Russian Constructivism

Key comments on Constructivism

- Centered in Soviet Union/Russia

- Pan-disciplinary movement across the arts

- Its development was stifled due to political pressures

- Against avant-garde movements

- Focus was on the construction of works, and the inherent capacity of materials, a ‘truth to materials’

Key considerations surrounding Constructivism

- Responding to Second Industrial Revolution

- Coincides with Russian Revolution (1917-22)

- Creation of ‘The Soviet Union’ (USSR / CCCP) (1922)

- Previously ‘Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic’ (RSFSR)

Founding figure of Suprematism

Kazimir Malevich, Ukraine/Russia, 1879 - 1935

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Black Square, (1915 [to 1920s]), Kazimir Malevich

PROUN (ПРОУН)

ПРОект Утверждения Нового ‘Project of the affirmation of the new’ Non-representational works by El Lisstizky, implementing an abstract industrial grammar

El Lissitzky creates

PROUN

Vladimir Shukhov most notable structure

Water tower, Polibino, Russia (1896)

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Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International (1919), most iconic Russian architectural structure

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Left: Popova, The Traveler (1915) Right: Popova, Painterly Architectonic (1918),

Lyubov Popova

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El Lisstizky

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Alexander Rodchenko, Books (Please)! In all Branches of Knowledge (1924)

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Moisei Ginzburg, Narkomfin Housing Project, Moscow (1932

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Vesnin Brothers, Palace of Labor (1923)

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Ivan Leonidov, The Lenin Institute for Librarianship (1927)

Yakov Chernikhov wrote

The Construction of Architectural and Machine Forms (1931)

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Yakov Chernikhov

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Shepard Fairey, Want It! Campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue (2009)

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Native Land, Vasily Orlov, Mandated by Stalin who promoted Social Realism.