Constructivism

Constructivism around 1917-1935 was a Radical art movement which was situated in Russia. This Radical movement started before the Bolshevik Revolution.  The aim of the movement was to encourage art and artists to contribute towards the construction of the new communist state. Another aim of this movement was to reject the idea of art for art’s sake; i.e. art should serve a social political purpose. This movement was inspired by other movements, styles and artists like: Cubism and Picasso, Futurism in Italy and Russian Artists like Kandinsky, Rodchenko, Malevich and Tatlin. The main characteristics of this movement were: Geometric shapes, the colours red white and black, san serif typography and photomontage.

This movement was led by the Russian artist Tatlin. He believed that art should be concerned only with socially useful activities like Industrial activities, Graphic activities and Theatre/ Cinema Design. One of Tatlins main inspirations were Picassos collages. Tatlin is mainly known for his so called “Monument to the Third International “also known as Tatlins Tower.

This tower was never built, however the aim of this project was to build a monument that would be the headquarters of the third international. This building would have been placed in St. Petersburg. Tatlin wanted this tower to be built out of industrial materials like Iron, metal and glass. The tower was intended to be a tower that symbolises modernity. The main structure would consist of four large geometric structures which would rotate at different speeds. At the base of this structure there would have been a cube which was designed as a place for lectures or meetings. The cube would make a full rotation every year and the pyramid structure would make a rotation every 30 days. Further up there would have been an information centre which would have helped to issue bulletins and propaganda via loudspeaker. At the top of the hemisphere there would have been a hemisphere for radio equipment. This tower would have made the Eiffel Tower look small. Tatlin is also known for his corner counter relief which he produced in 1914.

Tatlin's Tower.

Malevich was a Russian Artist and was a pioneer of the Suprematist movement. The characteristics of Supremalism are: simple geometric forms and geometric alignments, asymmetrical composition and open areas of white spaces which were used as compositional elements.  Malevich was inspired by cubism and geometric abstract art. We can see a resemblance in Malevich’s’ paintings and Picasso’s and Matisse’s  paintings.

Malevich's self portrait paintings.

References:

Ralph Croizier . 2014. Tatlin's Tower: The Monument to the Future that Never Was. [ONLINE] Available at: http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/11.1/forum_croizier.html. [Accessed 26 January 15].

Roseabstain. 2012. Rose Abstain's collages. [ONLINE] Available at:https://roseabstain.wordpress.com/about/histoire-du-collage/. [Accessed 26 January 15].

harunyahya. 1994. The Danger of a Communist Kurdistan. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.harunyahya.com/en/Books/162394/the-danger-of-a-communist/chapter/14586. [Accessed 26 January 15].

wsws.org. 2012. Tatlin’s “new art for a new world”. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/06/tat1-j19.html. [Accessed 26 January 15].

Patrick Cates. 2011. KAZIMIR MALEVICH. [ONLINE] Available at:http://hilobrow.com/2011/02/23/kazimir-malevich/. [Accessed 26 January 15].