1. THE HAYDAY OF RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE: from mid-1910s on part II - SUPREMATISM and CONSTRUCTIVISM  Kazimir Malevich   Vladimir Tatlin 

2. These critical artistic developments occurred against the background of:  disintegrating of old Russian state establishment  birth of the new regime in the course of the outspread and final victory of Russian revolutionary movement

3. ESSENTIAL GENERAL CHRONOLOGY 1905 : 1905 Revolution : a strike began at the Putilov Works in St. Petersburg. Bloody Sunday (01/09) : Peaceful demonstrators fired by the Imperial Guard (200 killed, 800 wounded) M utiny aboard the battleship Potemkin Russo-Japanese War ends with Russia’s defeat 1914 : W W I: Germany declares war on Russia 1916 : Rasputin, imperial advisor, murdered by a group of nobles 1917 : February Revolution ( spontaneous) => abdication of Nicholas II => formation of the Provisional Government October Revolution led by the party of Bolsheviks: the Winter Palace taken, Provisional Government arrested => Vladimir Lenin is established as the Congress chairman => Civil War starts - ends 1923 (traditional dates 1918-20) => Narkomporss (People’s Comissariat for Enlightenment) - defined art policies - Lunacharsky as head 1918 : Russia ends its participation in WWI - Red Terror begins - “ crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror " 1921-22: famine 1921-25: New Economic Policy (NEP) - permission of small private ventures - “strategic retreat” 1922 : USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) officially established 1924: Lenin dies 1925: Stalin is endorsed with leadership 1928 : industrialization of the USSR begins - first FIVE YEAR PLAN starts 1929 : collectivization of the USSR begins 1930 : GULAG ( The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies) officially established 1932-33 : famine end of artistic independence in USSR announced in a published decree

4. Some illustrations for the previous slide : 1. Alexander Kerensky, prime minister of the Provisional Government 2. Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party, organizer of the October Revolution, leader of the Soviet government 3. Anatoly Lunacharsky, head of People’s Comissariat for Enlightenment - defined art policies in the Soviet Russia, 1921-29 4. Nickolas II and his family

5. KAZIMIR MALEVICH - FOUNDER OF SUPREMATISM SUPREMATISM - the art of geometrical shapes flatly painted on the pure canvas surface (from Latin supremus, superlative of superus - above, upper, i. e. the highest; greatest; most excellent or most extreme; utmost)  claimed to capture the highest reality in absolute forms  in Malevich's own words, Suprematism sought “ to liberate art from the ballast of the representational world.” Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) Self-portrait, 1933. Oil on canvas, 28.7x25.9”

6. Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, 1878-1935 1895-6 : studies at the Drawing School in Kiev 1904-5 : Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture + 1905-10: Rerberg studio 1910 : participates in the Jack of Diamonds exhibition 1912 : participates in the Donkey’s Tail exhibition - initial works influenced by Western developments + icons + lubok 1913 : Cubo-Futurism - designs decorations & costumes for the Cubo-Futurist opera “Victory over the Sun” (libretto by Kruchenykh, music by Matyushin) - developed ALOGISM - based on his experiments with Cubism and Futurism BUT PRIMARILY based on ZAUM’ - transrational sense of language => An Englishman in Moscow 1915 : exhibition 0.10 in Petrograd - launches SUPREMATISM - the new realism - defined as “supremacy of pure emotion” - consisted of primary Euclidean geometric forms in pure colors against a white background. 1916 : gathers a group of artists: Popova, Rozanova, Udaltsova, Klyun, Pestel - to publish a journal Supremus - becomes member of IZO 1918 : teaches at the First State Free Art Studios (later VKHUTEMAS), Moscow 1919 : designs costumes for Mayakovsky’s Mystery-Bouffe - produced by Meierkhold - 1st anniversary of Revolution 1919-20 : exhibition of 153 works 1919 : on Chagall’s invitation goes to Vitebsk ; becomes director of the Vitebsk Institute of Art & Practical Work 1920 : founds UNOVIS - included Lissitzky, Chashnik, Suetin, Ermolaeva, etc. 1922 : returns to SPb, becomes professor at the Academy of Arts & GINKHUK (director 1923-26) 1923-26 : GINKHUK directorship; ran the Formal & Technical Department (Formal’no-tekhnichesky otdel) -- turns away from painting canvases (1919) => designs cities & individual dwelling units - plaster models planity or architektony - teaches this at GINKHUK 1927 : goes to Berlin, visits the Bauhaus - writes “The Non-Objective World;” leaves many works in Germany => the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the MoMA, NY late 1920s - returns to figurative painting => reworks his peasant themes of 1910s

7. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Spring: Garden in Bloom. 1904 Oil on canvas, 17.3x25.5” (44x65 cm). The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Impressionism?

8. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Landscape. 1906-1907 Oil on cardboard, 7.5x12.2” (19.2x31cm). The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg Interest in Pointillism?

9. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Bathing Women, 1908 Oil on canvas, 23.2x18.8” (59x48 cm) The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg Interest in “blue and pink” Symbolism? Formally :  attention to the pictorial surface  dynamism restrained, composition strives to stability

10. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Knife Grinder, 1912 Oil on canvas, Yale University Gallery of Art, New Haven  one of few cases when he evaded from his static system to dynamism Futurism?

11. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Floor Polishers, 1911-1912 Gouache on paper, 30.5x27.9” (77.7x71 cm) Amsterdam City Museum Interest in Fauvism? Formally:  priority of brilliant albeit arbitrary color  exaggerated perspective  simplified forms => => develops towards Neo-Primitivism

12. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Woman with Buckets and Child, 1912 Oil on canvas, 28.7x28.7” (73x73 cm) Amsterdam City Museum Neo-Primitivism?  Russian village - heavy, primitive and at the same time majestic  think of icons, frescoes & closer - works by Natalia Goncharova Formally:  canvases tend to be square  images reduced to geometric formulas  compact distribution of forms on canvas => a path towards Suprematism Reference image: Natalia Goncharova, 1881-1962 Laundresses, 1911

13. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 The Woodcutter, 1912-13 Gouache on paper, 37x28.1” (94x71.5 cm) Amsterdam City Museum Interest in Cubism?  used in many works of the peasant cycle  tubular forms - inspired by Fernand Leger Reference image Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Card Players, 1917.

14. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Lady in Tram (Lady at the Tram Stop), 1913 Oil on canvas, 34.6x34.6”(88x88 cm) Amsterdam City Museum Transrational Realism = Cubo-Futurist Realism = Non-Sense Realism  in fact, is based on perfect logic  can decipher? Formally :  free combination of parts + hints and allusions => NOT a coherent 3-D image on a flat surface  BUT a reconstruction of multi-dimensional space

15. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 An Englishman in Moscow, 1914 Oil on paper, 34.6x22.4” (88x57 cm) Amsterdam City Museum  irrational juxtaposition of objects synthesized to form an entity: -- a fish, a church, a candle, etc. -- completely regardless of scale -- has sense of “above” & “below” but no weight  “ We come to the rejection of reason, but this has been possible only because a different form of reason has arisen within us. …One could call it trans-rational. It has its own law, and structure, and also meaning ”. Malevich

16. SUPREMATISM - LEAP INTO THE ABSTRACT

17. ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUPREMATISM  Futuristic performance VICTORY OVER THE SUN (St. Petersburg Luna-park, 1913)  Close collaboration of: -- poets: Velemir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh -- artists: Mikhail Matyushin (also composer) and Kazimir Malevich Important factor : the influence of the linguistic theories developed by poets => for example, Kruchyonykh’s theories and techniques of ‘ transrationalism, ’ which proclaimed the liberation of words from their conventional meanings and resulted in a kind of abstract sound-poetry => found their equivalent in Malevich’s Suprematism, in which color and form were likewise freed from their descriptive function

18.  Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10. Petrograd, 1915, photograph 1915: a year of three Cubo-Futurist exhibitions  Tramvai V  The Year 15: Exhibition of Pictures  The Last Futurist Exhibition: 0.10 (zero, ten) Malevich showed 49 canvases on the exhibition - including the Black Square “ I have transformed myself in the zero of forms and have gone beyond 0,” (Malevich, from the exhibition brochure) - formed a group Supremus (1915), including L.Popova, O.Rozanova, N. Udaltsova; 1917- joined the Jack of Diamonds

19. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Black Square, 1915 Oil on canvas, 31.4x31.4” (80x80 cm) The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow -- visual manifesto of Suprematism

20. RE-CODING THE WORLD According to Malevich : -- the conditions of earthly existence had been mastered so as to operate with a cosmic language, to affirm the global order and the general laws of the universe. -- his task was to build the new system in all of its complexity: The keys of Suprematism are leading me to discover things still outside the cognition. My new painting does not belong solely to earth. The earth has been abandoned like a house, it has been decimated. Indeed, man feels a great yearning for space, a compelling force to ‘break free from the globe of the earth ’. Formally :  the basis of new language that could express an “entire system of world-building” are economical, Suprematist ‘figures’ reduced to extreme positions - the pure plane, the square, circle, and cross  the outer crust of tangible objects should be rejected; all reminiscences of the material world - aborted

21. Suprematism is divisible into three stages, according to the number of squares – black, red and white – the black period, the colored period, and the white period. The latter denotes white forms painted white. All of these stages took place between the years 1913 and 1918. These periods were constructed according to a purely planar development, and the main economic principle lay at the basis of their construction – of how to convey the power of static or of apparent dynamic rest by means of a single plane. WHITE ON WHITE series, 1917-18, all color has been eliminated and form in the purest, most de-humanized shape of the square, has been reduced to the faintest pencilled outline.

22. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions, 1915 Oil on canvas, 20.8x20.8” (53x53 cm) The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

23. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematism, 1917-1918 Oil on canvas, 41.7x27.7”(106x70.5 cm) Amsterdam City Museum

24. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematism, 1918 Oil on canvas, 38.1x27.5”(97x70 cm) Amsterdam City Museum

25. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematism (with Eight Red Rectangles), 1915 Oil on canvas, 22.6x19” (57.5x48.5 cm) Amsterdam City Museum

26. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematism, 1921-1927? Oil on canvas, 33x27.3”(84x69.5cm) Amsterdam City Museum

27. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematism, 1921-1927? Oil on canvas, 34.6x26.9” (88x68.5cm) Amsterdam City Museum

28. REVOLUTIONARY YEARS Malevich’s creative work reaches new heights -- directs the Art Department of the Moscow Soviet + a senior master of Moscow Svomas (State Free Workshops, later VKHUTEMAS, 1920-27) + is a professor at the Academy of Arts, etc. UNOVIS - Affirmers of the New Art (Utverditeli Novogo Iskusstva): 1920-21 1918 : first organized by Marc Chagall; 1920 : receives its name and distinct character - complete renewal of the world of art according to the tenets of Suprematism - transformation of the utilitarian-material aspect of life through new art forms - Malevich returns from Vitebsk to SPb in 1922 GINKHUK (sometimes INKHUK) - UNOVIS’ SPIRITUAL HEIR: 1924 - 26 (State Institute of Artistic Culture - Gosudarstvenny Institut Khudozhestvennoi Kul’tury) 1918-19 : Museum of Artistic Culture created => 1924: transformed into the institute => Malevich - director - leading avant-garde artists are there, including Vladimir Tatlin

29. MALEVICH THE THEORIST The Theory of the Additional Element Malevich sought to understand both the causes for the new forms in the world and art, and the logic of their evolution. He suggested that there existed effective elements or ‘signs’ that determine the artistic ‘organism’ of an artwork within each artistic trend. The examples given include ‘the fibrous graph line’ of Cezanne, the ‘crescent line’ of Cubism, the ‘straight line’ of Suprematism.

30. MALEVICH and ARCHITECTURE 1919 : switches from painting to the design of cities & individual dwelling units - creates designs for houses planity and plaster models architektony and teaches this at GINKHUK On a general note : - traditional existence of strong linkage between painters and architects - the move towards abstraction in modernism generated relationships far more profound

31. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Designs for Future Architecture, 1923-24 Future “ planity ” (houses) for “ zemlyanity” (earth dwellers - people)

32. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Suprematist architectural model, cardboard, c.1920-22

33. Architecton Gota (above), plaster, 85.5x48x58cm Architecton Beta, ( center) plaster, 27x59x99 cm Two archtiectons, plaster  not actual architectural projects, these 3-D models contributed to architecture and design of the 20 th century Malevich’s architectons

34. Late 1920s: RETURN TO FIGURATIVE PAINTINGS 1926-27 : goes to Berlin, visits the Bauhaus - writes “The Non-Objective World;” leaves many works in Germany => the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the MoMA, NY 1928-32 : upsurge of activity, creates over 100 paintings, reworks his peasant themes of 1910s

35. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Haymaking, 1928-29 Oil on canvas, 33.7x25.8”(85.8x65.6cm) The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

36. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 At the Harvest (Marfa and Vanka), 1928-32 Oil on canvas, 32.2x24” (82x61cm) The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

37. Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 Male portrait (N.N. Punin?), 1933 Oil on canvas, 27.5x22.4” (70x57cm) The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg  this return to figurative painting is enriched by the achievements of Suprematism ‘ I do not think painting will remain non- objective forever. Artists did not strive toward the fourth dimensions in order to remain in two dimensions. … Suprematists have done in art what chemists have done in medicine. They have isolated the active element of their medium ’. Viktor Shklovsky, Russian writer and art critic

38.  VLADIMIR TATLIN - FOUNDER OF RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM Constructivism is Russian art movement that sees art essentially re-adapted to fit utilitarian purposes and fulfill the material needs of the people  was first introduced by Vladimir Tatlin in ca. 1915  Tatlin’s starting point was an interest in the qualities of MATERIALS and their juxtaposition and interaction in space  Tatlin dreamed of an art that is:  practical  useful  affordable  accessible to the average worker  No more museums, no more frames, no more pedestals! Art should be completely integrated into productive life! Constructivism asserted the role of an artist was a researcher, an engineer, and an "art constructor."  after the Revolution of 1917, Constructivism was embraced by most of the avant-garde artists  Constructivism affected every facet of Russian life, including architecture, furniture, porcelain, textile and clothing design, book illustration, theatre stage and costume design, and film.

39. VLADIMIR TATLIN, 1885-1953 - born in Moscow - grew up in Kharkiv, Ukraine - father: an engineer; mother: a poetess, died in 1887 - 1902-04: attended Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture - 1904-10: studies in Penza with an artist from the Wanderers group - returned to Moscow, continued studies - under Serov (and Korovin) - repeatedly traveled abroad as a sailor - 1907-08: associated with Larionov and Goncharova - 1912: participated in their Donkey’s Tail exhibition; moved away from them; displayed also with Jack of Diamonds, the World of Art, etc. - 1911: organizes a studio 37 Ostozhenka - Lyubov Popova, Aleksandr Vesnin - among his students - paints in Western / Russian styles - see the nudes - is interested in theatrical design - 1913: travels to Berlin & Paris, visits Picasso, maybe Archipenko - after return: begins to make 3-D painterly reliefs ( zhivopisnye rel’efy ) - 1915: begins to make spatially dynamic reliefs slung across corners - corner counter-reliefs ( uglovye kontr-rel’efy ) - displays them at 0.10 exhibition (Petrograd) - 1918-19: runs the Moscow branch of IZO Narkompros - responsible for implementation of Lenin’s Plan for Monumental Propaganda - teaches in State Free Art Studios in Moscow, then in Petrograd; sets up Studio of Volume, Material & Construction (masterskaya ob’’ema, materiala & konstruktsii) - 1920 : exhibits the Third International at the studio of the former Academy of Arts; 1921 : displays it in Moscow - very active; concerned with the ‘formation of materials’ and applying these experiments to the organization of life and mass production => designs workers’ clothing + 5 variants of an economical oven - 1923: writes a paper on the role of the artist-constructor in the factory - 1925-27: works in Kiev - directed the department of Theater, Cinema, & Photography - 1930-31 : works in the Scientific & Experimental Laboratory (Novodevicii Monastery) - on the project for a flying machine - the Letatlin - 1930s: returns to figurative painting; works in various areas of art and theatrical design; 1941: maybe camouflaging the city; - 1953: died of food poisoning

40. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Sailor (self-portrait), 1911 Tempera on canvas, 28.1x28.1” (71.5x71.5 cm)  ran to a sea at an early age  can you think of possible influences from the Russian tradition? Possible sources / influences:  Neo-Primitivist tendencies - Larionov’s friend!  reference to icon painting - in facial structure and usage of white patches Theophanesthe Greek, 1405. Moscow Kremlin Mikhail Larionov, Soldier, 1910-11

41. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 The Nude, 1913 Oil on canvas, 143x108cm Tretyakov Gallery  combines an awareness of Western avang-garde developments AND strong interest in native Russian traditions  saw Picasso’s works in Paris in 1913-14 => uses perspectival distortions  shows tendency towards analysis of form into facets and planes BUT a. the facets & planes are curvilinear b. shows powerful monumentality => points to native sources of inspiration => lubok and icons - in color: ochre, red & cobalt - applied flatly to the canvas - additions of white highlights + black shading Nikolai Punin said: ‘ the influence of the Russian icon on Tatlin is undoubtedly greater than the influence upon him of Cezanne and Picasso.’

42. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 The Nude, 1910 The Russian Museum

43. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Selection of Materials: Counter-relief, 1916 (material’nyi podbor. Kontr-rel’ef) Galvanized iron on wood, 100x64x24cm Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow  ca. 1913 : interested in "real materials" in "real space"  expressed his ideas through unique three-dimensional constructions, Counter-reliefs & Corner Counter-reliefs  material reality ( faktura -- texture) of wood, metal, glass, paper, cloth, paint, etc., dictated the form of the construction  “ counter ” suggested increased tension and energy ~ isn’t a counter attack more forceful than an attack?

44.  note icons’ ceremonial frame oklad - usually made from valuable metals and encrusted with precious stones  possible source of inspiration for Tatlin in his move towards creating 3-D constructions through the combinations of various materials on the elaborately worked ceremonial frame... Tatlin told ‘ how inspired by the icons he started to drill his boards, mounting on them rings, screws, bells, marking and screwing the background, gluing abacus beads, mirrors, tinsels, and arriving at a shimmering dangling and sonorous composition.”

45. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Counter-relief, 1913 Wood, metal, leather, 62x53cm Tretyakov Gallery  remains in the format of the picture frame  BUT sometimes diagonally placed elements break the line of the rectangular foundation board (as here)  later Talin completely discarded the rectangular frame  abandoned also was the flat foundation surface that limited him to a one-directional involvement of space

46. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Hanging Corner Counter-Relief, 1915 (uglovoi kontr-rel’ef) Iron, wood, rope  the elements began to project further beyond any of the previous reliefs  active relationship with the surrounding space  complete liberation from the wall  almost complete free suspension in the air Important issues :  the purely artistic forms result from the “research into material, volume and construction”  counter-reliefs represented “ laboratory models ” for the solution of “utilitarian tasks - the task of creating the new world.”

47. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Hanging Corner Counter Relief, Installation at “The Last Futurist Exhibition, 0.10.” Petrograd, December 1915

48. Compare Tatlin’s corner counter-reliefs with Larionov’s RAYONISM, which is:  a concept of fragmentation of the object and its relationship to its spatial environment - “ rayonist painting has in view spatial forms, arising from the intersection of reflected rays from different objects ”  concentration NOT upon the object itself BUT upon the lines in space between the objects Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1973 Hanging Corner Counter-Relief, 1915 Iron, aluminum, and primer (from N. Punin, Tatlin: prituv kubizma / Tatlin: against Cubism), Petrograd, 1921 Mikhail Larionov, 1881-1964 Street Lighting, 1910/1911 Oil on board, 10x15” (25.5x38 cm) Mikhail Larionov, 1881-1964 Street Lighting, 1910/1911 Oil on board, 13x15.5” (33x39.5cm)

49. El Lissitzky, 1890-1941 Proun 19D, ca. 1922 Gesso, oil, paper, and cardboard on plywood, ~38.5x38.25" (97.5x97.2 cm). MOMA, NY Proun ("Project for the Affirmation of the New” // proekt utverzhdeniya novogo), 1919 -1927 - inspired by Suprematism, collaged and painted forms: “ a half-way station between painting and architecture ”

50. CONSTRUCTIVISM in the young USSR  1921 : the First Working Group of Constructivists formed within GINKHUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) in Moscow  it was the artists’ response to the pressing question of how artists could contribute to the new Communist order and celebrate the values inherent in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917  their credo was a new synthesis of art and industry “ All new approaches to art arise from technology and engineering and move toward organization and construction ” and “ real construction is utilitarian necessity ” (by Rodchenko, 1921)  THREE PRINCIPLES of organization of material needed to attain “the communistic expression of structures”: -- tectonika (tectonics, or the socially and politically appropriate use of industrial material) -- construction (the organization of this material for a given purpose) -- factura (the conscious handling and manipulation of it)  WHAT IS ARTIST? - according to Tatlin -- artist is “the initiative unit ” - a collector of the ENERGY of the collective, which is directed towards cognition and invention. The initiative unit is a link between the creativity of the mass -- REDUCTION of the individual’s importance? - yes, if the artist is merely an embodiment of the collective’s creative powers -- ELEVATION of the individual importance? - yes, this concept imbues the “creative unit” with the collective power and elevates this unit as the manifestation of the collective’s creativity

51. Vladimir Tatlin, 1885-1953 Model for the Monument to the Third International on exhibition in Petrograd, November 1920  a powerful catalyst to the emergence of 3-D Constructivism - “ the first object of October ” (Vladimir Mayakovsky)  viewed by Tatlin as restoring of the essential unity of painting, sculpture and architecture” => combining purely artistic forms with utilitarian intentions”  intended to be a functioning building - an administrative and propaganda center for the Communist Third International, an organization devoted to fostering world revolution  within its open structure of iron beams, four glazed volumes, rotating at different speeds, were to house executive, legislative, and propaganda offices  iron and glass – “materials of the new Classicism” –intended to express the new social order, “ Iron is stern, like the will of the proletariat, glass is clear, like its conscience ” (Lissitzky)  the strong diagonal + two encircling spirals => symbol of the dynamic forces of historic progress  viewed by Tatlin as extension of his earlier non-utilitarian works  is he true to his early interest in organic, curved planes?

52. LETATLIN - the logical summary of Tatlin’s dream  1929-31: builts a machine for human flight Letatlin - a pun on his name and the verb for fly - ‘letat’ - to relieve the town transport  an air bicycle - deliberately did not want it to be motorized - to give man the freedom of individual flight - so that the body feels movement in the air  materials: bent wood, silk, cork  mass 32kg, wings 12m 2  wanted it to be based on soft and rounded form - “utilizing living, organic forms” Tatlin with the wing of the Letatlin in the Novodevichii Monastery, Moscow ca. 1932 Letatlin in Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. 1932

53. A work of art or an utilitarian object?  everyone, including Tatlin, recognized that this was made by Tatlin as a work of art ( I have made it as an artist ) - called it “ artistic construction ”  the fusion of the artistic and the utilitarian through the organic => concept of design for the new life  the movement had begun with Tatlin’s 3-D non-utilitarian constructions => found a significant end in this embodiment of his dream Letatlin - assembling the model in the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, Moscow for the exhibition Moscow-Paris, 1981

54. MALEVICH and TATLIN, two great avant-garde artists (and rivals), are important among other things, for bridging painting and architecture