Constructivism &

De Stijl Arts
1. Constructivism
 Constructivism
Constructivists were interested in construction. Rather than
emerging from an expressive impulse or an academic tradition,
art was to be built.
Objects were to be created not in order to
express beauty, or the artist's outlook, or to
represent the world, but to carry out a
fundamental analysis of the materials and forms of
art, one which might lead to the design of
functional objects.
“WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!”
-Aleksei Gan
 VLADIMIR TATLIN
Russian Architect, Painter, and Sculptor

“Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts.”

• One of the considered founders of the constructivism
movement.
• took lessons & learned from Pablo Picasso's Cubist reliefs
and Russian Futurism
• Initially trained as an icon painter, he soon abandoned the
traditionally pictorial concerns of painting and instead
concentrated on the possibilities inherent in the materials
he used - often metal, glass, and wood

A Life For The Tsar, 1913

Monument to the Third
International (1919-20)

A design for the Communist International headquarters,

it was realized as a model but never built.
Unisex Sports Uniform –Varvara Stepanova Shukhov Tower (1929) – Alexander Rodchenko
2. De Stijl
 De Stijl
(Neoplasticism)
Expressing the artists' search "for the universal, as the
individual was losing its significance," this austere language
was meant to reveal the laws governing the harmony of the
world.
Netherlands-based De Stijl movement
embraced an abstract, pared-down
aesthetic centered in basic visual elements
such as geometric forms and primary
colours.

Red and Blue Chair

(1918)-Gerrit Reitveld
De Stijl, which means simply "the style" in Dutch, emerged largely in response to the
horrors of World War I and the wish to remake society in its aftermath.
Composition VII (the three Counter composition XIII, 1929
graces). 1917. -Theo van Doesburg
-Theo van Doesburg
 PIET MONDRIAN
Dutch Painter

“Ideal of universal harmony in all of the arts.”

Founder of the Dutch modern movement De Stijl
 Simplified the subjects of his paintings down to the
most basic elements, in order to reveal the
essence of the mystical energy in the balance of
forces that governed nature and the universe.

Tableau I, 1921
Piet Mondrian
Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930 Victory Boogie Woogie (1942–1944)
References:
• Hillegas, L. (2019, January 4). The Constructivists Imagined a World Where Art Was Created in Factories. Retrieved from https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-constructivism-brought-
russian-revolution-art.
• Vladimir Tatlin Sculptures , Bio, Ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/tatlin-vladimir/.
• Constructivism Movement Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/constructivism/.
• Piet Mondrian Paintings, Bio, Ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/mondrian-piet/.
• De Stijl Movement Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/de-stijl/.
• Theo van Doesburg. (2019, September 25). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Doesburg.
• Piet Mondrian. (2019, September 23). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian.
Thanks!