Page 48 - Studio International - October1968

practice of classifying art as 'pure' or 'applied', can he attain the new objectives and apply them only required by the present but also by the
which had prevailed up to that time, disappeared to daily life along the lines of party organization. future...'
entirely of its own accord. Regrettably the dis- For life acknowledges no separate individuality.' To these appeals we received a succession of
organization of Russian industry and the lack of Alongside all these groups were some who wished enthusiastic replies from our Eastern European
raw materials prevented the success of this cam- to continue cultivating painting and the picture. comrades, but this support was prevented from
paign. One was left in an intermediate space They sought to find themselves new methods of developing towards an exchange of visits by the
between studio and factory. That is the transition- expression by representing the object in the simplest blockade which lasted for almost three years.
stage from subjective to universal design. Now manner and relying on contrasting treatments of All the achievements and practical experiences of
comes the period of construction. This movement style in painting. A characteristic advocate of this the groups I have been describing were put to
came to life spontaneously, and the question of its method is Sterenberg, in his still-lifes. Altmann effect in decorating the towns for the great festivals.
legitimacy is now being elucidated not only in attempted to create abstract forms using all the These are the works created by the new Russian
Russia, but also here in the West. Two groups subtleties of the material and to link them with art; these are the great monuments of our time,
claimed Constructivism, the Obmokhu (the specific words which give meaning to the work. born together with the great day, and with it they
brothers Stenberg, Myedunyesky, Yoganson, and This resulted in a kind of illustrated poster. So it is also die. These are not 'eternal' monuments like
others) and the Unovis (Syenkin, Chazbonik, obvious how, in our country, unity has been built the Pyramids; this is the time for a constant flow
Klutsis, Ermolayeva, Khidersel, Kogan, Noshov, out of contradiction. Antitheses have engendered of monuments like the constant flow of life. A trace
and others led by Malevich and Lissitzky). a tension which has raised the general movement of them could well be preserved on film, but we
The former group worked in material and space, of our art to the highest level. That, in broad have not even had enough photographic plates for
the latter in material and a plane. Both strove to outlines, is the condition of the inner life of art. that. In Petersburg there is a Museum of the
attain the same result, namely the creation of the Now I will say a few words about the effect of art Revolution, in which there are five large rooms full
real object and of architecture. They are opposed to in general. of the designs on which the decoration of the town
each other in their concepts of the practicality and In the early days of the Revolution a newspaper was based on the occasion of the first anniversary
utility of created things. Some members of the entitled 'The Revolution of the Spirit' was stuck up of the October Revolution. Streets, bridges,
Obmokhu group (Yoganson, supporter of the in the streets of Moscow. It was published by the squares were remodelled. The same thing took
idea of direct usefulness) went as far as a complete poets Mayakovsky and Kamensky and the painter place in Moscow and all the provincial towns.
disavowal of art and in their urge to be inventors, Burlyuk. They challenged painters to take large Thus in Vitebsk, for example, for a factory-
devoted their energies to pure technology. Unovis brushes and buckets of paint and use them to paint festival, Malevich and I painted fifteen hundred
distinguished between the concept of functionality, the whole town. They said the poets should go out square metres of canvas, designed three buildings,
meaning the necessity for the creation of new forms, into the streets and read their works aloud, that the built a stage in the civic theatre for a ceremonial
and the question of direct serviceableness. They musicians should place their grand pianos on the session of the factory committee. The best designs
represented the view that the new form is the lever squares and give their concerts there. This seemed were executed in Moscow, as a salute to the
which sets life in motion, if it is based on the suit- to be Utopian and yet subsequently it came to Congress of the Comintern. The pressing urge for
ability of the material and on economy. This new pass. At the Commissariat for Mass Education an architecture was a characteristic of the new artists
form gives birth to other forms which are totally artist-collegiate body was constituted, for which and found its outlet in these works.
functional, and through them it is itself enriched, Malevich drew up the following programme : Yet exhibitions of art were still taking place
modified and further developed. The painter was (1) War on academies. indoors, with pictures hung on the walls of ex-
formerly secluded from the world, so he concerned (2) Directorate composed of Innovators. hibition rooms. These were all centralized and
himself with compositions, that is with the com- (3) Establishment of an art-collective to deal with arranged by the State. Every man had the right
bining of various factors. Nowadays, on the con- the affairs of art. and freedom to exhibit; and exhibitors offered
trary, he constructs, that is he creates substance. (4) Exchange of state-authorized representatives interpretations of their works to the visitors—
Composition is a bunch of different flowers. of art between all countries (Art Ambassadors). workers, students, members of the Red Army.
Construction is the safety-razor, composed of (5) Foundation of Museums of Art throughout Some artists tried to find other methods of de-
individual parts. the whole country (State Art Collections). monstrating their work. Pevsner, Gabo and
Both groups propagated their ideas with great (6) Working of a uniform plan for the whole Klutsis displayed their works in an open band-
vigour, through exhibitions, conferences, pamphlets, Republic in respect of touring exhibitions, where stand on one of the busiest boulevards in Moscow,
public meetings and debates. I will quote here, as on every occasion the latest products of the new art and in the evenings they held lectures for the public;
an example, an extract from an Obmokhu pam- should be shown (dynamic art collections). and the whole town was placarded with their
phlet: 'Every man born on this earth could, before (7) In Moscow, the foundation of a Central Realist Manifesto.
his return to the soil, go by the shortest route into Museum for the cultivation of painting. At the time of the great international congress in
the factory where the real body of life is fashioned. (8) Nomination of Commissars for Artistic the summer of 1921, we set up one of the most
This route is called Constructivism, the highest Affairs in all provincial towns. modern exhibitions in the reading-room and
springboard for the leap into universal human (9) International press-agency to disseminate in- dining-hall, for the benefit of foreign delegates.
culture. The great seducers of the human race, the formation about cultural life. The Central Exhibition Office in Moscow as-
aesthetes and artists, have demolished the bridges (10) Publication of a mass-circulation art journal. sembled exhibitions which were sent out to the
on this rigorous route and through a haze of Then an international bureau was established, for provinces. A museum for the cultivation of painting
mawkish narcosis they have offered art and forming direct associations with all the new artists was founded and, in association with it, an institute
beauty in exchange. Man's brains, the essence of in the world. During the war, in the period of to promote the culture of painting, which united
the world, are being wasted and dissipated to swell complete isolation, this bureau sent out radio- artists, writers, and scientists. There, all the
the morass of aestheticism. Having weighed the telegrams to the whole world. I am now going to problems of new design were dealt with, both in
facts on the balance of their honest relationship to quote an extract from a radio appeal : theory and in practice.
the world's inhabitants, we declare art and its `To all, all, all. The World War requires us to re- Within the sphere of architecture proper, the
bosses to be outside the law.' assess all values. At a time when there is a huge most important work was accomplished only on
Unovis realized the necessity of creating propa- reconstruction going on in life at a tremendous theoretical territory, in consequence of the
ganda for the organization, not of a movement or pace, when consciousness cannot catch up with absolute paralysis of building. Preliminary re-
school, but of a party. creation, art is left behind at the freezing-point of searches are finding their practical realization in
For a 1920 pamphlet I wrote: 'The artists must the old pre-war state of affairs. Both the millions the State workshops (Vkhutemas), i.e. the former
organize their ranks, must form themselves into a of victims and the world-wide social revolution academy, which I shall discuss later.
party. It is a mistake to think that the tactics which require a powerful impetus from art. One of the few architectonic manifestations of
one learned at school are a means of expressing per- `We recognize the primary value of the element recent years is the sketch-plan of a monument to
sonal freedom. This freedom is an abstraction, and of invention as being the only channel for this the Third International, designed by Tatlin, who
which exists only in interplanetary space. Here on impetus. is not, in fact, an architect but a painter. This is a
earth what we achieve with the means at our `We call upon all artists to accord with the times new instance of the systematic progression from
disposal is not our freedom, but our philosophy of and recognize that all schools which have outlived painting along the path of work to materials, then
life. At the present time, whoever wants to create their primary source, invention, belong to the on to construction, and leading finally to the
something must first forge a new consciousness, past. creation of useful objects. Here the skeleton of the
then if he wants to take part in the process of `The moment demands the convening of an construction ought to remain completely naked.
creating the new culture, he must study the international conference to discuss the progress The material is iron and glass, the shape as a
elements of present-day experience, for only then and potentialities of the inventions which are not whole is a tower formed by a diagonal column and
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