Page 35 - Studio International - April 1966

Mansouroff Relief, wood c. 1918-23 Vantongerloo Moholy-Nagy
A playful precursor of periodic structure Revolution Nickel silver 1946 Wire curve Metal and perspex 194E

A mathematical model—wire circles with Wiener joints
allowing freedom of movement.

Left
Le Ricolais Convex non-reactive tension grid 1959
By mechanically expanding the inner ring against the outer ring tension
is created. Le Ricolais is a pioneer of space-frame structures. In 1932
Gabo devised and patented a tension structure employed for the shell
covering in his Palace of the Soviets project.

Briefly, the Tatlin wing came down against art, even without class or ancestor. It expresses the pure forms of
`abstract projects'; this they finally felt to be in complete nature—the direct colour, the spatial rhythm, the equili-
harmony with the Communist plans at large. However, brium of force.' He ends by saying 'Constructivism is the
it soon emerged as a form of intellectual/creative suicide Socialism of Vision.'
and quite unacceptable to the 'more responsible intellec- The same year, in collaboration with Alfred Kemeny,
tuals'. The authorities would not accept 'no art' and even Moholy-Nagy published a manifesto on The Dynamic
though Tatlin's influence was absorbed more successfully Constructive System of Forces and in 1923 addressed the
by the architects, the basis of his creed was heretic, and Bauhaus on The spiritual and social aspects of constructivist
the authorities had other plans for 'art'. art.2
Less often quoted than the manifestos of the Russians All these writings of Moholy insist on radical ideological,
are the views that prevailed when constructivism was practical, and technical innovations. His emphasis on
taken up in Western Europe. Although Moholy-Nagy kinetic, machine-produced, and replicated art works in-
came from Hungary his participation here dates from his clude factors not all of which were taken up by the
arrival in Germany in the early twenties. Moholy Russians either in theory or actuality.
described himself categorically as a co-founder of con- The essence of Moholy's programme, at that time, is
structivism (Berlin 1920), that is the period immediately more alive today than anything he was associated with
preceding the arrival of Lissitzky who was later to edit the afterwards. His Light Modulator (1920 — 30) has outlived
1 Quoted in Moholy— Experiment magazine Object with Ilya Ehrenburg. his Chicago period, while some of his last constructions
in Totality, Sibyl Moholy, In an article of 1922 entitled Constructivism and the count for more than his latter-day synoptic vision and
Harpers, New York, 1950.
Proletariat,' Moholy stated : 'Constructivism is neither polymath enterprises. (These were small-scale works that
proletarian nor capitalistic. Constructivism is primordial, make interesting comparison with Vantongerloo.)