Page 49 - Studio International - October1968

two spirals rising in opposite directions. These below Footballer illustration for Ehrenburg's
primary forms are supported by a three-dimensional 'Six Tales with Easy Endings'
framework. This skeleton contains three glass
bodies, a cube, a pyramid and a cylinder. In the bottom Photogram, 1931 — the head of Lenin
iron spirals museums are to be installed, and the superimposed on a photograph of a crowd
glass areas will provide space for committee-rooms
and suchlike. Here Tatlin wanted to try and solve
the problem of the dynamic design by making
these bodies each revolve at a different velocity.
All technical advances should find their application
here. Radio and projection systems should be
made to operate at the top of the tower, trans-
mitting news by electronic, optical and acoustic
waves. Naturally there can be many objections to
this design and there was plenty of sharp debate
about it among us. What must be taken into
consideration, however, is that this is the first
work of the new generation, which is demanding
of itself invention, elementary design, clear con-
struction and mastery of material. The height of
the tower is supposed to reach three hundred
metres. So far, only a model five metres high has
been realized.
From several competitions I will make mention
of the design for a newspaper-kiosk by Rod-
chenko. Although this is still very decorative,
Rodchenko has endeavoured to design space.
In Russia, as everywhere else, sculpture followed
on painting. A State commission for a whole series
of monuments inspired multifarious quests after a
new plastic form; but the stamp which all these
experiments bore was a superficial treatment of
Cubism, not as a method but as a mannerism.
Splitting up the form, which was practised by
some sculptors who had taken over the idea from
contre-relief, immediately altered the character of
the sculpture. In their larger works, these sculptors
—Gabo, Lavinsky, Chaikov, and others—joined
forces with the Constructivists, in view of the fact
that they shared a common task. Gabo made use
of glass for his plastics; he calls for the inclusion of
movement in plastic art, a feature which he has
tried to achieve in a few works.
A great store of creative energy had accumulated,
which could not be released in architecture,
because there was no building. This energy found
its release in the theatre. Originally the painters
found satisfaction in the theatre because it afforded
opportunities for painting decorative canvases on
a large scale and having them enriched by the
effects of artificial light. Examples were the stage-
settings of Lentulov, Fedotov, and others, but this
did not satisfy them for long. Soon the painters
themselves began, in accordance with the evolution
of painting, to push forward three-dimensional,
spatial ideas of decoration. The painter on the
stage progressed toward architecture. Many such
stage-settings materialized at the Kamerny Theatre
in Moscow. In the great successes of the Russian
theatre the highest credit belongs to the painters.
Typical examples were the settings created by such
artists as Exter, Georgy Yakulov, A. Vesnin,
Popova, and others. In the latest work by Vesnin,
the stage-setting for Chesterton's The Man Who
Was Thursday, it is interesting to trace how the
principles of the Tatlin tower have been applied
to the theatre. Meyerhold, the director, completely
abandoned the wings; in the setting for Maya-
kovsky's Mystery bouffe he designs the whole ex-
panse of the stage architectonically and extends it
into the auditorium. Also interesting is the latest
work of the constructivist brothers Stenberg and
Myedunyesky, which is an innovation in stage
design. They constructed a curtain from vertical
wood mouldings (like a venetian blind), which
divided on opening, receded into a semi-circle and
thus formed the background. The surfaces were
not painted but illuminated by coloured beams of
light as the occasion demanded. The first present-
ation on this stage will be the play 'The Yellow
Jacket'.
The basic principles of the artists in creating the
decor were as follows :
Firstly: the scenic, acrobatic movements of the
actors modify the apparatus of the play.
Secondly: the apparatus, which is modified as a
result of its mechanical construction, conditions for
its part the movements of the actors which are
deduced from this.
Thirdly: these factors simultaneously give to the
whole structure the illusion of reality.
An attempt was made to transfer the theatre from
its enclosed space out into the street. In Petersburg
and other towns the architectural features of the
town were supplemented by means of specially
erected buildings and used for the magnificent
staging of open-air plays, which were attended by
thousands upon thousands of people.
All the experiments and achievements cited by me
here were continued and developed in the works of
the Higher State Technical Art Workshops,
Vkhutemas.
At the start of the Revolution, immediately after
the abolition of the official academy, questions
were raised as to a new method of art-study. The
first stage was that of free, individual workshops.
Here every person who intends to study art can
himself choose the teacher under whose guidance
he works without either examinations of restraints.
This soon degenerates into individual caprice
and a state of chaos. From this it clearly followed
that for the traning of qualified masters a general,
strictly scientific plan would have to be devised.
At the same time, by 'masters' they did not mean
unconditionally the painters who create 'pictures',
but rather every man with the creative talent to
fructify the different branches of the tree of
production.
The workshops are divided into the following
faculties: painting, sculpture, architecture, wood-
work, metalwork, graphics, textiles, ceramics and
theatre.
The painting faculty falls into branches, such as:
Colour, Plane, Space, Construction, and so on,
which also have to be studied by the students in
the rest of the faculties. The realization of the
production plans of these workshops followed in the
form of the execution of State commissions:
posters and books were printed, porcelain made,
furniture produced, and so on.
These workshops, which have been established not
only in Moscow and Petersburg but in several pro-
vincial towns and which are sought out by thou-
sands of young people, remain the firm strongholds
and the future hope of the new company of artists.
I am about to conclude; but I just want to refer
to a few very characteristic facts. From the earliest
days of the war we and Western Europe were prac-
tically cut off from each other; we knew nothing of
each other's works. Only now do we realize that in
Europe the same problems were arising at the
same time as in our country. I refer to De Stijl in
Holland, the new Hungarian movement, Germany,
and so on.
But those things which in the West remained as
studio and laboratory projects were made to
materialize on a large scale in Russia, by the
design of history. After the period of great impetus
the world is now moving into a stagnant rut. Yet
we are sure that our vitality and our instinct for
self-preservation will again set all our forces in
motion.
Then not only our achievements but also our un-
successful experiments will bear fruit for those
masters in every country who are consciously
creating. q
151