Page 32 - Studio International - September 1970

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party at Minsk
in 1898, but its real foundation was the famous and
stormy 2nd Congress of 1903 when Lenin's insistence
on a 'narrow' party split it into bolshevik and menshe-
vik factions. It was at this stage Lenin began moving
towards the idea of totally centralized control (finally
codified in 1920). In 'Party Organization and Party
Literature' of 1905 he wrote that literature must
become a 'part' of the great proletarian cause, the
`wheel and the screw' of a single great social-democratic
system.
12 Cf. Donald D. Egbert, 'The idea of avantgarde in
art and politics', The American Historical Review, LXXIII,
2, December 1967 (recently reprinted in Leonardo 3,
1970).
13 Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Austrian physicist and
philosopher. Lunacharsky was also a Machist; but the
influence of such ideas seems to have been stronger
before the Revolution, and I don't wish to suggest that
Lenin's 1920 opposition to the Proletkult was just based
on philosophical differences (see below). Bogdanov
himself left politics with the Revolution and became
the director of the Moscow Institute of Blood Trans-
fusion, where he died mysteriously as the result of one
of his own experiments.
14 For Anarchism generally, George Woodcock's
Anarchism, Harmondsworth, 1963, is an impressive sur-
vey. The Neo-Impressionists, Futurists (via Sorel) and
some of the Cubists held anarchist social views. Hence
Malevich's statement that 'Cubism and Futurism were
revolutionary movements, anticipating the revolution
20 in economic and political life of 1917' COn New Systems
The transition of Suprematism into architecture: in Art', 1919, in Troels Andersen, ed., K. S. Malevich.
Page from Malevich's manuscript, Painting and the
Problems of Architecture (The New Classical System of Essays on Art 1915-33, 2 vols., London, 1969) has a
Architecture), 1927. Courtesy Annely Juda Fine Art, genuine enough foundation. For nineteenth-century
London anarchism and the arts: R. L. & E. W. Herbert,
`Artists and Anarchism', Burlington Magazine, Novem-
ber and December 1960. The individualistic and anti-
1 This article expands some points raised in my dis- authoritarian attraction of anarchism to artists is well
cussion of Tatlin's Monument to the Third International shown in Max Stirner's distinguishing of 'rebellion'
(Studio International, November 1969, 162-167), and con- and 'revolution' : 'The Revolution aims at new arrange-
siders developments beyond the schism in Russian art ments; rebellion leads us to no longer let ourselves be
of 1920. For this reason, Tatlin's tower is not men- arranged... my object is not the overthrow of an estab-
tioned here though it is, of course, highly relevant to lished order but my elevation above it, my purpose and
the Constructivist theme. deeds are not political and social, but egoistic. The
2 The latter being the signatories of Gabo's 'Realistic revolution commands one to make arrangements;
Manifesto'. Cf. Camilla Gray's review (of George rebellion demands that one rise or exalt oneself' (Der
Rickey's Constructivism) in Studio International, March Einzige und sein Eigentum, 1845).
1968, 164-165, for an explanation of the etymological 15 Tatlin's 'Art out into Technology' (1932), reprinted
aspects of the words 'Realistic' and `Constructivist'. in Troels Andersen's excellent catalogue, Vladimir
Gray's article, 'Alexander Rodchenko: a Constructi- Tatlin, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1968, 75-76.
vist designer', Typographica, 11, June 1965, gives a 16 'Suprematism. 34 Drawings' (1920). Essays, I, 126.
useful indication of the range of Constructivist activity. 17 Andersen, Introduction to Essays, I, 13-14.
3 Quoted from El Lissitzky's 'Neue russische Kunst' 18 'God is not cast down' (1922). Essays, I, 188-223.
(1922), El Lissitzky, Dresden, 1967, Other quotations 19 `To the New Limit' (1918). Essays, I, 55. Malevich
from Lissitzky are from this source, except where indi- contributed to the Moscow anarchist paper, Anarkija,
cated. until it was closed down by the bolsheviks in April 1918;
4 Tatlin, however, objected to what he considered the but he attacked only bourgeois, not bolshevik, ele-
`decorative' application of Constructivist principles. ments in his writings. Andersen suggests that Male-
See below. vich's connection with Anarkija 'was not so much a
5 l.e. depending on real usefulness on the one hand and political engagement as an attack upon the conserva-
the current state of society on the other. It mightn't be tive forces of the artists' union' (Essays, I, 244).
too extreme to suggest the connection with recent 'real- 20 It was Stalin, of course, who fostered the socialist-
time' concepts since Constructivism likewise abolished realist style (some say he invented the term at Maxim
the ideal-time status of art. Gorky's dacha in 1932). Like German official art of the
6 Moholy's Von Material zu Architektur was originally 1930s, Socialist Realism operated (and operates) with-
promised as Von Kunst zu Leben. in prescribed ideological concepts: partynost (party
Russland, Vienna, 1930. character), ideinost (socialist content) and narodnost
`Monumentalism, Symbolism and Style', Architectural (national roots), all of which are to be expressed in the
Review, April 1949. art. For summaries of the development from 'unofficial'
9 For Soviet architectural groups: V. de Feo, U.R.S.S. to 'official' art: Paul Sjeklocha & Igor Mead, Unofficial
Architettura 1917-36, Rome, 1963; Anatole Kopp, Ville Art in the Soviet Union, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1967;
et Revolution. Architecture et Urbanisme Sovietiques des Anmées Stuart Lawrence, 'Russian Unofficial Art', Form, 6,
Vingt, Paris, 1967; Berthold Lubetkin, 'The Builders', Cambridge, 1967.
Architectural Review, May 1932, and 'Soviet Architec- 21 'The role of the proletarian state in proletarian cul-
ture', Architectural Association journal, May 1956. ture', 1934.
10 A succinct account of Lenin's relationship to the 22 Cf. Rudof Wolters,
Spezialist in Sibirien, Berlin, 1933
Proletkult is in Louis Fischer's The Life of Lenin, London, 23 A wide range of the projects was illustrated in a
1965. special issue of Architectural Review, May 1932.
11 The party was in fact officially established as the 24 'On the Museum' (1919). Essays, I, 68.