First Working Group Of Constructivists
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First Working Group Of Constructivists
The First Working Group of Constructivists was formed in March 1921 in Moscow by a group of seven artists. They were soon joined by four other people, to form one of the pioneering groups of Constructivism. They soon become part of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK), a state-funded body established by the Fine Arts department of the People's Commissariat for Education, Izo-Narkompros. Composition The group was composed of: * Karlis Johansons, (1892-1929) * Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) * Varvara Stepanova (1894-1958) * Konstantin Medunetsky, (1899–1935) * Georgii Stenberg, (1900-1933) * Vladimir Stenberg, (1899–1982) * Aleksei Gan, (1893-1942) They were soon joined by: * Nikolai Tarabukin, (1889–1956) * Boris Arvatov, (1896–1940) * Osip Brik, (1888–1945) * Boris Kušner Boris Anisimovich Kušner (Russian: Борис Анисимович Кушнер; 1888 – 1937) was a Russian poet, critic and political activist. He was a publicist for the Cubo-Futurists ...
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Constructivism (art)
Constructivism is an early twentieth-century art movement founded in 1915 by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Abstract and austere, constructivist art aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. The movement rejected decorative stylization in favor of the industrial assemblage of materials. Constructivists were in favour of art for propaganda and social purposes, and were associated with Soviet socialism, the Bolsheviks and the Russian avant-garde. Constructivist architecture and art had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements. Its influence was widespread, with major effects upon architecture, sculpture, graphic design, industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and, to some extent, music. Beginnings Constructivism was a post-World War I development of Russian Futurism, and particularly of the 'counter reliefs' of Vladimir Tatlin, which had been exhibited ...
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Institute Of Artistic Culture
The Institute of Artistic Culture (russian: Институт Художественной Культуры abbreviated to ИНХУК/INKhUK) was a theoretical and research based Russian artistic organisation founded in March Moscow in 1920 and continuing until 1924. Origins It was established under the authority of the Narkompros and funded through the Department of Fine Arts (IZO). In May 1920 Anatoly Lunacharsky appointed Wassily Kandinsky as its first director. David Shterenberg, who was at that time the director of IZO, stated "We organised the INKhUK as a cell for the determination of scientific hypotheses on matters of art". In its first year it attracted about 30 visual artists, Architects, musicians and art critics. Many of them were also taught at Vkhutemas and published in LEF. One of the consequences of state funding was the maintenance of stenographic records, originally kept by Varvara Stepanova and after 1921 by Nikolai Tarabukin. These were published in 1979 by Sel ...
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People's Commissariat For Education
The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charged with the administration of public education and most other issues related to culture. In 1946, it was transformed into the Ministry of Education. Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Nadezhda Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros". Mikhail Pokrovsky, Dmitry Leshchenko and Evgraf Litkens also played important roles. Lunacharsky protected most of the avant-garde artists such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin and Vsevolod Meyerhold. Despite his efforts, the official policy after Joseph Stalin put him in disgrace. Narkompros had seventeen sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g., * Likbez, a section for liquidation of illiteracy, * " Profobr", a section for pro ...
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Karlis Johansons
Karl Johansson (January 16, 1890 in Cēsis, Latvia, as Kārlis Johansons in his native Latvian; Russian: Карл Вольдемарович Иогансон, ''Karl Voldemarovich Ioganson;'' German: ''Karl Ioganson'' – October 18, 1929 in Moscow, USSR) was a Latvian-Soviet avant-garde artist. In 1914 he joined the "Green Flower" (in Latvian: " Zaļā puķe", in Russian: " Зелёный цветок") association of avant-garde artists (besides Johansons, there were also Aleksandrs Drēviņš, Voldemārs Tone ( lv) and Konrāds Ubāns.  Through the era of the Russian Revolution he lived in Moscow where he was involved in the Russian constructivist movement.  In 1921, "self-tensile constructions" were exhibited, which became globally known as "''tensegrity''" in the 1950s as the topical concept was popularized by Buckminster Fuller and sculptor Kenneth Snelson's work.Translated into English from the Latvian Wikipedia article on Kārlis Johansons. Life T ...
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Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of Constructivism (art), constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova. Rodchenko was one of the most versatile constructivist and Productivism (art), productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or down below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of ...
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Varvara Stepanova
Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (russian: Варва́ра Фёдоровна Степа́нова; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant-garde, which rejected aesthetic values in favour of revolutionary ones. Her activities extended into propaganda, poetry, stage scenery and textile designs. Biography Varvara Stepanova who was born in Kaunas (in modern-day Lithuania) came from peasant origins but was able to get an education at Kazan Art School, Kazan. There she met her later husband and collaborator Alexander Rodchenko. In the years before the Russian Revolution of 1917 they leased an apartment in Moscow, owned by Wassily Kandinsky. These artists became some of the main figures in the Russian avant-garde. The new abstract art in Russia which began around 1915 was a culmination of influences from Cubism, Italian Futurism and traditional peasant art. She designed Cubo-Futu ...
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Konstantin Medunetsky
Kazimir (Konstantin) Kostantinovich Medunetsky (1899, Moscow - c. 1935) was a Constructivist sculptor and stage designer who was a pupil of Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko at Vkhutemas (Higher Art and Technical Studios) and founder member of OBMOKHU (Society of Young Russian Artists) in 1919. Medunetsky exhibited designs which included a spiral form at the 1920 OBMOKHU exhibition. ''Spatial Construction (formerly Construction No. 557)'', 1919, in Yale University Art Gallery, is the only surviving example of Medunetsky's sculpture.Lodder, Christina"Medunetsky, Konstantin."in ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 7 May 2013. It was originally purchased by Kathrine Dreier in 1922 for the Société Anonyme. Medunetsky designed the models for the kiosks in the Soviet part of the Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in 1925 and also the decorations for the Kamerny Theatre The Kamerny Theatre was a chamber theatre in Moscow, founded in 1 ...
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Georgii Stenberg
Vladimir Stenberg ( – May 1, 1982) and Georgii Stenberg ( – October 15, 1933) were Russian avant-garde Soviet artists and designers, best known for designing film posters for Sergei Eisenstein's movies, Dziga Vertov's documentaries and numerous imported films. The pair worked in a constructivist and, later, productivist styles, in a range of media, initially sculpture, subsequently theater design, architecture, and drafting. Their design work spanned clothing, shoes, and rail carriages, but they are most notable for their frequent use of film stills and their innovative approach to composition, which replaced traditional styles with non-narrative collage or assemblage. "Ours are eye-catching posters," Vladimir explained, "designed to shock. We deal with the material in a free manner . . . disregarding actual proportions . . . turning figures upside-down; in short, we employ everything that can make a busy passerby stop in their tracks. The inventive results included a disto ...
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Vladimir Stenberg
Vladimir Stenberg ( – May 1, 1982) and Georgii Stenberg ( – October 15, 1933) were Russian avant-garde Soviet artists and designers, best known for designing film posters for Sergei Eisenstein's movies, Dziga Vertov's documentaries and numerous imported films. The pair worked in a constructivist and, later, productivist styles, in a range of media, initially sculpture, subsequently theater design, architecture, and drafting. Their design work spanned clothing, shoes, and rail carriages, but they are most notable for their frequent use of film stills and their innovative approach to composition, which replaced traditional styles with non-narrative collage or assemblage. "Ours are eye-catching posters," Vladimir explained, "designed to shock. We deal with the material in a free manner . . . disregarding actual proportions . . . turning figures upside-down; in short, we employ everything that can make a busy passerby stop in their tracks. The inventive results included a disto ...
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Aleksei Gan
Aleksei Mikhailovich Gan (Russian: Алексей Михайлович Ган; born Imberkh; 1887 or 1893 – 8 September, 1942) was a Russian anarchist and later Marxist avant-garde artist, art theorist and graphic designer. Gan was a key figure in the development of Constructivism after the Russian Revolution. Life Gan's involvement with creative activity began in 1917 when he became involved with the Moscow Union of Food Workers with whom he set up an amateur theatrical group. The group encompassed various political groupings and following the Bolshevik seizure of power, some joined the Red Army, others the Black Guards or affiliated to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Gan reorganised the group as the Proletarian Theatre, which affiliated to the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. Gan was the first to write on art in the anarchist newspaper ''Anarkhiia'' (Anarchy) when it introduced an art section in early 1918. In March 1921, Gan was one of the seven artists, in ...
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Nikolai Tarabukin
Nikolai Mikhailovich Tarabukin (russian: Николай Михайлович Тарабукин 25 August 1889, Spasskoye-1956) was an art theoretician active in the Soviet Union. He was one of major theorists of Proletkult. Tarabukin's first book was ''Опыт теории живописи'' (A study in painting theory) which although started in 1916 was not published until 1923. He was influenced by influence of Heinrich Wölfflin. Although he disavowed Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ..., he nevertheless helped explain their ideas through such essays as ''От мольберта к машине'' (From Easel to Machine) published in 1922. :“The way out of the crisis was found not through the "death" of art, but through the further evolution of ...
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Boris Arvatov
Boris Ignatievich Arvatov (Russian: Борис Игнатьевич Арватов; 3 June 1896, Vilkaviškis – 14 June 1940) was a Russian and Soviet artist and art critic. He was active in the constructivist movement. His father was a specialist in customs law. He had two brothers - Yuri Arvatov (1898–1937) and Vadim Arvatov. Arvatov was involved with the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK) when it was founded in 1920 and was an active theorist and ideologist of the Proletkult. Here he met fellow theorists Osip Brik, Boris Kushner and Nikolai Tarabukin with whom he developed the productivist approach to the role of the 'artist', which they wanted to be orientated towards a more industrial approach aimed at producing socially useful objects. He was one of the founders of LEF. ''Art and Production'' ''Art and Production'' (russian: Искусство и производство) was published in Russian in 1926. An amended version translated into German as ''Kunst un ...
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