capitalist restoration, with the journal being particularly scathing about the 'NEPmen', the capitalists of the period. For LEF the new medium of cinema was more important than the easel painting and traditional narratives that elements in the Communist Party were trying to revive at that point. Leading Constructivists were heavily involved in film, with Mayakovsky starring in The Young Lady and the Hooligan (1919), Rodchenko's designs for the intertitles and animated sequences of Dziga Vertov's Kino Eye (1924), and Aleksandra Ekster designed the sets and costumes for the science fiction film Aelita (1924). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... An issue of Novyi LEF designed by Rodchenko, 1928 LEF (ЛЕФ) was the journal of the Left Front of the Arts, a widely ranging association of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the Soviet Union. ... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation). ... Dziga Vertov Dziga (Dzyga) Vertov (Russian: , Ukrainian: ) January 2, 1896–February 12, 1954) was a Russian pioneer documentary film and newsreel director. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Aelita (Russian: Аэлита), also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a silent movie directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov and released in 1924. ...

The Productivist theorists Osip Brik and Sergei Tretyakov also wrote screenplays and intertitles, for films such as Vsevolod Pudovkin's Storm over Asia (1928) or Victor Turin's Turksib (1929). The filmmakers and LEF contributors Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein as well as the documentarist Esfir Shub also regarded their fast-cut, montage style of filmmaking as Constructivist. The early Eccentrist films of Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg (New Babylon, Odna) had similarly avant-garde intentions, as well as a fixation on jazz-age America which ran through the movement, with its praise of slapstick directors like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, as well as of Fordist mass production. Like the photomontages and designs of Constructivism, early Soviet film concentrated on creating an agitational effect through Montage and 'making strange'. Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (Riga, 1892 – September 10, 1937) was a Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda. ... Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: ) (February 16, 1893–June 20, 1953) was a Russian film director who developed influential theories of montage. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, Latvian: Sergejs Eizenšteins) (January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and Oktober. ... Esfir Shub (1894 to 1953) was a Soviet film director and editor. ... Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev (Russian: ; Kiev, 22 March (O.S. 9 March) 1905 – Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, 11 May 1973) was a Soviet Russian film director. ... Yelena Kuzmina is both the star and the main character of the film. ... Charles Chaplin redirects here. ... Buster Keaton (born Joseph Frank Keaton, October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American silent film comic actor and filmmaker. ... Fordism is a form of production or production paradigm that prevailed in post-war decades (and perhaps even before second world war) in western industrial countries. ... The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with Russian Cinema despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, although sometimes censored by the Central...

Photography and Photomontage

'Stairway' by Rodchenko, 1930

The Constructivists were early pioneers of the techniques of photomontage. Gustav Klutsis' 'Dynamic City' and 'Lenin and Electrification' (1919-20) are the first examples of this method of montage, which had in common with Dadaism the collaging together of news photographs and painted sections. However Constructivist montages would be less 'destructive' than in Dada. Perhaps the most famous of these montages was Rodchenko's illustrations to the Mayakovsky poem About This. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 558 pixels Full resolution (825 × 575 pixel, file size: 57 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Source: [1] Author died in 1956. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 558 pixels Full resolution (825 × 575 pixel, file size: 57 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Source: [1] Author died in 1956. ... An imaginary world composed of photorealistic inanimate, human, and plant objects spurs a psychological impact upon the viewer. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ...

LEF also helped popularise a distinctive style of photography, involving jagged angles and contrasts and an abstract use of light, which paralleled the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in Germany: the leading lights of this included, along with Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich and Max Penson, among others. This also shared many characteristics with the early documentary movement. Meanwhile LEF produced an architectural offshoot, the OSA group led by Alexander Vesnin and Moisei Ginzburg - for more information see Constructivist architecture. László Moholy-Nagy (probably July 28, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. ... Alexander Vesnin (1883-1959) was a Russian constructivist architect. ... Competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets, 1934 Moisei Ginzburg (Russian: ) (June 4, 1892 [O.S. May 23],Minsk – January 7, 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 Narkomfin Communal House in Moscow. ... Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. ...

Constructivist Graphic Design

Poster by Gustav Klutsis, 1930

The book designs of Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and others such as Solomon Telingater and Anton Lavinsky were a major inspiration for the work of radical designers in the west, particularly Jan Tschichold. Many Constructivists worked on the design of posters for everything from film to political propaganda: the former best represented by the brightly coloured, geometric jazz-age posters of the Stenberg brothers, and the latter by the agitational photomontage work of Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 442 × 599 pixels Full resolution (455 × 617 pixel, file size: 82 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Soviet poster by Gustav Klutsis, 1930. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 442 × 599 pixels Full resolution (455 × 617 pixel, file size: 82 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Soviet poster by Gustav Klutsis, 1930. ... Long live the worldwide October, 1933 Gustav Gustavovich Klutsis (1895 near Ruiena, Latvia – 1938), pioneering photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century, known for the Soviet revolutionary and Stalinist propaganda he produced with his wife and collaborator Valentina Kulagina. ... Titlepage for Typographische Gestaltung written and designed by Jan Tschichold using City Medium and Bodoni. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Long live the worldwide October, 1933 Gustav Gustavovich Klutsis (1895 near Ruiena, Latvia – 1938), pioneering photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century, known for the Soviet revolutionary and Stalinist propaganda he produced with his wife and collaborator Valentina Kulagina. ...

The Constructivists' main political patron early on was Leon Trotsky, and it began to be regarded with suspicion after the expulsion of Trotsky and the Left Opposition in 1927-8. The Communist Party would gradually come to favour realist art over the course of the 1920s (as early as 1918 Pravda had complained that government funds were being used to buy works by untried artists). However it wasn't until around 1934 that the counter-doctrine of Socialist Realism was instituted in Constructivism's place. Many Constructivists continued to produce avantgarde work in the service of the state, such as in Lissitzky, Rodchenko and Stepanova's designs for the magazine USSR In Construction. Leon Trotsky (Russian:  , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за, transliterated Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza, acronym: КПСС (KPSS)) was the ruling political party in the Soviet Union. ... For other uses, see Pravda (disambiguation). ... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation). ...

Legacy

A number of Constructivists would teach or lecture at the Bauhaus, and some of the VKhUTEMAS teaching methods were taken up and developed there. Gabo established a version of Constructivism in England in the 1930s and 1940s that was taken up by architects, designers and artists after World War II (see Victor Pasmore), and John McHale. Joaquin Torres Garcia and Manuel Rendón were instrumental in spreading the Constructivist Movement throughout Europe and Latin America. The Constructivist Movement had an enormous impact on the modern masters of Latin America such as: Carlos Merida, Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís, Theo Constanté, Oswaldo Viteri, Estuardo Maldonado, Luis Molinari, Carlos Catasse, and Oscar Niemeyer, to name just a few. There have also been disciples in Australia, the painter George Johnson being the most widely known. See also Constructivist architecture on the architectural avantgarde of the 1920s and 30s in the USSR. For the British gothic rock band, see Bauhaus (band). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Synthetic Construction (White and Black) 1965-66 Victor Pasmore (born 3 December 1908 in Chelsham Surrey - died 23 January 1998) was a British artist and architect. ... John McHale (born Maryhill, Glasgow 1922, died Houston,Texas 1978) was an artist, a founder member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and a founder of the Independent Group, which was a British movement that originated Pop Art which grew out of a fascination with American mass culture and post... Joaquín Torres García (b. ... Rendóns , oil on canvas, 1955. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... Carlos Merida (b. ... Tábara in his studio showing some of his Bocetos. ... Villacís, Entonacion de Arcilla, Mixed Media, 1972. ... Constantés, Pintura No. ... Oswaldo Viteri (b. ... Estuardo Maldonado Maldonados, El Campo de Los Toros, Pastel and Ink on paper, 1960. ... Molinaris, Untitled, acryllic on canvas, 1983. ... Carlos Catasse (b. ... Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho (born December 15, 1907) is a Brazilian architect who is considered one of the most important names in international modern architecture. ... George Johnson (1926-) was born in Nelson, New Zealand. ... Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. ...

In the 1980s graphic designer Neville Brody used styles based on Constructivist posters that sparked a revival of popular interest. Neville Brody in Berlin Neville Brody (born April 23, 1957 in London) is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. ...

Deconstructivist architecture by architects Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and others takes constructivism as a point of departure for works in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Zaha Hadid in her sketches and drawings of abstract triangles and rectangles evokes the aesthetic of constructivism. Though formally similar, the socialist political connotations of Russian constructivism are de emphasized in Hadid's deconstructivism. Rem Koolhaas' projects recall another aspect of constructivism. The scaffold and crane-like structures represented by many constructivist architects, return in the finished forms of his designs and buildings. Libeskinds Imperial War Museum North in Manchester comprises three apparently intersecting curved volumes. ... Interior of Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany Bergisel Ski Jump, Innsbruck BMW Central Building, Leipzig Vitra fire station, Weil am Rhein, Germany Maggies Centre, Kirkcaldy Zaha Hadid (Arabic: زها حديد) CBE (born October 31, 1950, Baghdad, Iraq) is a notable Iraqi-British deconstructivist architect. ... Seattle Central Library, designed by OMA Rem Koolhaas (born November 17, 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch architect, former journalist and screenwriter who studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. ... Scaffold may refer to: scaffolding as used in construction A gallows The Scaffold, UK musical group Scaffold - GNOME Development Environment Scaffold (Protein ECM) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A modern crawler type derrick crane with outriggers. ...

Artists Associated with Constructivism

// An early student of constructivist art in Germany, Ella Bergmann-Michels contributions to modern abstract art are often forgotten in American art culture. ... Norman Carlberg (full name Norman Kenneth Carlberg) American sculptor, was born in 1928 in Roseau, Minnesota. ... Carlos Catasse (b. ... Constantés, Pintura No. ... Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, Latvian: Sergejs EizenÅ¡teins) (January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and Oktober. ... John Ernest Maquette for relief mural at IUA congress 1961 John Ernest is an American born artist working in England from 1951. ... Naum Gabo KBE (August 5, 1890 - August 23, 1977) was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art. ... Competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets, 1934 Moisei Ginzburg (Russian: ) (June 4, 1892 [O.S. May 23],Minsk – January 7, 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 Narkomfin Communal House in Moscow. ... Erwin Hauer (b. ... Long live the worldwide October, 1933 Gustav Gustavovich Klutsis (1895 near Ruiena, Latvia – 1938), pioneering photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century, known for the Soviet revolutionary and Stalinist propaganda he produced with his wife and collaborator Valentina Kulagina. ...   (Лазарь Маркович Лисицкий, November 23, 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Эль Лисицкий), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. ... Ivan Leonidov (1902-1959) was a Russian constructivist architect. ... New York Lithography by Louis Lozowick 1925 Louis Lozowick was born in Ludvinovka, Ukraine in 1892. ... Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) was a Russian emigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. ... Estuardo Maldonado Maldonados, El Campo de Los Toros, Pastel and Ink on paper, 1960. ... Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold (born Karl Kazimir Theodor Meyerhold) (1874 - 1940) was a Russian theatrical director, actor and theorist. ... Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov (Russian: ), (August 28 [O.S. August 16] 1853 - February 2, 1939) was a great Russian engineer renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for civil engineering that led to breakthroughs in industrial design of hyperboloid structures, shell structures, tensile structures, oil... Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский) (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 – April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Futurism. ... One of buildings designed by Melnikov Konstantin Stepanovitch Melnikov (Russian Константин Степанович Мельников; July 22 (August 3) 1890, Moscow - November 28, 1974, Moscow) was a Russian architect and major figure member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century. ... Sketch of the decoration to the performance Hello, on the wave 477 1929 Vadym Meller (or Vadim Meller, 1884–1962) was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde artist (Cubist, Constructivist), theatrical designer, book illustrator and architect. ... John McHale (born Maryhill, Glasgow 1922, died Houston,Texas 1978) was an artist, a founder member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and a founder of the Independent Group, which was a British movement that originated Pop Art which grew out of a fascination with American mass culture and post... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Synthetic Construction (White and Black) 1965-66 Victor Pasmore (born 3 December 1908 in Chelsham Surrey - died 23 January 1998) was a British artist and architect. ... Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962) was a Russian sculptor and the brother of Naum Gabo. ... Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonics, 1917 Liubov Sergeyevna Popova (Любовь Сергеевна Попова) (1889-1924) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist and Constructivist), painter and designer. ... Rendóns , oil on canvas, 1955. ... Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko (Russian Александр Михайлович Родченко, November 23 (Old Style) December 5 (New Style), 1891 in St. ... Oskar Schlemmer (September 4, 1888 – April 13, 1943) was a German painter, sculptor and designer associated with the Bauhaus school. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... 1920s. ... Tábara in his studio showing some of his Bocetos. ... Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin (Владимир Евграфович Татлин) (December 28, 1885 (OS: December 16) – May 31, 1953) worked as a painter and architect. ... Joaquín Torres García (b. ... Yermilov Vasiliy or Vasyl (1894 - 1967) was Ukrainian-Russian painter, avant-garde artist (Cubism, Constructivism, Neo-Primitivism), and designer. ... Dziga Vertov Dziga (Dzyga) Vertov (Russian: , Ukrainian: ) January 2, 1896–February 12, 1954) was a Russian pioneer documentary film and newsreel director. ... Alexander Vesnin (1883-1959) was a Russian constructivist architect. ... Villacís, Entonacion de Arcilla, Mixed Media, 1972. ... Oswaldo Viteri (b. ...

See also

• Russian avant garde
• Modular constructivism
• Constructivist architecture

Beat the white with the Red wedge, a 1919 lithograph by Lissitzky The Russian avant garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modernist art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its... Modular constructivism is a style of sculpture that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s and was associated especially with Erwin Hauer and Norman Carlberg. ... Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. ...

References

Resources

• Russian Constructivist Posters, edited by Elena Barkhatova. ISBN 2-08-013527-9.
• Heller, Steven, and Seymour Chwast. Graphic Style from Victorian to Digital. New ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001. 53-57.
• Lodder, Christina. Russian Constructivism. Yale University Press; Reprint edition. 1985. ISBN 0-300-03406-7
• Rickey, George. Constructivism: Origins and Evolution. George Braziller; Revised edition. 1995. ISBN 0-8076-1381-9

Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ...

External links

• Constructivism
• Constructivist Movement
• Ukrainian Constructivism
• Constructivist Book Covers