Constructivism in the visual arts. Architectural style: constructivism. The Vesnin brothers and the flourishing of constructivism

Constructivism lived a short, but bright life in the USSR - less than twenty years, in the 20-30s of the last century. Constructivists were looking for new forms and materials to embody the ideas of a new society - free and happy, to give the young country beautiful cities. But then the style fell into disgrace and was supplanted by the Stalinist Empire style.

Garage of trucks of the Moscow City Council (architects - KS Melnikov, VG Shukhov). Photo: Sergey Norin

Constructivism comes from the Russian artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century. Its most famous representatives are Malevich, Larionov, Yakulov, Tatlin, Matyushin, and the futurists led by Burliuk and Mayakovsky. The avant-gardists dreamed of social change and had high hopes for technological progress. And in order to live and breathe more freely in the new wonderful world, they proposed to update at the same time artistic methods - to forget about traditions and find new forms.

The Russian avant-garde was a great creative get-together. Artists, poets, architects, designers, photographers were friends and collaborated. They not only shocked the audience with their bold performances, but also laid the foundations for modern design and architecture. Famous constructivists - A. Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, the Stenberg brothers, L. Popova - worked in the field of design, posters, photography, scenography. But especially wide opportunities for the application of their creative powers at that time opened up for architects.

Model of the Tatlin tower, 1919

Constructivism as an artistic style took shape after the revolution through the efforts of representatives of Futurism and Suprematism. Revolutionary art chose instead of luxury simplicity and new object forms... The main figure of constructivism was Vladimir Tatlin, who headed the art department of the People's Commissariat for Education. We can say that Soviet constructivism began with the Tatlin Tower, or Monument to the Third Communist International. The project of the 400-meter tower was not only grandiose, but also original. Photos of the layout were published in the press and brought wide popularity to the author.

But the tower was not built then - the project was too complicated and expensive, the young republic did not pull such a construction. But, I must say, some kind of tower was eventually built, however, already in our time. It turns out that constructivism and the roof of a modern housing complex well-known to Muscovites are proof of this.

House "Patriarch" (illustration by Anastasia Timofeeva)

And at this time in the USA and Europe

Constructivism was also an attempt by architects to take a fresh look at the function of a dwelling, to "sharpen" it to the needs of time, society and the urban environment. Moreover, not only individual houses, but also entire districts and even cities. True, the Soviet constructivists were not the first here.

They thought about new forms in the middle of the 19th century, when concrete appeared. And in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was built - an incredible both in shape and size, a metal structure 324 meters high. However, the real urban planning revolution took place at the same time in the United States: the first skyscrapers appeared in Chicago, built using a fundamentally new technology - on the basis of a steel frame. The construction of skyscrapers has become a real epidemic. By the beginning of the twentieth century, skyscrapers in New York had grown to 30 stories, and by 1915 the largest of the skyscrapers, the 57-story Woolworth Building, had risen by 241 meters. Skyscrapers were built in the United States by order of millionaires, owners of large companies, and were piece and expensive structures.

Eiffel Tower construction

And in Europe at this time, the development of industry and the system of urban transport took place. The population also increased significantly, largely at the expense of the workers. The old European city with its narrow streets, dense buildings and division into palaces and slums suddenly ceased to suit everyone. New urban planning solutions were needed, so European architects of that time were more interested in the problems of mass construction than in the creation of giant buildings.

Massive cheap housing needed new materials and technologies, and then functionalism appeared. He declared the obligatory conformity of form to function, rejected decoration, introduced the principles of frame construction, focused on the use of glass and concrete, preferred simple forms of buildings using standard building elements. The recognized leaders of functionalism are the Bauhaus school in Germany and with its famous five principles in architecture.

Le Corbusier's latest architectural project is the Heidi Weber pavilion in Zurich (Switzerland). Photo: Fatlum Haliti

Another problem that the functionalists undertook to solve was the creation of a new, modern city, as well as neighborhoods and settlements with mass serial development. Le Corbusier is most famous again: the project "Modern city for 3 million inhabitants", "Plan Voisin" - a project for the reconstruction of Paris, and the concept of "Radiant City". The most ambitious urban planning projects have remained on paper, but economy-class neighborhoods and villages in Europe have begun to appear.

"Housing" in Marseille (architect - Le Corbusier). Photo: Juan Lupión

Foreign functionalists and Soviet constructivists were bound by common views. Then there was no Iron Curtain yet, Soviet architects traveled to Europe, participated in exhibitions and competitions, they were well aware of the works of European functionalists, who, in turn, were ardent admirers of Soviet power and dreamed of working in the USSR. Where else could new ideas and principles be introduced if not in the country of victorious socialism?

Socialist hostel and clubs

A cross-cutting theme in Soviet constructivism was the idea of ​​a socialist community. Actually, this was the social order. Simply and unobtrusively, this idea began to take root immediately after 1917, when the underwhelmed bourgeoisie was "compacted", and a luxurious one-family apartment turned into a "crow settlement" with countless neighbors and squabbles in the common kitchen. This was new. It was Soviet-style. Workers settled in the former houses of the bourgeoisie, the way of life changed, but the architectural appearance of the buildings remained the same. They tried to renew the old walls with the help of campaign slogans, banners and posters.

"Housewarming" K.S. Petrova-Vodkina (1937), depicting a celebration on the occasion of the resettlement of a working-class family in a mansion

After the civil war, the time has come to provide the working people with real socialist housing and create a new, Soviet infrastructure. There were no funds for construction, but there were dreams of a bright future. To develop an architectural idea, various competitions for projects were held, often deliberately unfeasible. For example, the competition in 1919 for the Palace of Workers in Petrograd, and later, in 1923 - the competition for the project of the Palace of Labor in the center of Moscow. Since the early 1920s, state architectural artels have appeared, and some projects have begun to be implemented. And the architects created all kinds of monuments: in the absence of any large-scale construction of residential and public buildings, they had to be content with this.

By the mid-1920s, the first significant, including constructivist, projects finally began to be implemented. Constructivist architects organized the OCA (Association of Contemporary Architects) in 1926. The leaders and most famous representatives of the association were the three Vesnin brothers, Ginzburg, Kornfeld, Golosov and Melnikov.

Houses and palaces of labor, culture and everything else, houses of councils and buildings of other state institutions, factory kitchens, commune houses, industrial trade houses, office buildings, garages and, in connection with the adoption of the plan GOELRO, power plants. It so happened that most of the constructivists worked in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kharkov.

Dorkhimzavod club named after Frunze (architect - K. Melnikov). Photo: Sergey Norin

Houses and palaces of culture are especially widespread. Each city and district has become obligatory to have its own palace. The record holders for the number of such projects were Kornfeld and Melnikov. The second is especially famous, as he worked mainly in the capital. After 1927, when he gained worldwide fame for the project of the USSR pavilion at the exhibition in Paris, Melnikov did not experience a shortage of orders, and in just two years he made projects for seven clubs. Six were sold by 1930, of which five were in Moscow: DK im. Rusakov, club of the soap factory "Svoboda", recreation center of the plant "Kauchuk", Club of the Dorkhimzavod im. Frunze and the Burevestnik Factory Club.

The "Burevestnik" factory club (architect - K. Melnikov). Photo: Sergey Norin

The most famous of his projects is, apparently, the building of the Palace of Culture named after Rusakova built in 1927-28 From the side of the facade facing Stromynka Street, the building has a completely unusual shape - gears with three teeth. The balconies of the auditorium were located in these teeth, which were taken out of the main volume of the building. The building itself has, as befits an object of constructivism, a reinforced concrete frame, easily transformable internal partitions that allow dividing and connecting the internal space. As always in his projects, Melnikov strictly followed the principle of maximum efficiency in the use of volume and conformity to the form of function.

Club them. Rusakov in Moscow (architect - K. Melnikov), 1927-1929

Club of the plant "Kauchuk»On Plyushchikha was built according to the design of Melnikov in 1929. Outwardly, the building does not look as revolutionary as the Palace of Culture Rusakova - it is made in the form of a sector with an arc-shaped facade. On one side of the façade there was a rehearsal hall with a sloping roof, on the other - a sports building with sloping glazing. Glazed and the transition from the ticket office to the auditorium. The volume of the internal space, according to tradition, could be easily transformed. The roof of the main part of the building is flat, in the form of a large terrace.

Kauchuk plant club (architect - K. Melnikov). Photo: Sergey Norin

But Melnikov was not the only one who built the clubs. The largest and most architecturally interesting club was created by the Vesnin brothers. This is the recreation center of the Proletarsky district, it is also the recreation center ZiL (it was designed in 1930, built from 1931 to 1937, but the project was never fully implemented). A building with a large auditorium was not built, although the small auditorium was not so small - 1,200 seats. The principles of constructivism in this building are demonstrated just like in a parade: here and the use of pillars, and wide areas of glazing and tape rows of windows, and freedom of internal planning, and a flat terrace-like roof. Unlike most constructivist objects, today the building of the Palace of Culture ZiL is in fairly good condition.

Building of DK ZIL (architects - Vesnin brothers)

Another star of constructivism, the architect Golosov, was noted for the creation of the Palace of Culture in Moscow. He began his career in 1919 by winning a competition for a neoclassical crematorium project. But his creation - DK im. Zueva on Lesnaya Street- a luxurious example of constructivism and one of the most famous buildings in this style. It was built in 1927-29. The most impressive look is the spiral staircase made in the form of a glazed cylinder, and the main part of the building consists of mutually intersecting parallelepipeds, one of which is cut into the cylinder. The whole building was given the appearance of a factory building, more precisely, ingeniously coupled parts from various types of industrial buildings. The Palace of Culture has two auditoriums and halls for rehearsals. It is interesting that the recreation center continues to be used for its intended purpose - as a socio-cultural object.

DK im. Zueva (architect - I. Golosov)

Of the numerous recreation centers in St. Petersburg, we will mention the recreation center of communications workers on Bolshaya Morskaya, which was converted in the 30s in the style of constructivism from the German church by G. Reitz and P. Grinberg. This House of Culture is known for its attitude to the activities of the Leningrad rock club. You can find DKs created by constructivists both in provincial cities of Russia and in cities of the former USSR, for example, DK im. October Revolution in Novosibirsk, recreation center in Perm, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Rybinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Kharkov, Baku and so on.

There are a lot of public buildings in the constructivist style. For instance, the building of the People's Commissariat for Land on Sadovo-Spasskaya Street built in 1927-1933 according to the project of the team under the leadership of Shchusev (the team of authors included the famous constructivists Kornfeld and Yakovlev). The huge structure of asymmetrical shape, rounded at the corners, consists of four buildings with strip glazing typical of its style. Although Shchusev was not a pure constructivist, he paid tribute to the style and created one of its most spectacular and large-scale monuments. Now the building is used for its intended purpose - one of the ministries of the Russian Federation is located there.

The building of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture. Photo: Sergey Norin

Complex buildings of the newspaper "Izvestia" on Pushkin Square in Moscow was also designed by a representative of the old school Barkhin, not by a recognized constructivist. And he did very well, despite the attacks from the constructivists and accusations of imitation. The complex includes production and editorial buildings of the same size, six-storey brick parallelepipeds, one facing the square, the other into the courtyard. According to the project, the floors were supposed to be twelve, but the new urban planning rules adopted in those years limited the height of the building. To give it a more constructivist look, the brick walls were covered with gray plaster. The façade is cut by rows of large windows and lines of balconies; on the top floor, as elements of style, a square clock and several round windows were located. At a later time, a new building of the Izvestia newspaper was added to the building.

Building Central Telegraph Office in Moscow on Tverskaya Street is also a monument to constructivism. More precisely, his style is defined as transitional from to constructivism. The telegraph was built in 1925-27 according to the project of Rerberg, very disapprovingly received in architectural circles. The facade of the central building is semicircular, the other two are in the form of a parallelepiped. A distinctive feature - huge windows - made of honeycomb; on floors starting from the third, nine cells per window. The roof of the telegraph is flat, and the cast iron grilles and brackets are a tribute to the Art Nouveau style.

Central Telegraph building (architect - I. Rerberg)

Building Gosprom in Kharkov, perhaps the most ambitious and spectacular building in the style. It was created to accommodate more than twenty organizations, including Prombank and Gostorg of the Ukrainian SSR. The authors of the project are Leningrad architects under the leadership of Kravets, and Dzerzhinsky personally supervised the construction. The Gosprom building was one of the largest buildings in Europe at that time: its height was 63 meters, and the area of ​​premises was 60 thousand square meters (the complex occupies an area of ​​three blocks). The building was built from monolithic reinforced concrete by formwork, and it is distinguished by huge glazing areas - four and a half thousand windows. Structurally, the building consists of several multi-storey buildings connected by galleries. Interestingly, in the initial project, part of the internal partitions was missing, and at sunset the sun had to shine through the building.

Gosprom building in Kharkov

Also, speaking about constructivism, one cannot but tell about industrial trade, garages, communal houses and the legendary House on the embankment. But this is already another big story, about which - next time.

Alisa Orlova

An avant-garde trend in the visual arts, architecture, photography and arts and crafts, which originated in the 1920s - the first half of the 1930s in the USSR.

Style features

It is characterized by severity, geometrism, laconic forms and monolithic appearance. In architecture, the principles of constructivism were formulated in the theoretical speeches of A.A. Vesnin and M. Ya. ) with its clear, rational plan and the structural basis of the building revealed in the external appearance (reinforced concrete frame). In 1926, the official creative organization of the constructivists was created - the Association of Modern Architects (OCA). This organization was the developer of the so-called functional design method, based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, town-planning complexes. Typical monuments of constructivism are kitchen factories, palaces of labor, workers' clubs, communal houses.

In relation to foreign art, the term "constructivism" is largely arbitrary: in architecture it denotes a movement within functionalism that sought to emphasize the expression of modern constructions; in painting and sculpture, it is one of the directions of avant-gardeism that used some formal searches of early constructivism (sculptors N. Gabo, A. Pevzner).

During this period, there was also a literary movement of the constructivists in the USSR.

The emergence of constructivism

Constructivism is considered to be a Soviet phenomenon that arose after the October Revolution as one of the directions of the new, avant-garde, proletarian art, although, like any phenomenon in art, it cannot be limited to the framework of one country. So, the herald of this style in architecture was the Eiffel Tower, which combines elements of both Art Nouveau and naked constructivism.

As Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote in his essay on French painting: "For the first time, not from France, but from Russia, a new word of art flew in - constructivism ..."

In the context of the incessant search for new forms, which implied the oblivion of everything "old", the innovators proclaimed the rejection of "art for art's sake." From now on, art was to serve production, and production - to the people.

Most of those who later joined the Constructivist movement were ideologues of utilitarianism or the so-called "art of production." They urged artists to "consciously create useful things" and dreamed of a new harmonious person who uses comfortable things and lives in a comfortable city.

Thus, one of the theorists of "industrial art" Boris Arvatov wrote that "... they will not depict a beautiful body, but educate a real living harmonious person; not to paint a forest, but to grow parks and gardens; not to decorate the walls with pictures, but to paint these walls ... "

"Industrial art" has become nothing more than a concept, but the term constructivism itself was pronounced by the theorists of this trend (in their speeches and brochures, the words "construction", "constructive", "construction of space" were also constantly encountered).

In addition to the aforementioned direction, the formation of constructivism was greatly influenced by futurism, suprematism, cubism, purism and other innovative trends of the 1910s in the visual arts, however, it was the “industrial art” with its direct appeal to the modern Russian realities of the 1920s that became the socially conditioned basis. (the era of the first five-year plans).

The birth of the term

The term "constructivism" was used by Soviet artists and architects back in 1920: Alexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin, the author of the project for the Tower of the III International, called themselves constructivists. For the first time, constructivism was officially designated in the same 1922 in the book by Alexei Mikhailovich Gan, which was called “Constructivism”.

AM Gan proclaimed that "... a group of constructivists sets as its task the communist expression of material values ​​... Tectonics, construction and texture are mobilizing material elements of industrial culture."

That is, it was clearly emphasized that the culture of the new Russia is industrial.

Constructivism in architecture

In 1922-1923 in Moscow, which began to recover after the Civil War, the first architectural competitions were held (for the projects of the Palace of Labor in Moscow, the building of the Moscow branch of the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda, the building of the joint-stock company Arkos), in which architects took part, those who started their career even before the revolution - Moisey Ginzburg, the Vesnin brothers, Konstantin Melnikov, Ilya Golosov, etc. Many projects were filled with new ideas, which later became the basis for new creative associations - constructivists and rationalists. The rationalists created the ASNOVA association (Association of New Architects), whose ideologists were architects Nikolai Ladovsky and Vladimir Krinsky. The Constructivists united in the OSA (Association of Contemporary Architects), headed by the Vesnin brothers and Moisei Ginzburg. The key difference between the two currents was the question of the perception of architecture by a person: if the constructivists attached the greatest importance to the functional purpose of the building, which determined the structure, then the rationalists considered the function of the building to be secondary and tried to take into account, first of all, the psychological characteristics of perception.

Constructivists saw their task as increasing the role of architecture in life, and this should have been facilitated by the denial of historical continuity, the rejection of decorative elements of classical styles, the use of a functional diagram as the basis of spatial composition. Constructivists were looking for expressiveness not in decor, but in the dynamics of simple structures, vertical and horizontal lines of the building, freedom of the building plan.

Early constructivism

The work of talented architects - brothers Leonid, Viktor and Alexander Vesnin, had a great influence on the design of constructivist public buildings. They came to the realization of the laconic "proletarian" aesthetics, already having solid experience in the design of buildings, in painting and in the design of books.

For the first time, constructivist architects loudly declared themselves at the competition for the projects of the building of the Palace of Labor in Moscow. The Vesnins' project stood out not only for the rationality of the plan and the correspondence of the external appearance to the aesthetic ideals of our time, but also implied the use of the latest building materials and structures.

The next stage was the competitive project of the building of the newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" (Moscow branch). The task was extremely difficult - a tiny plot of land - 6 × 6 meters on Strastnaya Square was intended for construction. The Vesnins created a miniature, slender six-story building, which included not only an office and editorial rooms, but also a newsstand, a lobby, a reading room (one of the tasks of the constructivists was to group the maximum number of vital rooms in a small area).

The closest companion and assistant of the Vesnin brothers was Moisey Ginzburg. In his book "Style and Era", he reflects on the fact that each style of art adequately corresponds to "its" historical era. The development of new architectural trends, in particular, is associated with the fact that "... continuous mechanization of life" is taking place, and the machine is "... a new element of our life, psychology and aesthetics." Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers organize the Association of Contemporary Architects (OCA), which includes leading constructivists.

Since 1926, the Constructivists began to publish their own magazine - "Contemporary Architecture" ("SA"). The magazine was published for five years. The covers were designed by Aleksey Gan, Varvara Stepanova and Solomon Telingater.

The rise of constructivism

The architects of mature constructivism used a functional method based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, town planning complexes. Thus, the ideological and artistic and utilitarian and practical tasks were considered together. The most rational space-planning structure corresponds to each function (the form corresponds to the function).

On this wave there is a struggle of constructivists for the "purity of the ranks" and against the stylistic attitude towards constructivism. In other words, the leaders of the OCA fought against the transformation of constructivism from a method into a style, into an external imitation, without comprehending the essence. Thus, the architect Grigory Barkhin, who created the Izvestia House, was attacked.

In the same years, the constructivists became infatuated with the ideas of Le Corbusier: the author himself came to Russia, where he fruitfully communicated and collaborated with the leaders of the OCA.

A number of promising architects are nominated among the OCA, such as the brothers Ilya and Panteleimon Golosov, Ivan Leonidov, Mikhail Barshch, Vladimir Vladimirov. Constructivists are actively involved in the design of industrial buildings, kitchen factories, houses of culture, clubs, residential buildings.

The most common type of public buildings that embodied the basic principles of constructivism are the buildings of clubs and houses of culture. An example is the House of Culture of the Proletarsky District of Moscow, better known as the ZIL Palace of Culture; construction was carried out in 1931-1937 according to the project of the Vesnin brothers. When creating the project, the authors relied on the well-known five principles of Le Corbusier: the use of pillars-pillars instead of wall arrays, free planning, free design of the facade, elongated windows, flat roof. The volumes of the club are emphatically geometric and represent elongated parallelepipeds, into which the risalits of staircases and cylinders of balconies are cut.

Communal houses, the architecture of which corresponded to the principle expressed by Le Corbusier: "a house is a car for housing", became a characteristic example of the embodiment of the functional method. A well-known example of this type of building is the dormitory-commune of the Textile Institute on Ordzhonikidze Street in Moscow. The author of the project, implemented in 1930-1931, was Ivan Nikolaev, who specialized mainly in industrial architecture. The idea of ​​a communal house implied a complete socialization of everyday life. The concept of the project was proposed by the students themselves; the functional layout of the building was focused on creating a rigid daily routine for students. In the morning, the student woke up in the living room - a sleeping cubicle measuring 2.3 by 2.7 m, which contained only beds and stools - and went to the sanitary building, where he passed showers, charging rooms, and changing rooms as if along a conveyor belt. From the sanitary building, the tenant went down the stairs or a ramp to a low public building, where he went to the dining room, after which he went to the institute or to other premises of the building - halls for team work, booths for individual studies, a library, an assembly hall. The public building also housed a nursery for children up to three years old, and an open terrace was arranged on the roof. As a result of the reconstruction of the hostel carried out in the 1960s, the original idea of ​​a strict daily routine was disrupted. Another famous example is the house of the People's Commissariat of Finance in Moscow. It is interesting as an example of a "transitional type" house from a traditional apartment building to a communal building. Six such houses were built - four in Moscow, one in Yekaterinburg and one in Saratov; not all of them have survived to this day.

A special figure in the history of constructivism is considered the favorite student of A. Vesnin - Ivan Leonidov, a native of a peasant family, who began his career as a student of an icon painter. His largely utopian, future-oriented projects did not find application in those difficult years. Le Corbusier himself called Leonidov "the poet and hope of Russian constructivism." Leonidov's works are still admired for their lines - they are incredibly, incomprehensibly modern.

The rapid technological progress at the beginning of the last century gave rise to the latest trends in art and, as a result, a tendency to destroy traditional canons, to search for other forms and aesthetic principles. This is most clearly expressed in avant-garde - a complex of artistic phenomena of the first third of the 20th century. One of the many avant-garde trends was the constructivist style, which arose in the young Soviet power of the 1920s - 1930s. It is also called "industrial" or "building" art.

Areas of influence and distribution

Constructivism in painting is expressed too weakly, the direction is mainly associated with architecture, in which simple geometric forms and ultimate functionality are most characteristic. But the principles of constructivism, while pervasive and rapidly spreading, also had a significant impact on graphic, industrial design, photography, theater, film, dance, fashion, fiction and music of the period.

Soviet constructivism had a significant impact on the modern creative movements of the 20th century and not only within the Bolshevik country. The consequences of his influence can be traced in the main tendencies of the German Bauhaus school of design and the Dutch art movement De Stijl, in the work of masters from Europe and Latin America.

The emergence of the term

The term “art of construction” was first used as a sarcastic expression by Kazimir Malevich in 1917 to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko. The term "constructivism" was coined by sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo. The latter developed an industrial, angular style of work, and his geometric abstraction owed something to Malevich's Suprematism. The term first appears in the "Realist Manifesto" by N. Gabo (1920), then as the title of the book by Alexei Gan (1922).

The birth and development of the movement

Among the many styles and trends in the visual arts, Constructivism was formed on the basis of Russian futurism, in particular, under the influence of the so-called "Counter-reliefs" (collages of different textures from various materials) by Vladimir Tatlin, exhibited in 1915. He was (like Kazimir Malevich) one of the pioneers of geometric abstract art, the founder of the avant-garde Suprematist movement.

The concept of a new direction was developed at the Moscow Institute of Artistic Culture (INHUK) in the period 1920 - 1922 by the first working group of constructivists. Lyubov Popova, Alexander Vesnin, Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Alexey Gan, Boris Arvatov and, led by the first chairman of the group, Vasily Kandinsky, worked out the theoretical definition of constructivism as an inextricable combination of the main elements of industrial culture (structures, textures and specific material properties of an object with its spatial position) ...

Principles and Features

According to constructivism, art is a tool exclusively intended for the artistic design of everyday-utilitarian, practically applicable objects. The expressive laconic form of works, devoid of all kinds of "prettiness" and "embellishments", should be as functional as possible and designed for its convenient use in mass production (hence the term "industrial art").

The non-objectiveness of Kandinsky's sensory-emotional forms or the rational-abstract geometry of Malevich were reinterpreted by the constructivists and transformed into real-life spatial objects. This is how a new design of work clothes, fabric patterns, furniture, dishes and other consumer goods appeared, a characteristic of the Soviet era was born.

A special asceticism in the visual means of expression distinguishes this direction among similar styles, but in many respects generalizes it with rationalism. In addition to theoretical ideology, constructivism is distinguished by the following external properties:

1. Few tonal range within blue, red, yellow, green, black, gray and white. The colors were not necessarily locally pure, their tint muted variants were often used, but no more than 3-4 at a time.
2. Shapes and lines are expressive, simple, few in number, limited to vertical, horizontal, diagonal directions or the shape of a regular circle.
3. The contours of the objects give the impression of a monolithic structure.
4. There is a so-called "machine" aesthetics, which displays graphic or spatial engineering ideas, mechanisms, details, tools.

"The Art of Building and Productivity" by Tatlin

The key point of the direction was the model of Vladimir Tatlin, proposed for the construction of a monument to the Third International (1919 - 1920). The design had to combine the aesthetics of the machine with dynamic components that celebrated technologies such as floodlights and projection screens.

At this time, the work of Gabo and Pevsner on the "Realistic Manifesto", affirming the spiritual core of the movement, was coming to an end. Gabo publicly criticized Tatlin's project, saying: "Either create functional houses and bridges, or create pure art, or both at the same time." The idea of ​​erecting monuments that had no practical use was at odds with the utilitarian-adaptable version of constructivism. But at the same time, Tatlin's design fully reflected a new progressive idea of ​​the form, the materials used and the manufacturability of the creation. This caused serious controversy and controversy among the members of the Moscow group in 1920.

Artists in Germany proclaimed Tatlin's work revolutionary in international, not just Soviet, art. The drawings and photographs of the model were published in the Taut Fruhlicht magazine. The Tatlin Tower was the beginning of the exchange of creative ideas for the "art of building" between Moscow and Berlin. The monument was planned to be erected in Leningrad, but the plan was never implemented due to lack of money in the post-revolutionary period. Nevertheless, the image of the Tatlin Tower remained a kind of symbol of constructivism and the world avant-garde.

A talented self-taught artist, the founder of the movement, Tatlin was the first constructivist who tried to offer his design skills to industrial production: projects for an economical stove, workwear, furniture. It should be noted that these were very utopian ideas, like his tower and the "letatlin" flying machine, on which he worked until the 1930s.

Constructivism in painting

The very idea of ​​movement, which excludes pure art and any "prettiness", has already rejected painting as a form of creativity that is not capable of serving the utilitarian needs of the people. The new artist was proclaimed an engineer who creates things that must influence the mind and lifestyle of a person. The postulate "... not to decorate the walls with pictures, but to paint them ..." meant the dead end of easel painting - an element of bourgeois aesthetics.

Constructivist artists realized their potential in posters, design projects for industrial products, decoration of public spaces, sketches of fabrics, clothes, costumes and scenery for theater and cinema. Some, like Rodchenko, found themselves in the art of photography. Others, like Popova in her cycle of “Spatial-Power Constructions”, argued that their paintings are an intermediate stage on the way to engineering design.

Not fully embodied in painting, constructivism contributed to the development of the art of collage and spatial-geometric installations. The ideological source was Tatlin's "counter-reliefs" and El Lissitzky's "prototypes". The works, in essence, like easel painting, had no practical application, but looked like fantastic engineering developments and looked in the technogenic spirit of that time.

"Prouns"

Developed by the early twenties by the artist and architect El Lissitzky, the so-called projects of new art ("prouns") were abstract geometric compositions made in pictorial, graphic form in the form of applications and three-dimensional architectonics. Many artists (not only Constructivists) in their painting of the 20s depicted such "prouns", which have remained abstract images. But many of Lissitzky's works were later implemented in projects of furniture, interior, theater design, or found embodiment as decorative and spatial installations.

Art in the service of agitation

In the mid 1920s - 1930s, a special style of posters from the Soviet era was established, which later became a separate section of design. It covered theatrical and film posters, commercial and industrial advertising. The followers of the movement, taking up Mayakovsky's dictum, called themselves "advertising constructors." In the same period, character was formed as one of the mechanisms of influence on the consciousness of the masses.

Constructivists were the first to use collage techniques for a poster in Russia, combining drawing, photography and elements of printed materials. The typeface, as well as the carefully thought out placement of the text, played a special artistic role and often resembled a laconic graphic ornament. The artistic methods of poster design developed in those years remained basic throughout the Soviet period.

Rodchenko's progressive photography

The discrepancy between the utilitarian ideas of constructivism in painting was contrasted with their embodiment in photography - a real reflection of life itself. The unique works of the multifaceted artist Alexander Rodchenko are recognized as masterpieces of this art form.

Sparing no consumables, he strove to capture each object or action in different conditions and from several angles. Impressed by the photomontage of German Dadaists, he was the first to use this technique in Russia. His debut, published in 1923, photomontage illustrated Mayakovsky's poem About This. In 1924, Rodchenko created what is probably his best-known poster photomontage, an advertisement for the Lengiz publishing house, sometimes called Books.

He revolutionized composition: his nature was shot in an amazingly picturesque manner and often resembles a rhythmic graphic pattern or abstraction. At the same time, his images are incredibly dynamic; in general, they can be characterized by the slogan: "Time, forward!" Rodchenko's works were also amazed by the fact that nature was often filmed from rather unusual angles, for which the photographer sometimes had to occupy simply dizzying positions.

Rodchenko's groundbreaking photographs have remained a classic model for future generations of photographers and have inspired many design creators. For example, the American conceptual artist Barbara Kruger owes her numerous works to Rodchenko. Variations of his photo portrait of Lilia Brik and the poster "The Sixth of the World" became the basis for the covers of music albums of foreign punk and rock bands.

Russian constructivism in world art

Some constructivists taught or lectured at the Bauhaus school, where some of the teaching methods of VKHUTEMAS were adopted and developed. Through Germany the stylistic principles "emigrated" to Austria, Holland, Hungary and other European countries. In 1930 - 1940, one of the leaders of the world avant-garde, Naum Gabo founded in England a variant of constructivism, which took root after the First World War in British architecture, design and various fields of artistic creation.

The creator of the constructivist movement in Ecuador, Manuel Rendon Seminari, and the artist from Uruguay, Joaquin Torres Garcia, played an important role in spreading the style in European, African, Latin American countries. Constructivism in painting is expressed in the works of contemporary Latin American artists: Osvaldo Viteri, Carlos Merida, Theo Constant, Enrique Tabara, Anibal Villac and other equally famous masters. Followers of constructivism also worked in Australia, the most famous of whom was the artist George Johnson.

Graphic design master Neville Brodie reproduced the style in the 1980s based on constructivist Soviet posters, and this aroused keen interest among connoisseurs of contemporary art. Nick Phillips and Ian Anderson in 1986 created the famous graphic design studio The Designers Republic in Sheffield, England, based on constructivist ideas. This strong company remains thriving today, especially in the direction of music logos and album covers.

Since the early thirties, when any progressive and avant-garde trends were banned in the Soviet country, constructivism continued to develop and influence world art abroad. Having lost its ideological basis, the style became the foundation for other directions, and its elements can be traced to this day in modern art, design and architecture.

Style features

It is characterized by severity, geometrism, laconic forms and monolithic appearance. In architecture, the principles of constructivism were formulated in the theoretical speeches of A.A. Vesnin and M. Ya. ) with its clear, rational plan and the structural basis of the building revealed in the external appearance (reinforced concrete frame). In 1926, the official creative organization of the constructivists was created - the Association of Modern Architects (OCA). This organization was the developer of the so-called functional design method, based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, town-planning complexes. Typical monuments of constructivism are kitchen factories, palaces of labor, workers' clubs, communal houses.

In relation to foreign art, the term "constructivism" is largely arbitrary: in architecture it denotes a movement within functionalism that sought to emphasize the expression of modern constructions; in painting and sculpture, it is one of the directions of avant-gardeism that used some formal searches of early constructivism (sculptors N. Gabo, A. Pevzner).

During this period, there was also a literary movement of the constructivists in the USSR.

The emergence of constructivism

Constructivism is considered to be a Soviet phenomenon that arose after the October Revolution as one of the directions of the new, avant-garde, proletarian art, although, like any phenomenon in art, it cannot be limited to the framework of one country. So, the forerunner of this trend in architecture can be considered, for example, such structures as the Eiffel Tower, which used the principle of an open frame structure and demonstrated structural elements in external architectural forms. This principle of detecting structural elements has become one of the most important techniques of the architecture of the twentieth century and was used as the basis for both the international style and constructivism.

The birth of the term

Constructivists saw their task as increasing the role of architecture in life, and this should have been facilitated by the denial of historical continuity, the rejection of decorative elements of classical styles, the use of a functional diagram as the basis of spatial composition. Constructivists were looking for expressiveness not in decor, but in the dynamics of simple structures, vertical and horizontal lines of the building, freedom of the building plan.

Early constructivism

The work of talented architects - brothers Leonid, Viktor and Alexander Vesnin, had a great influence on the design of constructivist public buildings. They came to the realization of the laconic "proletarian" aesthetics, already having solid experience in the design of buildings, in painting and in the design of books.

For the first time, constructivist architects loudly declared themselves at the competition for the projects of the building of the Palace of Labor in Moscow. The Vesnins' project stood out not only for the rationality of the plan and the correspondence of the external appearance to the aesthetic ideals of our time, but also implied the use of the latest building materials and structures.

The next stage was the competitive project of the building of the newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" (Moscow branch). The task was extremely difficult - a tiny plot of land - 6 × 6 meters on Strastnaya Square was intended for construction. The Vesnins created a miniature, slender six-story building, which included not only an office and editorial rooms, but also a newsstand, a lobby, a reading room (one of the tasks of the constructivists was to group the maximum number of vital rooms in a small area).

The closest companion and assistant of the Vesnin brothers was Moisey Ginzburg. In his book "Style and Era", he reflects on the fact that each style of art adequately corresponds to "its" historical era. The development of new architectural trends, in particular, is associated with what is happening "... continuous mechanization of life", and there is a car "... a new element of our life, psychology and aesthetics." Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers organize the Association of Contemporary Architects (OCA), which includes leading constructivists.

The rise of constructivism

The architects of mature constructivism used a functional method based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, town planning complexes. Thus, the ideological and artistic and utilitarian and practical tasks were considered together. The most rational space-planning structure corresponds to each function (the form corresponds to the function).

On this wave there is a struggle of constructivists for the "purity of the ranks" and against the stylistic attitude towards constructivism. In other words, the leaders of the OCA fought against the transformation of constructivism from a method into a style, into an external imitation, without comprehending the essence. Thus, the architect Grigory Barkhin, who created the Izvestia House, was attacked.

In the same years, the constructivists became infatuated with the ideas of Le Corbusier: the author himself came to Russia, where he fruitfully communicated and collaborated with the leaders of the OCA.

A number of promising architects are nominated among the OCA, such as the brothers Ilya and Panteleimon Golosov, Ivan Leonidov, Mikhail Barshch, Vladimir Vladimirov. Constructivists are actively involved in the design of industrial buildings, kitchen factories, houses of culture, clubs, residential buildings.

The most common type of public buildings that embodied the basic principles of constructivism are the buildings of clubs and houses of culture. An example is the House of Culture of the Proletarsky District of Moscow, better known as the ZIL Palace of Culture; construction was carried out in -1937 according to the project of the Vesnin brothers. When creating the project, the authors relied on the well-known five principles of Le Corbusier: the use of pillars-pillars instead of wall arrays, free planning, free design of the facade, elongated windows, flat roof. The volumes of the club are emphatically geometric and represent elongated parallelepipeds, into which the risalits of staircases and cylinders of balconies are cut.

Communal houses, the architecture of which corresponded to the principle expressed by Le Corbusier: "a house is a car for housing", became a characteristic example of the embodiment of the functional method. A well-known example of this type of building is on Ordzhonikidze Street in Moscow. The author of the project, implemented in -1931, was Ivan Nikolaev, who specialized mainly in industrial architecture. The idea of ​​a communal house implied a complete socialization of everyday life. The concept of the project was proposed by the students themselves; the functional layout of the building was focused on creating a rigid daily routine for students. In the morning, the student woke up in the living room - a sleeping cubicle measuring 2.3 by 2.7 m, which contained only beds and stools - and went to the sanitary building, where he passed showers, charging rooms, and changing rooms as if along a conveyor belt. From the sanitary building, the tenant went down the stairs or a ramp to a low public building, where he went to the dining room, after which he went to the institute or to other premises of the building - halls for team work, booths for individual studies, a library, an assembly hall. The public building also housed a nursery for children up to three years old, and an open terrace was arranged on the roof. As a result of the reconstruction of the hostel carried out in the 1960s, the original idea of ​​a strict daily routine was disrupted. Another famous example is the house of the People's Commissariat of Finance in Moscow. It is interesting as an example of a "transitional type" house from a traditional apartment building to a communal building. Six such houses were built - four in Moscow, one in Yekaterinburg and one in Saratov; not all have survived to this day.

A special figure in the history of constructivism is considered the favorite student of A. Vesnin - Ivan Leonidov, a native of a peasant family, who began his career as a student of an icon painter. His largely utopian, future-oriented projects did not find application in those difficult years. Le Corbusier himself called Leonidov "The poet and hope of Russian constructivism"... Leonidov's works are still admired for their lines - they are incredibly, incomprehensibly modern.

Leningrad constructivism

Leningrad constructivists:

Kharkov constructivism

As the capital of Ukraine in 1919-1934, Kharkov turned out to be one of the largest centers of constructivist development in the Soviet Union. The generally recognized symbol of constructivism in Kharkov is the ensemble of Svoboda Square (until 1991 - Dzerzhinsky Square) with the dominant building of the Derzhprom (Derzhprom). Numerous constructivist-style buildings occupy the area around the square (the so-called "Zagospromie"); among them is the house "Slovo", built in 1928 by a cooperative of writers and having the symbolic shape of the letter "C" ( glory."word"). Bright constructivist buildings in Kharkov are the House of Culture of Railway Workers, the Post Office, the hostel of the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute "Giant".

In 1931, the Kharkov Tractor Plant was built in the southeastern part of the city. Sotsgorod KhTZ (architect P. Aleshin) is an outstanding example of constructivist-style residential development.

Minsk constructivism

An example of constructivism in Minsk is the House of the Government of the Republic of Belarus - the largest public building of Joseph Langbard, one of the best monuments of constructivism, which laid the foundation for the formation of a new city center.

Constructivism in design and photography

Constructivism is a direction that is primarily associated with architecture, however, such a vision would be one-sided and even extremely incorrect, because, before becoming an architectural method, constructivism existed in design, printing, and artistic creation. Constructivism in photography is marked by geometrization of the composition, shooting from dizzying angles with a strong reduction in volumes. Alexander Rodchenko, in particular, was engaged in such experiments.

In graphic forms of creativity, constructivism was characterized by the use of photomontage instead of hand-drawn illustrations, extreme geometrization, and the subordination of composition to rectangular rhythms. The color gamut was also stable: black, red, white, gray with the addition of blue and yellow. In the field of fashion, there were also certain constructivist tendencies - in the wake of the worldwide enthusiasm for straight lines in clothing design, Soviet fashion designers of those years created emphatically geometrized forms.

Among fashion designers, Varvara Stepanova stands out, who since 1924, together with Lyubov Popova, has been developing fabric designs for the 1st cotton-printing factory in Moscow, was a professor at the textile faculty of VKHUTEMAS, and has designed models of sports and casual clothing.

Constructivism in literature

A. Mosolov became the most important representative of this trend in Russian music. His symphonic episode "Factory" from the unrealized ballet "Steel" became a symbol of constructivism in Russian music. Constructivism also showed itself in such works as the foxtrot "Electrification" (), orchestral "Telescopes" (4 pieces, -) L. Polovinkin; piano piece "Rails", opera "Ice and Steel" Vl. Deshevova and others. The ballets of the great Soviet composers "Bolt" () Shostakovich and "Steel Skok" () Prokofiev are usually referred to as constructivism. However, neither the authors of Prokofiev's biographies, musicologists I. V. Nestiev, I. I. Martynov, I. G. Vishnevetsky, nor the composer himself, characterized the music of the ballet Steel Skok as constructivist, while the scenery for the ballet was called constructivist.

Constructivism is an outstanding achievement of Soviet architecture, a new trend and a unique view of the form and functionality of buildings. As an architectural trend, constructivism emerged in the 1920s in the Soviet Union and was characterized by austerity, geometrism, laconic forms and functionality of buildings. Architects Vesnins, Ginzburgs, Golosovs, Melnikov, Leonidov are considered to be the leaders of constructivism.

The development of architecture is inextricably linked both with the development of society - the historical context and the rethinking of the functions of buildings, and with technical progress - the invention of new materials and mechanisms. Both of these factors influenced the emergence of a new style in architecture - constructivism. Firstly, the new ideology did not recognize the attributes that personified a certain social position of a person in a class society, in luxury goods only wasted labor and a desire to show their wealth were seen. The ostentatious luxury was contrasted with a consciously cultivated asceticism, which became the ethical and aesthetic norm for the ruling class of the country - the proletariat. Secondly, the industrial revolution and technological progress have already made their contribution - the invention of new building materials, first of all, made it possible to implement new forms that would have been impossible before.

Constructivism is a direction of exclusively Soviet architecture (in the West, functionalism is closest to it). After the proletariat came to power, after a destructive civil war, the country began to rebuild and build itself, and this had to be done in a new way, rejecting the old canons. One of the first projects embodying a new approach to architecture was the project of the Vesnin brothers. In 1923, a competition was announced for the design of the Palace of Labor for Moscow, the third place in this competition was taken by the project of A.A., V.A. and L.A. Vesnin, who stood out for their innovative approach to the layout of premises, the use of building materials and the aesthetics of everything. building. this is how he spoke about this event and this project later: “Let them remember 1923, when the turning point in architecture took place, let them remember how then he argued that it’s impossible to give the Vesnins a prize for the Palace of Labor, because architecture will go the wrong way, then they gave a prize to the architect Trotsky - however, in spite of everything, architecture took a new path. " It is characteristic that before that the Vesnins designed mainly industrial buildings, that is, buildings in which the main thing is function, their aesthetics follows from functionality, decoration is not such an important element.

This approach to the design of buildings turned out to be inwardly very consonant with the slogans of the new country, the rejection of "art for art's sake", and also close to "industrial art, which called on artists to" consciously create useful things. " "Industrial art" was only a concept, but the very term "constructivism" was proposed by the ideologists of this particular direction: they often used the words "construction", "constructive", "construction of space". The two main ideas of the theory of industrial art were also shared by constructivist architects - the denial of the specifics of artistic labor (every work is an art, not only the work of creating pictures, music) and the reduction of the problems of shaping to the production of a useful thing (only things should be created that bring real benefit , just for beauty it is not necessary to create things). Also, the formation of constructivism was influenced by the innovative trends in art of the early 20th century: futurism, suprematism, cubism, purism.

Early constructivism

Speaking about the early period of constructivism, researchers emphasize two characteristic features of it. Firstly, it is originality in artistic issues of shaping: at that time Western architecture and its latest trends had practically no influence on constructivist architects, they developed in their own direction, practically without contacting their Western colleagues. Secondly, this is the desire to find architectural means of expressiveness: abandoning architectural decor, the Constructivists did not replace it with painting or sculpture, did not seek to decorate the building with them, but experimented and looked for new opportunities precisely in architectural techniques. Although, of course, a synthesis of architecture and the surrounding space - signs, shop windows, city clocks, etc. - was. Constructivism includes not only the architectural direction, but also the general direction in Soviet art of those years; Brik, Rodchenko, Mayakovsky referred to themselves as constructivists, and they strove to create a general aesthetics of both buildings and other elements of the urban environment.

The basic principles of constructivism as an architectural trend were formulated in the speeches of A. A. Vesnin and M. Ya. Ginzburg, under whose leadership in 1926 a public organization OSA was created - the Association of Contemporary Architects. This official creative organization of constructivists developed its own design method based on an analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings: each function is answered by the most rational space-planning structure, that is, the form corresponds to the function. The OSA Association published the magazine "Contemporary Architecture", held exhibitions, congresses, conferences. In 1930, the OSA was transformed into SASS (Sector of Architects for Socialist Construction) under the All-Union Architectural and Scientific Society and existed until 1932, when the Union of Architects of the USSR was created.

Artistic means of constructivism

From project to project, a set of constructivist tools and techniques was gradually formed: more and more free handling of the frame structure - from subordination to it to the use of all its constructive capabilities for solving various problems; the tendency to create an increasingly laconic composition - enlarging the form, eliminating small articulations, simplifying the facade. In the mid-1920s, Le Corbusier, who came to the Soviet Union, had some influence on the Constructivists, whose original means and techniques were close to the ideology of the Soviet avant-garde. But by the end of the decade, constructivism again moved away from Western ideas and continued to develop in its original channel, and the emergence of new bright architects-constructivists - I. Leonidov, brothers Golosov, M. Barshch, V. Vladimirov contributed to this.

New ideas for organizing the work and life of the Soviet people were directly reflected in the buildings that were being erected at that time. Constructivists design houses of culture, clubs, industrial buildings and residential buildings in keeping with the spirit of the times. The most ambitious project of the House of Culture was the project of the Vesnin brothers, which was not fully implemented, but nevertheless became one of the iconic works of constructivism: the House of Culture of the Proletarsky District of Moscow (ZiLa Palace of Culture). It was built in 1931-1937, when creating the project, five principles of Le Corbusier were used: supports-pillars instead of walls, free planning, free design of the facade, elongated windows, flat roof. The shape of the building was determined by the functions laid down in the palace of culture, and the internal layout of its individual cells.

House-communes

A separate interesting phenomenon was the house-commune, which was being erected in line with the conscientious ideology. In 1930 - 1931 on Ordzhonikidze Street in Moscow, a dormitory-commune of the Textile Institute was built according to the project of I. Nikolaev. The concept of the project boiled down to streamlining and typifying the life of students, each period of the daily routine had to correspond to a separate room - a sleeping cabin, a sanitary building, a gym, etc. Accordingly, the architectural solution of the building was subordinated to this mode of students' functioning: transitions from one building to another, the area of ​​various rooms and the internal communications serving them, the shape and area of ​​the windows.

Neoclassicism versus constructivism

In the early 1930s, the political situation in the country changed, and in architecture the influence of architects who preached styles completely opposite to constructivism - Shchusev, Zholtovsky, increased. In 1932, Zholtovsky builds his famous house on Mokhovaya, completely designed in the spirit of neoclassicism, which was immediately called "a nail in the coffin of constructivism." Influential admirers of richly decorated buildings supported just such a style, the ascetic romanticism of constructivism became less in demand. The avant-garde trends in architecture began to be sharply criticized, and then were completely banned as bourgeois. Constructivism fell into disgrace, many young architects, who started out as constructivists, revised their views in favor of neoclassicism. Some constructivist architects, for example I. Golosov, the Vesnin brothers, were able to fit into the conjuncture of the 1930s and continue their activities, but they no longer had the same authority as before.

After constructivism

Constructivism strongly influenced all Soviet architecture, even though it gave way to neoclassicism and