The aim of this essay is to critically explores a periods from 1800 to the present day, and what were the major influences to art and design movements as a response to the change in social and cultural shifts. The period I have chosen to look at is the Russian revolution 1917 and the period after leading up to before the second world war, concentrating on Russian designers Rodchenko and Popova, and exploring the way there work reflex the constructivist movement around this time.
The Russian revolution 1917, centering around two major events known as the February revolution and the October revolution. The first of these Revolutions two took place in the February of 1917 removing Tsar Nicholas II from the thrown of Russian, after this initial uprising an interim government was put in place. The majority of the members of this provisional government were members of the Petrograd Soviets, an influential local council group representing workers and soldiers of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) this interim government favour a more democratic system of government. It was not until the October of the same year with the October revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, lead by Vladimir Leni. The Bolsheviks overturned the provisional government and established the Soviet Union. After the success of the revolution the Bolsheviks realised that they would be unable to maintain power in a democratic election based system. It was this that lead to the abandonment of the democratic process in January 1918, and declared themselves a dictatorship of the proletariat. It was in response to this the russian civil war broke out between the Bolsheviks Red army and the anti-Bolshevik white army the war would run for many years coming only coming to an end in 1923. After the cvil war the victorious red army would fully instate communism as the political agenda of Russia and the Soviet Union.
“Communism- a system of social organisation in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.”
During the hundreds of years when the Czar's ruled over Russia, there was a thriving private art market with works being created, brought and sold. After the revolution and under the Russian communist regime everything was state owned from factories to theatres, this included art. With the evaporation of the private market government commissions were the only for of art distribution. The Bolshevik Revolution aimed to transform an entire country, and artists were among the first to show their support. Artists such as Popova and Rodchenko would leave there studios as a part of the re organisation of space now all controlled by the Bolsheviks. The artists shared the view that the non-objective form should play a vital role within Russia's social upheaval and transformation under the new bolshevik government. Consequently artist were encouraged to contribute in projects set up to help modernise the country with the premise of of an avant-guard society. Artists where commissioned to create create piece of art such as murals and even buildings , for example Aleksandr Rodchenko was commissioned to design air craft hanger combining the Constructivist non-objective forms with Communist symbols. The ideology of the new social reforms to be portrayed would be 'giving a new thing to the new life' which would later become the policy of the Constructivist and Productivism.
“Constructivism- Fine Arts . a nonrepresentational style of art developed by a group of Russian artists principally in the early 20th century, characterised chiefly by a severely formal organisation of mass, volume, and space, and by the employment of modern industrial materials. Compare suprematism.”
The Constructivist a group of unconventional artists and designers. There work exhibited in in large spaces hung from ceilings, hung from walls and free standing structures made from industrial materials such as glass, iron, and wood held together with bolts and welds. The installations were staying true to the materials used not disguising but celebrating the use of such modern industrial ingredient. In 1913
Kasimir Malevich claimed to have created a completely abstract art, but it was not until after the the revolution that his work would exemplify the social,
political and economic changes within Russia at this time. For the first time russian and european art had been at the for front of modernist art and design through out the world, it was in unequivocally linked with modern social and political theory. 'There is no more social/aesthetic/political experiment in the history of modern art than Malevich's Suprematism and its general off shoot, Constructivism'
'Figurative art as such, in its golden age, developed exclusively in the direction of the increasingly realistic representation of nature.'
Aleksandr Rodchenko, a constructivist artist working in Russia at this time. Within the Russian avant-guard movement there was a distinction of utopianism, it was this determination to reinvent art that shows through in the work of artists around this time. Rodchenko's work focusing on fraktura, 'the visual demonstration of properties inherent to materials.' in other words truth of materials. Within this he experimented with texture, painting surfaces, quantities of paint and colour. These experiments lead to a series of work called 'Black on Black' the images focussed of the texture of the painting surface and its interaction with light, this work where around 1917. It wasn't until later that he produced some of his perhaps more iconic works, after the revolution and civil war. Rodchenko designed a series of posters for the state run industries, who made bread, cigarettes, sweets and biscuits. It was within this work Rodchenko was able to adapt Constructivists ideas and incorporate these with radical new ideas like photo montage to make some of the work that defined the approach to visuals as a key Constructivist ideology. A good example of this way of working is this (left) image, 'Trade Union is a Defender of Female Labour' 1925 this image uses the photo montage technique, also utilising bold shapes, colours and lettering to create a bold new way of advertising and presenting the new regime of life under this Bolshevik, Lenin, government and country. The Bolsheviks recognised that the importance of these bold original visual creations, they won support for the Bolsheviks especially due to the fact a large majority of the Russian population was illiterate. Rodchenko went on to do a lot of commissioned wok for the government, including propaganda and educational pieces. He was also commissioned to produce a series of works to illustrate the history of the Bolshevik party.
Liubov Popova a painter working at the same time as Rodchenko, again part of the Constructivist movement, following the same ideologies of much of the way Rodchenko and other artist where working at the time. But Popova pushed these ideas further, within her work she used geometric shaped, on a canvas were they would overlap, pushing together, crammed up to the edges, pushing beyond the of edge the frame. This all gave the illusion of movement and unpredictability linked together with a strong dynamic use of colour. In the same way as Rodchenko Popova had many commissions from the government also producing educational and propaganda posters again using the new athletics of the Constructivist avant- guard movement for fronted by artist such as Popava and Rodchenko. In 1921 Popova began to teach theatre workshops using and applying constructivist principles to the stage and costume design, later in 1923 she would further this by being invited to contribute original designes for the first state controlled cotton printing factory, she would create over one hundred designs, showing her great enthusiasm for the project. The prints where for mass production truly expanding the Constructivist ideas to an entire population. This an example of one of her prints, form 1923 using the strong lines and geometric shapes producing a mass market for the Constructivist to display there work, it would be no more restricted to a minority and the ideas would not be compromised as perhaps in advertisements or government publications.
'No single artistic success gave me such profound satisfaction as the sight of a peasant woman buying a piece of my fabric for a dress'. - Liubov Popova.
Constructivism perhaps may have been starting in the years before the Russian revolution, but it was really given its stage under the Bolshevik government, it was a child of the revolution, and it blossomed as a consequent of it, the Communist ideologies leant nicely to a Constructivist ethos. The country including art was state controlled but this meant the distribution of art would be on a massive scale, publicising Russia to be this avaunt-guard new industrial country. The role of the artist was there for never more important, not only for the development of art but also the development of a country. Artist such as Rodchenko and Popova would revolutionise art with techniques still being used in 21st century art and design. What a shame for Joseph Stalin!
Bibliography
Websites
Books
Ritchard R. Brettell Modern Art 1851-1929 Oxford University Press 1999
Tate Rodchenko & Popova Tate Publishing 2009
(edited by Margarita Tupitsyn) Definging Constructivism
Briony Fer, David Batchelor, Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism Yale University Press in 1993
Paul Wood Art Between the Wars association with the
Open University
