Constructivism Modernist movement

Constructivism was the last and most influential modern art movement to flourish in Russia in the 20th century. It borrowed ideas from Cubism, Supremacism and Futurism, but at its heart was an entirely new approach to making objects, one which sought to abolish the traditional artistic concern with composition, and replace it with 'construction.‘ Ultimately, however, the movement foundered in trying to make the transition from the artist's studio to the factory.

Key Ideas: Constructivists proposed to replace art's traditional concern with composition with a focus on construction. 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. Constructivist art often aimed to demonstrate how materials behaved - to ask, for instance, what different properties had materials such as wood, glass, and metal. The form an artwork would take would be dictated by its materials The seed of Constructivism was a desire to express the experience of modern life - its dynamism, its new and disorientating qualities of space and time. But also crucial was the desire to develop a new form of art more appropriate to the democratic and modernizing goals of the Russian Revolution

Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Tatlin is often hailed as the father of Constructivism. A contemporary of the Suprematist Kazimir Malevich, he had collaborated on the preceding Cubo-Futurist movement. But his interests fundamentally shifted during a visit to Paris in 1913, where he saw a series of wooden reliefs by Picasso. Tatlin appreciated that the reliefs were not carved or modeled in a traditional manner but composed in an entirely different way (indeed they could be said to be 'constructed'), put together from pre- formed elements. On his return to Russia, Tatlin began to experiment with the possibilities of three- dimensional relief, and to use new types of material with a view to exploring their potential.

Aleksandr Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova. Rodchenko's work was heavily influenced by Cubism and Futurism, as well as by Malevich's Suprematist compositions, which featured geometric forms deployed against a white background. While Rodchenko was a student of Tatlin’s he was also his assistant, and the interest in figuration that characterized Rodchenko's early work disappeared as he experimented with the elements of design. He utilized a compass and ruler in creating his paintings, with the goal of eliminating expressive brushwork

El Lissitzky El Lissitzky was a Russian born artist, designer, typographer, photographer and architect who designed many exhibitions and propaganda for the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. His development of the ideas behind the Suprematist art movement were very influential in the development of the Bauhaus and the Constructivist art movements. His stylistic characteristics and experimentation with production techniques developed in the 1920s and 30s have been an influence on graphic designers since. In his early years he developed a style of painting in which he used abstract geometric shapes, which he referred to as "prouns", to define the spatial relationships of his compositions.

Lyubov Popova In Russia, Popova was influenced by Vladimir Tatlin and worked at some time between 1912 and 1915 in his studio in Moscow, the Tower. Inspired by his constructions, Popova experimented with collage and in 1915 began to produce painted reliefs in which projecting curved elements made of cardboard are juxtaposed and enlivened with strongly coloured, impasto paintwork Although she adopted the rectilinear geometry and white grounds of the Suprematists, Popova’s abstract canvases were distinctive. She produced very powerful and dynamic paintings in which large geometric planes, boldly coloured but with elements of modelling

Varvara Stepanova The marriage between Stepanova and Rodchenko and the beginning of their creative collaboration came about while both were still students at the Kazan Art School, where Stepanova studied from 1910 to 1913. In 1913 she moved to Moscow and studied at Konstantin Yuon’s studio, working as a bookkeeper and a secretary to earn her living. Stepanova and Rodchenko began living together in 1916 (they married in 1942), and together they entered the whirl of the art world, quickly finding themselves in the forefront of the avant-garde. In 1917 Stepanova began writing nonobjective visual poetry based on the particular expressiveness of sound. These poems became the basis for a series of manuscript books (1918), their pages covered with a picturesque and harmonious mix of transrational words and abstract shapes.