Constructivism Brought the Russian

Revolution to the Art World

One of the 20th century’s most influential movements amounted

to nothing less than an attack on art. In 1922, a Russian artist
named Aleksei Gan penned a manifesto that began with words in
glaring uppercase: “WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON
ART!” The Russian Revolution had taken place five years earlier,
in 1917. The country was in the process of freeing itself from the
grips of a powerful ruling elite; now it would revolutionize
Russia’s cultural life, too, and put art to work in service of a new,
Communist society.
Gan and his artistic compatriots—including 
Vladimir Tatlin
 and 
Alexander Rodchenko
, considered the founders of the movement known as 
Constructivism
, as well as 
Varvara Stepanova
, 
Liubov Popova
, 
El Lissitzky
, and others—sought new art forms and modes of making art to
serve the masses. Art, they believed, had no place in the
hermetic space of the artist’s studio. Instead, it should reflect the
modern, industrial world; be formulated in laboratories and
factories; and be deployed as an active agent in the broader
Communist revolution. Together, the Constructivists would seek
“to find the Communist expression of material construction,” Gan
wrote, “to establish a scientific base for the approach to
constructing buildings and services that would fulfill the demands
of Communist culture.”

What is Constructivism?
Alexander Rodchenko

Hanging Spatial Construction No. 9, Original work 1920-1921 / Edition 1993

Olivier Malingue

The movement emphasized building and science, rather than

artistic expression, and its goals went far beyond the realm of art.
The Constructivists sought to influence architecture, design,
fashion, and all mass-produced objects. In place of painterly
concerns with composition, Constructivists were interested
in construction. Rather than emerging from an expressive impulse
or an academic tradition, art was to be built.
A new, Constructivist art would look toward industrial production;
approach the artist as an engineer, rather than an easel painter; and
serve the proletariat. Constructivists used sparse, geometric forms
and modest materials. From paintings to posters to textiles, they
created a visual language out of forms that can be drawn with
utilitarian instruments like compasses and rulers. They placed
visual culture under the microscope, analyzing materials like
wood, glass, and metal, to judge them for their value and fitness
for use in mass-produced images and objects.
Influenced by and closely associated with the work of 
Wassily Kandinsky
 and 
Naum Gabo
, as well as Cubism, Futurism, and 
Suprematism
—the latter being the Russian avant-garde movement pioneered
by 
Kasimir Malevich
, famous for his iconic Black Square (1915)—the Constructivists
sought to break art down into its most fundamental parts,
challenge the legitimacy of established traditions, and create an
art form relevant to a rapidly changing world.
Boris Arvatov, an important Constructivist theorist associated
with Moscow’s Institute of Artistic Culture, where 
abstract painting
 pioneer Kandinsky also taught, suggested that modern art
developed along an axis that could be pegged to three
groundbreaking artists: 
Paul Cézanne
, 
Pablo Picasso
, and Tatlin.

The icons of Constructivism

Gustav Klutsis

Oppressed Peoples of the Whole World (...), 1924

"Visionary Structures: From Johansons to Johansons" at …

Vladimir Tatlin

Painterly Relief, 1914-1916

"In Search of 0,10 - The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting" at Fondation…