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Overview of Russian Constructivism

Vladimir Tatlin was a Russian artist who originated the Constructivist movement in Russia beginning in 1913. Constructivism sought to apply industrial materials and techniques to artistic works and architecture. It aimed to express the dynamism of modern life through non-objective geometric forms like cubes, cylinders and rectangles. One of Tatlin's most ambitious works was his unbuilt Monument to the Third International, which would have been a giant leaning tower made of iron, glass and steel that rotated its sections to symbolize the revolutionary spirit. Tatlin's works helped establish Constructivism as an artistic philosophy that merged art with the goals of communism.

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Tawfiq Mahasneh
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246 views6 pages

Overview of Russian Constructivism

Vladimir Tatlin was a Russian artist who originated the Constructivist movement in Russia beginning in 1913. Constructivism sought to apply industrial materials and techniques to artistic works and architecture. It aimed to express the dynamism of modern life through non-objective geometric forms like cubes, cylinders and rectangles. One of Tatlin's most ambitious works was his unbuilt Monument to the Third International, which would have been a giant leaning tower made of iron, glass and steel that rotated its sections to symbolize the revolutionary spirit. Tatlin's works helped establish Constructivism as an artistic philosophy that merged art with the goals of communism.

Uploaded by

Tawfiq Mahasneh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Not the old. Not the new, but the necessary.

- Vladimir Tatlin
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural
philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1913
after the World War 1 by Vladimir Tatlin.

The seed of constructivism was a desire to express the


experience of modern life - in dynamism, in new and
disorienting qualities of space and time.

It sought to abolish the traditional artistic concern with


composition and replace it with ‘construction’.

Constructivist architecture is characterised by a combination of modern technology and


engineering methods and the socio-political ethos of Communism.
● The main characteristic of constructivism was the application
of 3D cubism to abstract and non-objective elements.
● The style incorporated straight lines, cylinders, cubes and
rectangles; and merged elements of the modern age such
as radio antennae, tension cables, concrete frames and
steel girders.
● Modern materials were also explored, such as steel frames
that supported large areas of glazing, exposed rather than Hammer and Sickle Building
concealed building joints, balconies and sun decks.
● The style aimed to explore the opposition
between different forms and surfaces,
predominately between solid walls and
windows, which are often gave the
structures their characteristic sense of
scale and presence.
"In the squares and in the streets we are placing our work convinced that art
must not remain a sanctuary for the idle, a consolation for the weary, and a
justification for the lazy. Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and
acts."

● Vladimir Tatlin was central to the birth of Russian Constructivism.


Often described as a "laboratory Constructivist," he took lessons
learned from Pablo Picasso's Cubist reliefs and Russian Futurism,
and began creating objects that sometimes seem poised between
sculpture and architecture.
● .He wanted above all to bend art to modern purposes and,
ultimately, to tasks suited to the goals of Russia's Communist
revolution.
● One of the first buildings conceived entirely in
abstract terms. Which was planned to construct
in [Link] after bolshevik revolution,1917.
● It consisted of a leaning spiral iron framework
supporting a glass cylinder, a glass cone, and a
glass cube, each of which could be rotated at
different speeds.
● The monument’s interior would have contained
halls for lectures, conferences, and other
activities.
● The monument was to be the world’s tallest
structure—more than 1,313 feet (400 metres)
tall. It would have dwarfed the Eiffel tower in
Paris.
The Sailor(self-portrait)(1911)

Tatlin portray his youthful experience as a sailor.


The separate, almost architectonic parts of the
face foreshadow elements of the revolutionary
Constructivist movement, which he led.

The Nude(1911)- The Fishmonger (1911)-


Elements of Cubism, like Here, Tatlin employs curvilinear lines and
distorted perspective and the rounded forms, and predominantly a
breaking down of forms into palette of three colors.
planes, but it is not a Cubist
picture.

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