The rapid technological progress of the beginning of the last century gave rise to the latest trends in art and, as a result, the tendency to the destruction of traditional canons, the search for other forms and aesthetic principles. This was most clearly expressed in avant-garde - a complex of artistic phenomena of the first third of the 20th century. One of the many avant-garde movements was the constructivism style, which arose in the young Soviet power of 1920-1930. It is also called "industrial" or "building" art.
Areas of influence and distribution
Constructivism in painting is too weakly expressed, the direction is mainly associated with architecture, in which simple geometric forms and ultimate functionality are applied most characteristically. But the principles of constructivism, comprehensively and rapidly spreading, also had a significant impact on graphic, industrial design, photography, theater, cinema, dance, fashion, fiction and music of that period.
Soviet constructivism had a significant impact on modern creative movements of the 20th century and not only within the Bolshevik country. The consequences of its influence can be traced in the main trends of the German school of design Bauhaus and the Dutch art movement De Steyl, in the works of masters of Europe and Latin America.
The emergence of the term
The definition of “building art” was first used as a sarcastic expression by Kazimir Malevich in 1917 to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko. The term "constructivism" was coined by sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo. The latter developed an industrial, angular style of work, and his geometric abstraction owed something to Malevich's Suprematism. For the first time, the term appears in the "Realistic Manifesto" by N. Gabo (1920), then as the name of the book by Alexei Gan (1922).
Birth and development of the movement
Constructivism among many styles and trends in the visual arts was formed on the basis of Russian futurism, in particular, under the influence of the so-called "Counter-reliefs" (different-collage collages from various materials) by Vladimir Tatlin, exhibited in 1915. He was (like Kazimir Malevich) one of the pioneers of geometric abstract art, the founder of the avant-garde suprematist movement.
The concept of a new direction was developed at the Moscow Institute of Artistic Culture (INHUK) in the period 1920-1922, the first working group of constructivists. Lyubov Popova, Alexander Vesnin, Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Aleksey Gan, Boris Arvatov and Osip Brik , led by the group’s first chairman Vasily Kandinsky, worked out a theoretical definition of constructivism as an inextricable combination of the main elements of industrial culture (structures, texture and specific material properties of an object with its spatial position).
Principles and Features
According to constructivism, art is a tool exclusively intended for the artistic design of everyday utilitarian, practically applicable objects. The expressive laconic form of the works, devoid of all sorts of "prettiness" and "embellishments", should be as functional and designed as possible for its convenient use in mass production (hence the term "production art").
The senselessness of Kandinsky’s sensual-emotional forms or Malevich’s rationally abstract geometry were rethought by constructivists and transformed into really existing spatial objects. So a new design of work clothes, fabric drawings, furniture, dishes and other consumer goods appeared, and a characteristic form of posters of the Soviet era was born.
Particular asceticism in the visual media of expression distinguishes this trend among similar styles, but in many ways generalizes it with rationalism. In addition to theoretical ideology, constructivism is distinguished by such external properties:
- A few tonal gamma within blue, red, yellow, green, black, gray and white. The colors were not necessarily locally pure; their tinted muted varieties were often used, but no more than 3-4 at the same time.
- The forms and lines are expressive, simple, few in number, limited to the vertical, horizontal, diagonal direction or the shape of a regular circle.
- The contours of the objects give the impression of a monolithic design.
- There is a so-called “machine” aesthetics that displays graphic or spatial engineering ideas, mechanisms, details, tools.
The Art of Building and Productivism by Tatlin
The key point in the direction was the model of Vladimir Tatlin, proposed for the construction of a monument to the Third International (1919 - 1920). The design had to combine the aesthetics of the machine with dynamic components that marked technologies such as spotlights and projection screens.
At this time, the work of Gabo and Pevsner on the “Realistic Manifesto”, which affirmed the spiritual core of the movement, was coming to an end. Gabo publicly criticized Tatlin’s project, saying: “Either create functional houses and bridges, or create pure art, or both at the same time.” The idea of building monuments that have no practical use diverged from a utilitarian-adaptable version of constructivism. But at the same time, Tatlin’s design completely reflected a new progressive idea of the form, the materials used and the manufacturability of the creation. This caused serious debate and controversy among members of the Moscow group in 1920.
Artists in Germany proclaimed Tatlin's work revolutionary in international, and not only Soviet, fine art. Drawings and photos of the model were published in the Taut Fruhlicht magazine. The Tatlin Tower was the beginning of the exchange of creative ideas of "building art" between Moscow and Berlin. The monument was planned to be erected in Leningrad, but the plan was never realized due to lack of money in the post-revolutionary period. Nevertheless, the image of the Tatlin Tower remained a kind of symbol of constructivism and world avant-garde.
A talented self-taught artist, the founder of the movement, Tatlin was the first constructivist who tried to offer his design abilities to industrial production: designs for an economical stove, workwear, and furniture. It should be noted that these were very utopian ideas, like his tower and the letatlin flying machine, on which he worked until the 1930s.
Constructivism in painting
The very idea of a movement that excludes pure art and any “prettiness” has already denied painting as a form of creativity that is not capable of serving the utilitarian needs of the people. The new artist was proclaimed an engineer creating things that are required to influence the human mind and lifestyle. The postulate "... not to decorate the walls with paintings, but to paint them ..." meant the impasse of easel painting - an element of bourgeois aesthetics.
Constructive artists realized their potential in posters, design projects for industrial products, the design of public spaces, sketches of fabrics, clothes, costumes and decorations for theater and cinema. Some, like Rodchenko, found themselves in the art of photography. Others, like Popova, in their series of Spatial-Power Structures, argued that their paintings were an intermediate stage on the path to engineering design.
Not fully embodying in painting, constructivism contributed to the development of collage art and spatial-geometric installation. The ideological source was the "counter-reliefs" of Tatlin and the "pro-holes" of El Lissitzky. The works, in essence, like easel painting, had no practical application, but resembled fantastic engineering developments and looked in the technogenic spirit of that time.
"Proun"
Developed by the beginning of the twenties by the artist and architect El Lissitzky, the so-called new art projects (“pro-holes”) were abstract geometric compositions made in pictorial, graphic form in the form of applications and three-dimensional architectonics. Many artists (not only constructivists) in their paintings of the 20s depicted similar “pro-holes”, which remained abstract images. But many of Lissitzky’s works were later carried out in projects of furniture, interior, theater design or found embodiment as decorative and spatial installations.
Art for Agitation
In the middle of 1920 - 1930 a special style of posters of the Soviet era was established, which subsequently stood out in a separate section of design. It covered theater and film posters, commercial and industrial advertising. The followers of the movement, picking up Mayakovsky’s dictum, called themselves "advertising designers." In the same period, the character of the propaganda poster was formed as one of the mechanisms of influence on the consciousness of the masses.
Constructivists first applied collage techniques for a poster in Russia, combining drawing, photography and elements of printing products. The font, as well as the carefully thought-out placement of the text, played a special artistic role and often resembled a laconic graphic ornament. The artistic methods of poster design developed in those years remained basic throughout the Soviet period.
Progressive Photo Art Rodchenko
The discrepancy between the utilitarian ideas of constructivism in painting was contrasted with their embodiment in photography - a real reflection of life itself. The masterpieces of this art form recognize the unique work of the multifaceted artist Alexander Rodchenko.
Not sparing consumables, he sought to capture every object or action in different conditions and from several angles. Impressed by the photomontage of the German Dadaists, he was the first to use a similar technique in Russia. His debut, published in 1923, photomontage illustrated Mayakovsky's poem "About This". In 1924, Rodchenko created what is probably his most famous poster photo montage, an advertisement for the Lengiz publishing house, sometimes called the Book.
He revolutionized the composition: the nature he shot is amazingly picturesque and often resembles a rhythmic graphic pattern or abstraction. At the same time, his images are incredibly dynamic, in general they can be characterized by the slogan: “Time, go!”. Rodchenko’s work was also striking in that often the nature was shot in rather unusual angles, for which the photographer sometimes had to occupy simply dizzying positions.
Rodchenko’s groundbreaking shots remained a classic for the next generation of photographers and inspired many design creators. For example, American conceptual artist Barbara Krueger owes the success of her many works to Rodchenko. And the variations of his photo portrait of Lilia Brik and the poster “The Sixth Part of the World” became the basis for the covers of musical albums of foreign punk and rock bands.
Russian constructivism in world art
Some constructivists taught or lectured at the Bauhaus school, where some of the teaching methods of VKhUTEMAS were adopted and developed. Through Germany, stylistic principles “emigrated” to Austria, Holland, Hungary and other European countries. In 1930 - 1940, one of the leaders of the world avant-garde, Naum Gabo founded a variant of constructivism in England, which was established after the First World War in British architecture, design and various fields of art.
Manuel Rendon Seminari, creator of the constructivist movement in Ecuador, and Joaquin Torres Garcia, an artist from Uruguay, played an important role in spreading the style in European, African, and Latin American countries. Constructivism in painting is expressed in the works of Latin American contemporary creators: Osvaldo Viteri, Carlos Merid, Theo Constant, Enrique Tabar, Anibal Villac and other no less famous masters. Followers of constructivism also worked in Australia, the most famous of which was artist George Johnson.
Graphic design master Neville Brody reproduced the style based on constructivist Soviet posters in the 1980s, which aroused keen interest among connoisseurs of contemporary art. Nick Phillips and Ian Anderson in 1986 created the famous graphic design studio The Designers Republic in Sheffield, based on constructivist ideas. This strong company remains prosperous today, especially in the direction of musical logos and album covers.
Since the beginning of the thirties, when any progressive and avant-garde trends were banned in the Soviet country, constructivism continued to develop and influence world art abroad. Having lost the ideological foundation, the style became the foundation for other areas, and its elements are still traced in contemporary art, design and architecture.