Russian constructivism
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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 In sociology, industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world i ...
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 The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...
. 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 Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
,
industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...
, 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 in 1915. The term itself was invented by the sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, who developed an industrial, angular style of work, while its geometric abstraction owed something to the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich. ''Constructivism'' first appears as a term in Gabo's '' Realistic Manifesto'' of 1920. Aleksei Gan used the word as the title of his book ''Constructivism'', printed in 1922. Constructivism as theory and practice was derived largely from a series of debates at the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK) in Moscow, from 1920 to 1922. 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 Aleksei Gan,
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 special ...
and
Osip Brik Osip Maksimovich Brik (russian: link=no, Óсип Макси́мович Брик) (16 January 1888 – 22 February 1945), was a Russian avant garde writer and literary critic, who was one of the most important members of the Russian formali ...
) would develop a definition of Constructivism as the combination of ''
faktura The term of faktura (russian: фактура) emerged in Russian art criticism before the First World War. David Burliuk used the term as a Russian equivalent of the French word "facture" which refers to the texture of the painted surface. Voldemā ...
'': the particular material properties of an object, and ''tektonika'', its spatial presence. Initially the Constructivists worked on three-dimensional constructions as a means of participating in industry: the OBMOKhU (Society of Young Artists) exhibition showed these three dimensional compositions, by Rodchenko, Stepanova, Karl Ioganson and the
Stenberg brothers 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 num ...
. Later the definition would be extended to designs for two-dimensional works such as books or posters, with ''montage'' and ''factography'' becoming important concepts.


Art in the service of the Revolution

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 Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (russian: Клином красным бей белых!, ) is a 1919 lithographic Bolshevik propaganda poster by artist El Lissitzky, "the man through whose exertions the new Russian ideas became generally under ...
'' (1919)). Inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky's declaration 'the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes', artists and designers participated in public life during the Civil War. A striking instance was the proposed festival for the
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
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 during this period between Constructivism and
Proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolut ...
, 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. The constructivists tried to create works that would make the viewer an active viewer of the artwork. In this it had similarities with the Russian Formalists' theory of 'making strange', and accordingly their main theorist Viktor Shklovsky worked closely with the Constructivists, as did other formalists like the Arch Bishop. These theories were tested in theatre, particularly with the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, who had established 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 Constructivist spatial ideas in a public form. A more populist version of this was developed by
Alexander Tairov Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov (russian: Александр Яковлевич Таиров; uk, Олександр Якович Таїров; 6 July 1885 – 5 September 1950) was a leading innovator and theatre director in Russia before and durin ...
, with stage sets by Aleksandra Ekster and the Stenberg brothers. These ideas would influence German directors like
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
and
Erwin Piscator Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of ...
, as well as the early Soviet cinema.


Tatlin, 'Construction Art' and Productivism

The key work of Constructivism was Vladimir Tatlin's proposal for the
Monument to the Third International Tatlinʼs Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. was a design for a grand monumental buildin ...
(Tatlin's Tower) (1919–20) Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. 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 caused a major controversy 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 photograph shows
George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objec ...
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 Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
's magazine ''Frühlicht''. The tower was never built, however, due to a lack of money following the revolution.
Janson, H.W. Horst Woldemar Janson (October 4, 1913 – September 30, 1982), was a Russian Empire-born German-American professor of art history best known for his ''History of Art'', which was first published in 1962 and has since sold more than four million c ...
(1995) ''History of Art''. 5th edn. Revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. London:
Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
, p. 820.
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 László 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 Osip Maksimovich Brik (russian: link=no, Óсип Макси́мович Брик) (16 January 1888 – 22 February 1945), was a Russian avant garde writer and literary critic, who was one of the most important members of the Russian formali ...
and others, which demanded direct participation in industry and the end of easel painting. Tatlin was one of the first to 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.


Constructivism and consumerism

In 1921, the New Economic Policy was established in the Soviet Union, which opened up more market opportunities in the Soviet economy. Rodchenko, Stepanova, and others made advertising for the co-operatives that were now in competition with other 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 emotionally – most were designed for the state-owned 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. Additionally, several artists tried to work with clothes design with varying 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 ''Guts'' or '' Lef '' is a 1999 Dutch comedy film directed by Ron Termaat. Cast *Viggo Waas ... Olivier / Jules * Alice Reys ... Marielle * Rick Engelkes ... Luc *Victor Reinier ... Ex-vriend / Clerence * Berco van Rheeden ... Bob *Michi ...
''. 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.


LEF and Constructivist cinema

The Soviet Constructivists organised themselves in the 1920s into the 'Left Front of the Arts', who produced the influential journal ''LEF'', (which had two series, from 1923 to 1925 and from 1927 to 1929 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 of the Communist Party were trying to revive then. Important Constructivists were very involved with cinema, with Mayakovsky acting in the film ''The Young Lady and the Hooligan'' (1919), Rodchenko's designs for the intertitles and animated sequences of
Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (russian: Дзига Вертов, born David Abelevich Kaufman, russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман, and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet Union, Soviet pioneer documentary f ...
's ''Kino Eye'' (1924), and Aleksandra Ekster designs for the sets and costumes of the science fiction film '' Aelita'' (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 Esfir Ilyinichna Shub (Russian: Эсфи́рь Ильи́нична Шуб; 16 March 1894, Surazh, Russian Empire – 21 September 1959, Moscow, Soviet Union), also referred to as Esther Il'inichna Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker and edit ...
also regarded their fast-cut, montage style of filmmaking as Constructivist. The early
Eccentrist Eccentrism was an avant-garde artistic movement in the Soviet Union active during the 1920s. In the early 1920s it was a movement in theatre associated with the (FEKS), which rejected traditional theatrical acting in favor of a modern and physica ...
movies of
Grigori Kozintsev Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev (russian: link=no, Григорий Михайлович Козинцев; 11 May 1973) was a Soviet theatre and film director, screenwriter and pedagogue. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1964. In 1965 ...
and Leonid Trauberg (''
The New Babylon ''The New Babylon'' (russian: Новый Вавилон, Novyy Vavilon alt. title: russian: Штурм неба, Shturm neba) is a 1929 silent historical drama film written and directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg. The film deals w ...
'', ''
Alone ALONE is a charity organization in Ireland which was set-up to highlight the issues facing older people living alone. Founded in 1977 by Willie Bermingham, the charity seeks to help elderly people living on their own who may feel isolated and lone ...
'') had similarly avant-garde intentions, as well as a fixation on jazz-age America which was characteristic of the philosophy, with its praise of slapstick-comedy actors like
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
and
Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
, as well as of Fordist mass production. Like the photomontages and designs of Constructivism, early Soviet cinema concentrated on creating an agitating effect by montage and 'making strange'.


Photography and photomontage

The Constructivists were early developers 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 those of Dadaism. Perhaps the most famous of these montages was Rodchenko's illustrations of the Mayakovsky poem ''About This''. 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 László Moholy-Nagy in Germany: The major practitioners of this included, along with Rodchenko,
Boris Ignatovich Boris Vsevolodovich Ignatovich (russian: Борис Всеволодович Игнатович; Slutsk, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire - 4 April 1976, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet photographer, photojournalist, and cinematographer. He was a pio ...
and Max Penson, among others. This also shared many characteristics with the early documentary movement.


Constructivist graphic design

The book designs of Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and others such as
Solomon Telingater Solomon Telingater (1903 – 1969) was a Soviet graphic artist, illustrator, printer, typographer, and book designer. Solomon Telingater was born in Tbilisi in present-day Georgia in 1903 and moved to Baku in present-day Azerbaijan in 1910. Along ...
and
Anton Lavinsky Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname) Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, a town and capital of th ...
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 cinema to political propaganda: the former represented best by the brightly coloured, geometric posters of the Stenberg brothers (Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg), and the latter by the agitational photomontage work of
Gustav Klutsis Gustav Klutsis ( lv, Gustavs Klucis, russian: Густав Густавович Клуцис; 4 January 1895 – 26 February 1938) was a pioneering Latvian photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th centur ...
and
Valentina Kulagina Valentina Kulagina, full name Valentina Nikiforovna Kulagina-Klutsis (russian: Валентина Никифоровна Кулагина-Клуцис, 1902–1987) was a Russian painter and book, poster, and exhibition designer. She was a centra ...
. In Cologne in the late 1920s
Figurative Constructivism Figurative Constructivism is an art movement that arose principally in Germany. The term was introduced by Franz Seiwert in 1929 using the phrase "gegenständlichen constructive", and this was subsequently taken up by Gerd Arntz and then by art hist ...
emerged from the
Cologne Progressives The Cologne Progressives was an art movement and were an informal group of artists based in the Cologne and Düsseldorf area of Germany. They came together following the First World War and participated in the radical workers' movement. History ...
, a group which had links with Russian Constructivists, particularly Lissitzky, since the early twenties. Through their collaboration with Otto Neurath and the
Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Museum for Social and Economic Affairs) is a museum located in Margareten, Vienna. History Following World War I, Vienna experienced extreme devastation and deprivation which radicalized architects and designe ...
such artists as Gerd Arntz,
Augustin Tschinkel Augustin Tschinkel (1905, Prague – 1983, Cologne) was a Czech artist active with the Figurative Constructivist art movement. Tschinkel went to Cologne, Germany to attend the ''Pressa'' exhibition there. He was working with Ladislav Sutnar who w ...
and
Peter Alma Peter Alma (18 January 1886 Medan – 23 May 1969 Amsterdam) was a Dutch artist. Alma was born in Medan, Indonesia and attended the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague in 1904. On the recommendation of Franz Seiwert he was employed by the Gesellscha ...
affected the development of the
Vienna Method Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) is a method of showing social, technological, biological, and historical connections in pictorial form. It consists of a set of standardized and abstracted pictorial symbols to repres ...
. This link was most clearly shown in ''A bis Z'', a journal published by
Franz Seiwert Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (March 9, 1894 – July 3, 1933) was a German painter and sculptor in a constructivist style. He was also politically active as a communist making significant contributions, both graphic and theoretical to ''Die Aktion'' ...
, the principal theorist of the group.Benus B. (2013) 'Figurative Constructivism and sociological graphics' in ''Isotype: Design and Contexts 1925-71'' London: Hyphen Press, pp.216–248 They were active in Russia working with
IZOSTAT IZOSTAT (ИЗОСТАТ) ( rus, Всесоюзный институт изобразительной статистики советского строительства и хозяйства) was the "All-union Institute of Pictorial Statistics o ...
and Tschinkel worked with
Ladislav Sutnar Ladislav Sutnar (9 November 1897 – 13 November 1976) was a graphic designer from Plzeň, Czechoslovakia (in western Bohemia) who was a pioneer of information design and information architecture. Although he is uncredited, his contributions t ...
before he emigrated to the US. The Constructivists' main early political patron was Leon Trotsky, and it began to be regarded with suspicion after the expulsion of Trotsky and the Left Opposition in 1927–28. The Communist Party would gradually favour realist art during 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 was not until about 1934 that the counter-doctrine of Socialist Realism was instituted in Constructivism's place. Many Constructivists continued to produce avant-garde work in the service of the state, such as Lissitzky, Rodchenko and Stepanova's designs for the magazine ''
USSR in Construction ''USSR in Construction'' (russian: СССР на стройке) was a journal published in the decade of 1930 to 1941, as well as briefly in 1949, in the Soviet Union. It became an artistic gem and counter-current in the first year of socialist r ...
''.


Constructivist architecture

Constructivist architecture emerged from the wider constructivist art movement. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, it turned its attentions to the new social demands and industrial tasks required of the new regime. Two distinct threads emerged, the first was encapsulated in Antoine Pevsner's and Naum Gabo's '' Realist manifesto'' which was concerned with space and rhythm, the second represented a struggle within the Commissariat for Enlightenment between those who argued for ''pure art'' and the Productivists such as Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Vladimir Tatlin, a more socially oriented group who wanted this art to be absorbed in industrial production. A split occurred in 1922 when Pevsner and Gabo emigrated. The movement then developed along socially utilitarian lines. The productivist majority gained the support of the
Proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolut ...
and the magazine LEF, and later became the dominant influence of the architectural group O.S.A., directed by Alexander Vesnin and Moisei Ginzburg.


Legacy

A number of Constructivists would teach or lecture at the Bauhaus schools in Germany, and some of the VKhUTEMAS teaching methods were adopted and developed there. Gabo established a version of Constructivism in England during the 1930s and 1940s that was adopted by architects, designers and artists after World War I (see Victor Pasmore), and John McHale.
Joaquín Torres García Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim. Given name * Joaquín (footballer, born 1956), Spanish football midfielder * Joaquín (footballer, born 1981), Spanish football winger * Joaquín (footballer, born 1982), ...
and
Manuel Rendón Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...
were instrumental in spreading Constructivism throughout Europe and Latin America. Constructivism had an effect on the modern masters of Latin America such as: Carlos Mérida,
Enrique Tábara Luis Enrique Tábara (21 February 1930 – 25 January 2021Aníbal Villacís Aníbal Villacís (1927, Ambato, Ecuador – March 7, 2012) was a master painter from Ecuador who used raw earthen materials such as clay and natural pigments to paint on walls and doors throughout his city when he could not afford expensive artis ...
,
Theo Constanté Theo Constanté Parra (May 11, 1934 in Guayaquil, Ecuador – April 27, 2014) was a master Latin American painter part of the Abstract Informalist Movement in Ecuador. In 2005, Constanté won the country's most prestigious award for art, lit ...
,
Oswaldo Viteri Oswaldo Viteri (born Ambato, Ecuador, 1931) is an Ecuadorian neo-figurative artist. Viteri gained recognition for his assemblage work, but has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, and mosaics. He began ...
,
Estuardo Maldonado Estuardo Maldonado (born 1928) is an Ecuadorian sculptor and painter inspired by the Constructivist movement. Maldonado is a member of VAN (), the group of Informalist painters founded by Enrique Tábara. Other members of VAN included, Aníbal ...
,
Luis Molinari Luis Molinari (1929 in Guayaquil, Ecuador – 1994 in Quito, Ecuador) (Luis Molinari-Flores) was a member of the VAN Group (Vanguardia Artística Nacional), a collective of informal constructivist artists founded by Enrique Tábara and Aníb ...
,
Carlos Catasse Carlos Catasse (1944 – January 19, 2010), born Carlos Tapia Sepúlveda in Santiago, Chile, formed his new last name by combining the first two letters of his first, middle and last names. Catasse is a Chilean painter of international recogni ...
,
João Batista Vilanova Artigas João Batista Vilanova Artigas (June 23, 1915 – January 12, 1985) was a Brazilian modernist architect. Born in Curitiba, Artigas is considered one of the most important names in the architectural history of São Paulo, and the founding figure ...
and Oscar Niemeyer, to name just a few. There have also been disciples in Australia, the painter George Johnson being the best known. In New Zealand, the sculptures of Peter Nicholls show the influence of constructivism. In the 1980s graphic designer Neville Brody used styles based on Constructivist posters that initiated a revival of popular interest. Also during the 1980s designer Ian Anderson founded The Designers Republic, a successful and influential design company which used constructivist principles.


Deconstructivism

So-called Deconstructivist architecture shares elements of approach with Constructivism (its name refers more to the
deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...
literary approach). It was developed by architects Zaha Hadid,
Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...
and others during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Zaha Hadid by her sketches and drawings of abstract triangles and rectangles evokes the aesthetic of constructivism. Though similar formally, the socialist political connotations of Russian constructivism are deemphasized by Hadid's deconstructivism. Rem Koolhaas' projects revive another aspect of constructivism. The scaffold and crane-like structures represented by many constructivist architects are used for the finished forms of his designs and buildings.


Artists closely associated with Constructivism

*
Ella Bergmann-Michel Ella Bergmann-Michel (20 October 1896 – 8 August 1971) was a German abstract artist, photographer and documentary filmmaker. An early student of constructivist art in Germany, her contributions to modern abstract art are often forgotten in Am ...
– (1896–1971) * Norman Carlberg, sculptor (1928–2018) *
Avgust Černigoj Avgust Černigoj, also known in Italian as Augusto Cernigoi (August 24, 1898 – November 17, 1985), was a Yugoslav-era Slovenian painter known for his avant-garde experiments in Constructivism. Biography He was born in Trieste, to a Sloven ...
– (1898–1985) *
John Ernest John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and w ...
– (1922–1994) * Naum Gabo – (1890–1977) * Moisei Ginzburg, architect (1892–1946) *
Hermann Glöckner Hermann Glöckner (21 January 1889 – 25 May 1987) was a German painter and sculptor. He was an important representative of constructivism. Glöckner was born in Cotta near Dresden. He attended the vocational school in Leipzig in 1903 and wor ...
, painter and sculptor (1889–1987) *
Erwin Hauer Erwin Hauer (January 18, 1926, Vienna, Austria - December 22, 2017, Branford, Connecticut) was an Austrian-born American sculptor who studied first at Vienna's Academy of Applied Arts and later under Josef Albers at Yale. Hauer was an early pro ...
– (1926–2017) *
Hildegard Joos Hildegard Joos (7 May 1909 in Sieghartskirchen, Lower Austria – 17 January 2005 in Vienna) was an Austrian painter and is known as the "Grande Dame" of geometric abstraction and constructivism (art), constructivism in Austria. Life Hildegard ...
, painter (1909–2005) *
Gustav Klutsis Gustav Klutsis ( lv, Gustavs Klucis, russian: Густав Густавович Клуцис; 4 January 1895 – 26 February 1938) was a pioneering Latvian photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th centur ...
– (1895–1938) *
Katarzyna Kobro Katarzyna Kobro (26 January 1898 – 21 February 1951) was a Polish avant-garde sculptor and a prominent representative of the Constructivist movement in Poland. A pioneer of innovative multi-dimensional abstract sculpture, she rejected Aes ...
– (1898–1951) *
Srečko Kosovel Srečko Kosovel () (18 March 1904 – 26 May 1926) was a Slovenian poet, now considered one of central Europe's major modernist poets.
– (1904–1926) * Jan Kubíček – (1927–2013) * El Lissitzky – (1890–1941) *
Ivan Leonidov Ivan Ilyich Leonidov (russian: Иван Ильич Леонидов; 9 February 1902 – 6 November 1959) was a Soviet constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher. Early life Leonidov was raised on an isolated farmstead in ...
– architect (1902–1959) * Richard Paul Lohse – painter and designer (1902–1988) * Peter Lowe – (1938–) *
Louis Lozowick Louis Lozowick (1892 – 1973) (ukr: Луї Лозовик) was a Ukrainian-born American painter and printmaker. He is recognized as an Art Deco and Precisionist artist, and mainly produced streamline, urban-inspired monochromatic lithogr ...
– (1892–1973) * Berthold Lubetkin – architect (1901–1990) * Thilo Maatsch – (1900–1983) *
Estuardo Maldonado Estuardo Maldonado (born 1928) is an Ecuadorian sculptor and painter inspired by the Constructivist movement. Maldonado is a member of VAN (), the group of Informalist painters founded by Enrique Tábara. Other members of VAN included, Aníbal ...
– (1930–) * Kenneth Martin – (1905–1984) * Mary Martin – (1907–1969) * Konstantin Medunetsky – (1899–1935) * Konstantin Melnikov – architect (1890–1974) *
Vadim Meller Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, (russian: Вадим Георгиевич Меллер; uk, Вадим Георгійович Меллер, 1884–1962) was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian USSR, Soviet Painting, painter, avant-garde Cubist, Constructivism ...
– (1884–1962) * László Moholy-Nagy – (1895–1946) *
Murayama Tomoyoshi was a Japanese artist, play writer, novelist and drama producer active during the Shōwa period in Japan. Early life Murayama was born in the Kanda Suehiro district of Tokyo. His father, who was a medic in the Imperial Japanese Navy, died when h ...
– (1901–1977) * Victor Pasmore – (1908–1998) *
Laszlo Peri Peter Laszlo Peri (born László Weisz; 13 June 1899 – 19 January 1967) was an artist and sculptor. Name changes László Weisz was born on 13 June 1899 in Budapest, Hungary. His family Magyarized their family name to "''Péri''". When he mo ...
– artist and architect (1899–1967) * Antoine Pevsner – (1886–1962) * Lyubov Popova – (1889–1924) * Alexander Rodchenko – (1891–1956) *
Willi Sandforth Willi Sandforth (10 January 1922 – 7 January 2017) was a German painter and graphic artist and an late representative of Constructivism Life Early years (1922 to 1947) Willi Sandforth was born 10 January 1922 in Ahlen, Germany, the younge ...
(1922-2017) * Kurt Schwitters – (1887–1948) *
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (March 9, 1894 – July 3, 1933) was a German painter and sculptor in a constructivist style. He was also politically active as a communist making significant contributions, both graphic and theoretical to ''Die Aktion' ...
- (1894-1933) *
Manuel Rendón Seminario Manuel Rendón Seminario (b. Paris, 1894 - d. Portugal, Vila Viçosa 1980) (Also known by Manuel Rendón) was a Latin American painter credited with bringing the Constructivist Movement to Ecuador and Latin America together with Joaquín Torres G ...
– (1894–1982) *
Willi Sandforth Willi Sandforth (10 January 1922 – 7 January 2017) was a German painter and graphic artist and an late representative of Constructivism Life Early years (1922 to 1947) Willi Sandforth was born 10 January 1922 in Ahlen, Germany, the younge ...
- (1922-2017) - German painter and designer * Vladimir Shukhov – architect (1853–1939) * Anton Stankowski – painter and designer (1906–1998) * Jeffrey Steele – (1931–) *
Georgii and 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 num ...
– poster designers and sculptors (1900–1933, 1899–1982) * Varvara Stepanova (1894–1958) * Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953) *
Joaquín Torres García Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim. Given name * Joaquín (footballer, born 1956), Spanish football midfielder * Joaquín (footballer, born 1981), Spanish football winger * Joaquín (footballer, born 1982), ...
(1874–1949) *
Vasiliy Yermilov Vasyl Dmytrovych Yermylov ( uk, Василь Дмитрович Єрмилов) (1894–1968) was a Ukrainian painter, avant-garde artist and designer.'Єрмилов', «''Словник Художників України''» ("Dictionary of ...
(1894–1967) * Alexander Vesnin – architect, painter and designer (1883–1957)


See also

* Anti-art * Cubist sculpture * Suprematism


References


Further reading

* ''Russian Constructivist Posters'', edited by Elena Barkhatova. . * Bann, Stephen. ''The Documents of 20th-Century Art: The Tradition of Constructivism''. The Viking Press. 1974. SBN 670-72301-0 * Heller, Steven, and Seymour Chwast. ''Graphic Style from Victorian to Digital''. New ed. New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe. Run by President and CEO Michael ...
, 2001. 53–57. * Lodder, Christina. ''Russian Constructivism''. Yale University Press; Reprint edition. 1985. * Rickey, George. ''Constructivism: Origins and Evolution''. George Braziller; Revised edition. 1995. * Alan Fowler. ''Constructivist Art in Britain 1913–2005''. University of Southampton. 2006. PhD Thesis. * Simon, Joshua (2013). Neomaterialism. Berlin: Sternberg Press. . * Gubbins, Pete. 2017. ''Constructivism to Minimal Art: from Revolution via Evolution'' (Winterley: Winterley Press).


External links


Resource on constructivism, focusing primarily on the movement in Russia and east-central Europe


*
Constructivist Book Covers
' * Russian Constructivism
MoMA.org
* International Constructivism
MoMA.org

The Influence of Interpersonal Relationships on the Functioning of the Constructivist Network
– an article by Michał Wenderski
Collection: "Soviet Constructivist Film Posters" from the University of Michigan Museum of Art
{{Authority control Art movements Modern art Russian avant-garde Architectural styles Abstract art