GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 1 / 75 Constructivism 1 Cubo-Futurism 3 2 Suprematism 7 3 Russian Revolution 13 4 Constructivism 16 5 Rodchenko & Stepanova 22 6 El Lissitzky 33 7 Post-Constructivism 69 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 2 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 3 / 75 1912–1915 Cubo-Futurism Italian ideals take root in Russia after rousing lectures by F.T. Marinetti. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 David and Vladimir Burliuk, pages from Vladimir Mayakovski: A Tragedy, 1914 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / CUBO-FUTUrisM 4 / 75 1912–1915 Cubo-Futurism • Influenced by Marinetti’s Russian lectures • Sythesis of Cubism and Futurism applied to the graphic arts • Heavily featured in book design • A simple, visual language for the illiterate and poverty-stricken • Handmade materials • Course paper © Kevin Woodland, 2020 David and Vladimir Burliuk, pages from Vladimir Mayakovski: A Tragedy, 1914 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / CUBO-FUTUrisM 5 / 75 1912–1915 Cubo-Futurism • Reaction to czarist Russia • Peasant society • Relation of visual form to meaning • Mixed type weights, sizes, and styles © Kevin Woodland, 2020 David and Vladimir Burliuk, pages from Vladimir Mayakovski: A Tragedy, 1914 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / CUBO-FUTUrisM 6 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 David and Vladimir Burliuk, pages from Vladimir Mayakovski: A Tragedy, 1914 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 7 / 75 1913–1921 Suprematism Suprematism, the radical new formal language created by Malevich distilled the machine aesthetic to its essence and provided the impetus for Constructivist visual technique. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 8 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 (Left) Kazimir Malevich, Soldier of the First Division, 1914; (right) Kazimir Malevich, Peasant woman, 1912 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 9 / 75 Kazimir Malevich © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Malevich, Suprematist Compositions, circa 1915 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 10 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 11 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 (Top left and right) Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, Circa 1913 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / SUpreMatisM 12 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist exhibition, circa 1917 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 13 / 75 1917–1922 Russian Revolution A sequence of revolutions bring radical change to Russia in the midst of World War I. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 (left) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, (right) King George V of the United Kingdom, 1913 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / RUssian REVolUtion 14 / 75 1917–1922 Russian Revolution • Occurs during WWI • February Revolution • Czarist Russia falls • Temporary Dual Rule • Provisional Government (state level) • Socialist Soviets (national level) © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / RUssian REVolUtion 15 / 75 1917–1922 Russian Revolution • October Revolution • Bolshevik Control (Red Army, Lenin) • Bolsheviks remove Russia from WWI, 1918 • Civil War (Reds vs. Whites) • Bolshevik victory • USSR created in 1922 • Lenin, dies 1924 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 16 / 75 1919–1930 Constructivism An artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia and claimed a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 el lissitzky, lenin tribune sketch, 1920 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / ConstrUctiVisM 17 / 75 These constructivists called on the artist to stop producing useless things such as paintings and turn to the poster, for “such work now belongs to the duty of the artist as a citizen of the community who is clearing the field of the old rubbish in preparation for the new life.” MEGGS © Kevin Woodland, 2020 (right) Aleksei Gan, Cover of Konstruktivizm, 1922 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / ConstrUctiVisM 18 / 75 Tatlin turned from sculpture to the design of a stove that would give maximum heat from minimum fuel; Rodchenko forsook painting for graphic design and photojournalism. MEGGS © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Aleksandr Rodchenko, Design for a Kiosk: The Future—Our Only Goal, 1919 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / ConstrUctiVisM 19 / 75 1921 Led by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko, twenty-five artists renounced “art for art’s sake” to devote themselves to: • Industrial design • Visual communications • Applied arts • The new communist society © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Vladimir Tatlin GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / ConstrUctiVisM 20 / 75 1919 Vladimir Tatlin Tatlin’s Tower, designed by Vladimir Tatlin, championed the new machine aesthetic that was happening across the industrialized world. • Monument to the Third International • Socialist headquarters • Iron, glass and steel • Modernist icon • Twin helix construction • Taller than the Eiffel Tower • Never built © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Vladimir Tatlin, model of the tower, 1919 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / ConstrUctiVisM 21 / 75 1919 Vladimir Tatlin • Four main geometric structures • Rotate at different speeds • Base: Lectures, gatherings (annually) • Middle 1: Executive activities (monthly) • Middle 2: Information center, telegraph, radio, loudspeaker (daily) • Top: Broadcast Center, radio equipment • Projector, sky writing © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Vladimir Tatlin, Elevattion of the tower, 1919 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 22 / 75 1891–1956, 1894–1958 Rodchenko & Stepanova Married couple Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova contribute the greatly to the cause of Constructivistism through numerous forms of design. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 23 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Vavara Stepanova GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 24 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 25 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 26 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 27 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Varvara Stepanova, Students in sports clothing performing of “An Evening of the Book,” 1921 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 28 / 75 Photography has all the rights, and all the merits, necessary for us to turn towards it as the art of our time. ALEXANDER RODCHENKO © Kevin Woodland, 2020 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 29 / 75 One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again. ALEXANDER RODCHENKO © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Alexander Rodchenko, Young Gliders, 1933 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 30 / 75 One of Rodchenko’s first photographs, this portrait signifies a revolution on many levels. While his mother holds up one half of a pair of spectacles to help her read (a skill she acquired only at fifty), Rodchenko stands before her testing a recently purchased camera, the monocular medium of the future. Rodchenko famously cropped his negative, cutting out the walls and table to yield a dynamic, close-up view. His mother’s face, furrowed in concentration, her work-worn hand, and the kerchief wrapped around her head thereby convey a heroic character without trading in sentimentality. We apprehend the resulting picture, moreover, in much the way that Rodchenko’s mother puzzles over her reading. The interaction of hands and lenses has in both cases brought the world radically into focus, magnifying earthshaking changes that, for all their promise of clarity, are still difficult or impossible to comprehend. MATTHEW S. WITKOVSKY © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Alexander Rodchenko, Mother, 1933 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 31 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Alexander Rodchenko, Lilya Brik, 1924. GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / Rodchenko & StepanoVA 32 / 75 © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Alexander Rodchenko, Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge, 1924. GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM 33 / 75 1890–1941 El Lissitzky Lissitzky was an important figure of the Russian Avant Garde, designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union. © Kevin Woodland, 2020 El Lissitzky, The Contructor (Self Portrait), Circa 1919 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / EL LissitZky 34 / 75 1890–1941 El Lissitzky His work spanned the media of graphic design, typography, photography, photomontage, book design, and architecture. Lissitzky’s entire career was laced with the belief that the artist could be an agent for change, later summarized with his edict, “das zielbewußte Schaffen” (goal-oriented creation). WIKIPEDIA © Kevin Woodland, 2020 Josef Albers, El Lissitzky, 1928 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / EL LissitZky 35 / 75 1890–1941 El Lissitzky He identified the graphic arts, particularly posters, books, and architecture as effective conduits for reaching the public. Once the printed page started to seduce the artist, painting slowly died. EL LISSITZKY © Kevin Woodland, 2020 El Lissitzky, Architecture at Vkhutemas, book cover, 1927 GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY / ConstrUctiVisM / EL LissitZky 36 / 75 1920’S Book Design The book is becoming the most monumental