Vladimir Tatlin and 25 Other Artists
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HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURAL STYLE TIMELINE CONSTRUCTIVISM CONSTRUCTIVISM • In 1920-30, a group of Avant grade Russian architects launched a design movement for the socialist regime calling themselves as constructivists. They believed that any design fulfills only with construction. EMERGENCE • Emerged from the wider constructivist art movement, which grew out of Russian Futurism. • Three-dimensional cubist vision • Abstract non-objective 'constructions' • Kinetic element. Shukhov Tower, Moscow, 1922. RUSSIAN FUTURISM Originated in 1912. RUSSIAN FUTURISM They embraced (and inevitably romanticized) the signifiers of the "new": science, technology, invention, and speed. EMERGENCE World war 1 and Russian Revolution • Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. • Originated in Russia after the World War 1 • Rejection of the idea of autonomous art. • Founded by Alexendar Rodchenka, Vladimir Tatlin and 25 other artists. • Used as a catalyst for social change. • Everything was about usefulness. “Art for Everyone! Art for the people!” EMERGENCE • Most influential Modern Art Movement • Principles of Constructivism came from Suprematism, Neo Plasticism and Bauhaus. • Combined advanced technology and engineering of the era with Communist social purpose. • Constructivism was literally about constructing the spaces in which the new socialist utopia could be achieved. • Tension between two extremes Individualism and utilitarianism in Constructivism, which on the one hand helped promote the greater equalization of society and on the other offered some grandiose, even foolhardy projects. EMERGENCE CONSTRUCTIVISM PHILOSOPHY • No belief in Abstract ideas, rather tried to link Art with Concrete and Tangible ideas. • Acted as a lightening rod for the hopes and ideas of many of the most advanced Russian artists who supported revolution’s goals. CONSTRUCTIVISM PHILOSOPHY Abolish the traditional artistic concern with composition, and replace it with 'construction.' Truth to Materials, materials should be employed only in accordance with their capacities CONSTRUCTIVISM PHILOSOPHY Constructivist art often aimed to demonstrate how materials behaved. The form an artwork would take would be dictated by its materials CONSTRUCTIVISM PHILOSOPHY 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. Cultural workers were at the par with scientists ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM • The style combines straight lines and various forms such as cylinders, squares, rectangles, cubes. • Minimal • Geometric • Spatial • Architectonic • experimental El Lissitzky, Wolkenbügel, 1925 ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM • Constructivism explores opposition between different forms as well as the contrast of different surfaces: walls and windows. • Square or Rectangular windows • Emphasized and took advantage of the possibilities of new materials (steel, glass). • New designs for letting Light in Zuev Workers' Club, 1927 ELEMENTS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM social housing project Dom Narkomfin in Moscow. VLADIMIR TATLIN • Vladimir Tatlin is often hailed as the father of Constructivism • Sculptor, Painter, Architect • Tatlin’s Monument for Third International (1919-1920), saw the birth of Constructivism. The Sailor, Self Potrait (1911) CONSTRUCTIVIST ART WORK • Most important spur to the foundation of Constructivist movement. • Materials: Glass, Steen, Iron • Height: 400m • Designed to surpass Eiffel Tower by third part of its height. • The tower which was never realized, was intended to act as a fully functional conference space and propaganda center for the communist third international. Tatlin's Tower, 1919 CONSTRUCTIVIST ART WORK Steel spiral frame to stand at 1300 ft. Four geometrical units, a cube, a pyramid, a cylinder and a cone, which would provide functional space for meetings and would rotate. • Cube- Yearly- venue for lectures and conferences • Pyramid- Yearky- Bureaucracy, executive activities. • Cylinder- Daily- Information center, host a newspaper. • Cone- Hourly- Radio station Tatlin's Tower, 1919 CONSTRUCTIVIST ART WORK Pure Red Color, Pure Yellow Color, Pure Blue Color (1921) Artist: Alexander Rodchenko Rodchenko wrote of it, in 1921, "I reduced painting to its logical conclusion and exhibited three canvases: red, blue, yellow. I affirmed: this is the end of painting. These are the primary colors. Every plane is a discrete plane and there will be no more representation.“ This is typical of the Constructivist attitude to materials, which was focused not on transforming them into art but on utilizing their properties in the most honest and effective ways possible. CONSTRUCTIVIST ART WORK Popova uses repeating geometric patterns which were thought more appropriate to modern life, dynamism and mass production than the floral designs that had previously been popular for such textiles. Textile Design (c. 1924) Artist: Lyubov Popova CONSTRUCTIVISM BUILDINGS Barsch/Sinyavsky, Moscow Planetarium, 1929 CONSTRUCTIVISM BUILDINGS Town Hall by Noi Trotsky, Leningrad, 1932–4 CONSTRUCTIVISM BUILDINGS Rusakov Workers' Club in Moscow by Konstantin Melnikov, 1927–28 CONSTRUCTIVISM ARCHITECTS • Mikhail Barsch • Ilya Chashnik • Yakov Chernikhov • A. Gegello • Moisei Ginzburg • Ilya Golosov • Panteleimon Golosov • Georgy Krutikov • El Lissitzky • Nikolai Ladovsky • Ivan Leonidov • Berthold Lubetkin • Kasimir Malevich • Konstantin Melnikov • A.Mordvinov • Ivan Nikolaev • Vladimir Shukhov • Sergei Serafimov • S. Kravets • Mikhail Sinyavsky • Nikolai Suetin • Vladimir Tatlin • Alexander Vesnin • Leonid Vesnin • Victor Vesnin CONSTRUCTIVISM BUILDINGS • Designed in 1924 by Russian artist and architect • El Lissiky, the Cloud Iron was a series of eight identical horizontal L-shaped buildings that were never actualised. • According to the design plan, three stories of flats and office space were to be built on the horizontal block, raised 50 metres above street level, which were also set to act as tram stop shelters. • The vertical pylon extended underground and served as an access point to the metro system, connecting the flats and offices to the mass transport system through an internal staircase. CLOUD IRON CLOUD IRON • Designed in 1924 by Russian artist and architect • El Lissiky, the Cloud Iron was a series of identical horizontal L- shaped buildings that were never actualised. • According to the design plan, three stories of flats and office space were to be built on the horizontal block, raised 50 metres above street level, which were also set to act as tram stop shelters. • The vertical pylon extended underground and served as an access point to the metro system, connecting the flats and offices to the mass transport system through an internal staircase. CLOUD IRON PALACE OF SOVIETS • Another unrealised project, the Palace of Soviets was set to be one of the most epic Constructivist designs in the USSR. • Plans were to build this administrative centre and the congress hall right near the Kremlin where the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour now stands. • Construction started in 1937, however was halted by the German invasion in 1941. • By 1942 the steel frame was disassembled and used in infrastructure and as fortification. It would have been the world’s biggest building at the time. PALACE OF SOVIETS PALACE OF SOVIETS PALACE OF SOVIETS NARKOMFIN BUILDING • The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Central district of Moscow, Russia. NARKOMFIN BUILDING The project for four planned buildings was designed by Moisei Ginzburg with Ignaty Milinis in 1928. Only two were built, completed in 1932. Though a listed "Cultural Heritage Monument" on the Russian cultural heritage register, it is in a deteriorating state. Most units were vacated by residents years ago. SHUKHOV RADIO TOWER The Shukhov radio tower also known as the Shabolovka is a broadcasting tower in Moscow designed by Vladimir Shukhov. The 160-metre-high free-standing steel diagrid structure was built in the period 1920–1922, during the Russian Civil War. SHUKHOV RADIO TOWER HOTEL AMANAUZ • Nicked-named the Honeycomb Hotel thanks to its protruding hexagonal balconies • True celebration of concrete and brutalism. • Designed with 480 rooms, a 630-person cinema as well as a host of social and cultural facilities. • The project started in 1985, and despite changing ownership several times, construction stopped soon after. • It now stands as a throwback to mid- century Soviet style. • While constructed 60-odd-years after the initial wave of Constructivism, much of its geometry rings true to the style. HOTEL AMANAUZ.