Art in Revolution 3 - newleafdesign.me.uk

We must find the paths and methods that lead away from the deadimpasse of depictive art and advance through the knowledge oftechnological production to a method of creating objects of industrialproduction, products of organised, material designPopova’s Spatial forceconstruction was one ofthe prints that sheshowed at the ‘5 x 5 =25’ exhibition. Thesewere experiments inusing structuralelements in space thatare intended to lead toan industrial productthrough materialdesign.Alexei Gan’s’sConstructivismpublished in was astrikingly baldstatement of theMarxist philosophy. Onepage had a blackborder surrounding theslogan ‘Art is dead’.To some Constructivists the painted picture was now synonomous withpornography as no matter what the subject may be it appealed shamelessly tothe viewer and demanded to be purchased!The future was signposted in another part of the ‘5 x 5=25’ exhibition;working drawings for practical projects which included Rodchenko’s designsfor lampshades and a candelabra. It was deemed important that the artistshould become a technician involving themselves in semi-scientific researchesand investigations into the aesthetic, physical and functional propertiesinherent in the materials that they wished to use.The artist, Alexsei Gan was at the centre of the ‘Production Art’ debateand wrote a theoretical work Constructivism in 1922 whose purpose was tofight a battle against the re-emergence of a popular realist art after NEP hadbeen established. This book embodied his ideas visually and philosophically,containing the slogan ‘Art is Dead’ surrounded by a black border, a fineexample of the new typography with its heavy rules, sans serif type andangled typography.Two brothers Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg, who called themselves 2Stenberg 2, typify the talented artist of the period in their broad range ofactivities which included painting, illustration, graphic art, set design, metalassemblages and architecture. Along with Konstantin Medunetsky, a stagedesigner, they formed the ‘Constructivists of the World’ 1 in January 1922 atan exhibition in the Poet’s Café (Kafé Poetov). This tied in with the firstpublished statement of the principles behind Constructivism, although theterm had been used for some time.The Stenbergs are now best-known for their film posters and also for bookcovers which show dynamic and structural elements which clearly derive fromtheir earlier metal constructions. As set designers they designed the pavilionfor the ‘First All Russian Exhibition for Agriculture and Cottage Industries’ heldin Moscow in 1925. From 1929-32 they designed the decorations for theOctober Revolution celebrations in Red Square, Moscow.‘Leftist’ artists rallied under the slogan ‘Art into Production’ promotingProductivist art as the means to design practical and industrially producedgoods for the mass market, a rare instance of the production of a utilitarianobject being the central concern for a so-called ‘fine artist’. Prolekultencouraged these activities by providing many of these artists with regularwork which was welcome in a country with wide-spread poverty.Work and encouragement came from the Worker’s Clubs whose buildingsbecame a focal point for communities all over Russia helping to educate andentertain the semi-illiterate work force. Seven thousand were opened in thefirst two years of the revolution and a typical club would install displaycabinets with books and magazines, display windows for posters, maps andnewspapers. There was also furniture and utensils to be made and each1 Back in 1919 they were part of ‘OBMOKhU’, an agitational group who decoratedthe streets and buildings for revolutionary festivals and in the metal workshops mademetal assemblages and posters for illiteracy and other causes.A DESIGN FOR A BETTER WORLD 193