The Russian Avant-garde:
Experiments in Abstraction
Purpose
• When the new century came, the quest for
national identity caused an ambitious and
aggressive change in every part of Russian
culture.
• There was a chauvinistic desire to beat the
West at its own game.
Russian Futurism
• inspired by the writings of Marinetti, Russian
Futurists sought to create a movement which
would cause the Western artists to look to Russia
for guidance
• sought to create a format which was uniquely
Russian in style
• became increasingly used as a device of propaganda
and a voice for social reform
• brought to an end by the government's official
endorsement of Socialist Realism
The Role of Artists
• saw their work as a reflection of the social,
economic and cultural climate of the moment,
and vehicles that could initiate change
• disseminated their radical ideas which enabled
new groups to evolve their own philosophies,
keeping visual art in a constant state of
development
• appreciated the significant impact their ideas
could have on society
The Russian Avant-garde:
Suprematism (1913 - 1919)
Constructivism (1913 – 1921)
Suprematism
(1913 - 1919)
• was a revolutionary art movement promoting pure
aesthetic creativity, “the supremacy of pure feeling in
creative art”
• dispenses with subject matter, perspective, and
traditional painting techniques
• centers on the visual qualities of shape and space, free
from the constraints of real world objectivity
• presents an art of dynamic purity to stir emotions and
promote contemplation
• uses squares, rectangles, circles, triangles and the
cross—taking cubist geometry to its logical
conclusion of absolute geometric abstraction
Kazimir Malevich (1878 – 1935)
His Aim
• to create work so pure and so abstract that
it allowed you to transcend into quiet
thought , beyond the object and into the
spiritual
• to free art from the burden of the object
• to demonstrate that a painting can exist
independent of any reflection or imitation
of the real world
Kazimir Malevich. The Harvest of the Century (1912). Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich. Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying (1915). Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Red Square (1915).
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Boy with Knapsack—Color Masses
In the Fourth Dimension (1915).
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematist Composition
(1915). Oil on canvas
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematist Painting
(1915-16). Oil on canvas
Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism (Supremus No. 58), 1916. Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematist Painting
(1916). Oil on canvas
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematism
(1916-17). Oil on
canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Black Square
(1923-29).
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Black Circle
(1923-29).
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Black Cross
(1923-29).
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematist
Composition:
White on White
(1918)
Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Suprematist Composition
(1923-25). Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich. Sportsmen (1928-30). Oil on canvas.
Kazimir Malevich.
Self-portrait (1933).
Oil on canvas.
Constructivism (1912 – 1921)
• translated the 'spirit' of the machine age and the new
society into a practical visual form
• shifted its emphasis toward designing functional
constructions which could benefit the emerging soviet
state
• ventured into the production of items beneficial to the
new Russia, the materials used were appropriate to
the product and process whether ceramics, clothing,
posters or architecture
• interested in an immediate application to create a new
civilization in the Soviet Union, with art becoming
the motor of the propaganda machine
The Style
• a purely non-objective approach in the making of
artwork,
• without reference to the real world
• was essentially geometric, precise and almost
mathematical; in fact a number of Rodchenko
drawings were executed with compass and ruler
• used squares, rectangles, circles and triangles as the
predominant shapes in carefully composed artworks,
whether drawing, painting, design or sculpture
• emphasized the dominance of the world of machines
and structures over nature
Methods and Materials
• dealt with such a wide range of materials that
anything was possible; wood, celluloid, nylon,
Plexiglas, tin, cardboard and early forms of plastic
were used through a variety of constructing methods
from glue through to welding
• lacked the more engineered approach developed by
International Constructivism
• employed new materials, construction, and joining
methods, including aluminum, electronic components
and chrome-plating
Vladimir Tatlin
1885-1953
Tatlin
• began constructing relief sculptures in a variety of
materials including tin, glass, wood and plaster
• combined actual materials through careful
construction, where the real space between them
would be treated as a pictorial element, thus forcing
their inter-relationship as an important aesthetic
consideration
• introduced space as a compositional factor, changing
the face of modern sculpture
• used suspended wire across the corner of a room,
divorcing himself from the earthbound tradition of
past sculpture
Vladimir Tatlin. Nude (1910-14). Watercolor.
Vladimir Tatlin. Sailor (1911). Watercolor.
Vladimir Tatlin. Corner Relief (1915). Mixed media.
Vladimir Tatlin.
Counter Relief ( 1914-15).
Iron, copper, wood, rope.
Photograph of Tatlin Inaugurating Monument to Sofia Perovskaya,
December 20, 1918, USSR
Vladimir Tatlin. Monument to the
Third International (1991-20). Wood,
iron, and glass.
Had the full-scale project been built,
it would have been approximately
1300 feet high, the biggest sculptural
form ever conceived by man. It was
to have been a spiral metal frame
tilted at an angle and encompassing
a glass cylinder, cube, and cone. The
various glass units, housing conferences
and meetings, were to revolve, making a
complete revolution once a year, once a
month, and once a day. The structure
would have served to steer the course of
humanity on earth.
Sculptural maquette of Monument to the Third International
as it appeared on the Mayday parade in Moscow in 1926
Vladimir Tatlin. Letatlin (1932). Wood, cork, metal, silk, ball bearings,
and whalebone.
Vladimir Tatlin. Reconstruction of Letatlin (1929-31).
Vladimir Tatlin. Letatlin (1932). Wood, cork, metal, silk, ball bearings, and whalebone.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
(1893-1930)
Vladamir Mayakovsky.
Revolutionary Poster (1920).
Vladamir Mayakovsky.
Revolutionary Poster (1920).
El Lissitzky (1890 – 1956)
El Lissitzky. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919).
El Lissitzky. Untitled (Sketch for Roza Luxemburg’s Memorial), 1919-20.
El Lissitzky.
Proun AII (1920).
Black ink, gouache,
watercolor and graphite
on tan cardboard.
Proun is the name he gave
his non-objective paintingconstructions, in which he
experimented with the elements
of contemporary geometric
abstraction combined with
perspective illusions. It is an
acronym for “Project for the
Affirmation of the New” in Russian.
El Lissitzky.
Proun 5a (1922).
Distemper, tempera,
varnish and pencil on canvas.
El Lissitzky.
Composition (1920).
Black ink, gouache,
watercolor and graphite
on tan cardboard.
El Lissitzky.
Proun 19D (1922).
Gesso, oil, collage,
etc., on plywood.
El Lissitzky.
Proun G7 (1923).
Distemper, tempera,
varnish and pencil on canvas.
Alexander Rodchencko
1891 - 1956
Alexander Rodchenko.
Construction (1919).
Oil on canvas.
Alexander Rodchenko.
Constructivist Collage
to the Third International (1919).
Collage of pasted papers.
“Better pacifiers there were never,
I’m prepared to suck forever. On
sale everywhere.”
Alexander Rodchenko and
Vladimir Mayakovsky.
The Best Nipple (1923).
Gouache on photographic
board mounted on cardboard.
Alexander Rodchenko.
Illustration for Mayakovsky’s
Pro Eto (1923).
Photomontage, pink and black
paper on paper.
“You should be ashamed of
yourself—you’re still not on
the list of Dobrolet stock holders.
The whole country has an eye on
this list. One gold ruble makes
anyone a stockholder. . . .”
Alexander Rodchenko.
Dobrolet Advertising Poster
(1923). Lithograph on paper.
Alexander Rodchenko. Dobrolet Trademark (1923). Gouache on paper.
Alexander Rodchenko.
Design for Book Cover
Incorporating the Word “Depot”
(ca. 1925). Watercolor, tempera,
pen and ink, and pencil on paper.
Alexander Rodchenko. The Workers’ Club (1925).
Alexander Rodchenko. Poster for Sergei Einstein’s film Battleship Potemkin (1925).
Alexander Rodchenko.
Worker’s suit (1925).
Alexander Rodchenko.
Conversation with the
Finance Official on Poetry.
Cover for the book by
V. Mayakovsky (1926).
Varvara Stepanova
1894-1958
Varvara Stepanova.
Figure (1920).
Gouache and pencil
on illustration board.
Varvara Stepanova.
Collage (1919-20).
Paper on paper.
Varvara Stepanova.
Tarelkin, costume
design of the play
Tarelkin’s Death by
Sukhovo-Kobylin (1922).
Gouache and blue pencil
on paper.
Varvara Stepanova.
Design for men’s sportswear
(1923). Gouache and Indian
ink on paper.
Varvara Stepanova
Dress design for daytime
(1924). Gouache and Indian
ink on paper.
Varvara Stepanova
The Third Warrior (1925).
Collage and India ink
on paper.
The End of Constructivism
• The Soviet regime at first encouraged this new
style.
• However, beginning in 1921, constructivism
(and all modern art movements) were officially
disparaged as unsuitable for mass propaganda
purposes
Social Realism
Karp Demyanovich Trokhlmenko.
Stalin as an Organizer of the October Revolution.
Oil on canvas
Isaac Izrailevich Brodskiy.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1924). Oil on cardboard.
Vasili Filippovich Ivanov. Vladimir Ilich Lenin Speaking (1928).
Oil on canvas.
Peter Panteleimonovich Parkhet. Stalin at the 8th Conference
of the Highest Council. Oil on canvas.
Boris Eremeevich Vladimirski.
Miner (1929). Oil on cardboard.
Female Worker (1929). Oil on cardboard.
Vladimir Gavrilovich Krikhatzkij: New Tractor (1929). Oil on cardboard.