Page 39 - Studio International - April 1966

may continue to 'abstract', though not from the surface art, between a work of art and a technical invention, are
appearance of nature (reality). This debate is crucial to not fixed'.
certain schools of 'abstract art' and 'constructive art', Finally another artist who has written on constructivism
notably that of Charles Biederman. In one of his articles is Marcel Duchamp. Quite impartial and writing for the
Bill has this to say about Constructivism: 'On this occasion catalogue of the Société Anonyme (Katherine Dreier's col-
I wish to clarify another confusion. It is often asserted that lection) Duchamp supplies notes on Pevsner in which he
concrete art is identical with constructivism. This is not says, 'Sculpture of construction or constructivism, is an
so; constructivism or any other constructive or mathema- aesthetic attitude towards life which the two brothers
tically influenced artistic manifestation is just one of the Gabo and Pevsner conceived and expressed in their 1920
various possibilities of expression of concrete art, which, manifesto.' Duchamp says of Pevsner's work that he
as well, expresses itself in quite a-geometrical, amorphous created 'a new "setting", a sort of "chamber architec-
shapes.' ture" to express his space-time reality'.
Since Bill equates 'constructive' with 'mathematical' At the time this was written (1949), and even today, the
and adds nothing to further our understanding of the public are not misled in believing 'constructivism' to be
term this is not helpful, especially as 'mathematical' is the art of Gabo and Pevsner since they cannot be expected
after all not incompatible with the use of a-geometrical, to know of the vicissitudes of the Russian/international
amorphous shapes. epoch or to follow the use of the term as it has been
A weakness of Bill's 'glossary' is that it cites no names applied to lesser known artists.
and side-steps the essential historical context without To summarize: Constructivism was the movement, first
which a functional approach becomes merely perfunc- manifested in the plastic arts, that opened up new con-
tory. ceptions of space/matter/time, as well as the culture of
Another Swiss artist, the painter Richard Lohse, sug- new materials and techniques put at the service of the
gests that a highly systematized approach is the logical creative intention. Like the Dutch movement De Stijl
development from constructivism. Lohse writes of the born in 1917, constructivism was to effect the shape of
ideas that he proposes and which inform his own work: life through its direct influence on architecture and
`This form of art can be called constructive in the widest design.
connotation of the word and is a democratic art . . . the In plastic art constructivism and neo-plasticism were
more or less incalculable differentiated line elements voices to be heard, in loose alliance in the thirties through
which were typical of early constructivism have been Abstraction-Creation and then in the formation of the
unified and given dimensions which can be controlled Réalités Nouvelles and again in a more covert way in
and measured with the object not only of realizing a com- the Nouvelle Tendence.
position in harmony with the limitations of the picture Today the main characteristics of a 'constructivist-type'
but of equating the pictorial means on a more complex movement remain the radical technical programme and
and more comprehensive basis.'8 the ideological basis. The two streams, 'laboratory' art
Here the references to early constructivism are equi- and concepts of 'integration' (total integration and l'art
vocal, the past is cited, but seen from the viewpoint of an total) persist, alternatively co-existing or set against each
artist for whom the major direction in plastic art would other as in the Gabo v. Tatlin debates of 1920.
seem to be orthogonal structured painting—the Neo- To many people the paradox, the dilemma, is the idea
plasticist tradition. of abstract art plus social consciousness—seen this way
If we turn back to 'The Constructivist Epoch' — the it appears to be idealist and Utopian. Constructivism is
twenties—we find the emphasis is nearly always on three- also regarded as being doctrinaire—accused of attempt-
dimensional work (in fact the idea of `constructivist' ing to found a scientific art and/or of failing in the
painting emerges as something of a contradiction). In attempt to provide one.
Kandinsky's Point to line and plane (1926) he has this to say But despite the zealous didacticism there is a sense in
of the constructivists: 'The "Constructivist" works of which constructivism is empirical, since its notion of
recent years are for the most part and especially in their `foundations' remains parallel to that of the scientists, in
original form "pure" or abstract constructions in space, as much as 'every foundation is now regarded as perfect-
without practical—useful application, which distinguishes able and every statement about things and results is
these works from the art of the engineer and compels us corrigible.'9 It would be a mistake to think that construc-
to assign them to the field of absolute art. . . tivist artists see themselves as `scientific'; rather they are
It is true that after 1923 'the constructivists' (artists artists whose polemical standpoint draws from science.
making 'constructions') were to gain more attention for The constructivist entertains no such idea as 'pure art'
their 'art works' than for the ideological basis of their and takes upon himself to project a vision of art.
programmes. The most dedicated amongst all those we loosely term
But in Arp and Lissitzky's The Isms of Art (1925) — `constructivist' may be said to have done more to free art
accompanying one of the same photos as appears in while at the same time accepting the new-found freedom
3 From a statement by Lohse Kandinsky—we read : 'These artists (constructivists) look as a responsibility.
printed in the monthly
bulletin of the Galeria del at the world through the prism of technique. They don't It is this dual characteristic that sets constructivism
Deposito, Genoa, want to give an illusion by means of colours but work apart from all the creative endeavours in the plastic arts
September 1964. directly in iron, wood, glass, etc. we have yet seen; the constructivist might well accept
9 Mario Bunge, Intuitionism `The shortsighted see in this only the machine. Construc- the old Hegelian dictum: 'Freedom is the recognition of
and Science, Prentice-Hall, 1962. tivism proves that the limits between mathematics and necessity.'
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