Page 53 - Studio International - October 1972

ART ON THE STREET

GILLIAN WISE CIOBOTARU

'FUTURISM COULD MAKE... FOR A WITTY AND DRAMATIC 'ONLY FIVE PEOPLE CAME
RALLY' Even in the strong support of Lunacharsky there is a barely-concealed anxiety
and defensiveness about these extreme 'left' artists and their difficult styles ; the
It is now 55 years since the October Revolution, a good moment to look again
situation is clearer when we read :
at how the history of art was affected in one small but vital area —the art that came
'Several days after the October Revolution the Central Committee,
on the street in the early years of revolution. The illustrations here are a token of
only just elected by the Second Congress of Soviets, made an attempt
the spirit of those times. It must be remembered that, in a period when illiteracy
to establish contact with the leading writers and artists. The writers,
was common, signs and symbols put in public places could carry out a function
artists and performers of Petrograd (St Petersburg, later
that was much more than just decorative propaganda. On the other hand, in the
Leningrad) were invited to the revolutionary headquarters at Smolny.
big cities, where the greatest projects were carried out, sizeable sections of the
Only five people came: A. Block, V. Meyerhold, V. Mayakovsky,
intelligentsia would have seen and understood the struggles of the art factions
N. Altman and R. Ivnev.'2
that were necessarily part of the upheaval in values. The following quotations
Of these five people all could be described as 'left' artists, with the possible
throw some light on how the style of the so-called 'left' artists working in a
exception of lvnev.
futurist/constructivist idiom came so quickly into the ascendant and
manifested themselves so effectively in propaganda activities. A comment from
Lunacharsky, Minister of Education and Enlightenment in the new government:
'CONSERVATIVE ART CLOSED ITS MOUTH IN PRIDE AND
'Posters and rallies were essential for the Revolution and at the same
KEPT A HOSTILE SILENCE' (Rudnitsky)
time, through several phases, it became reconciled to the futurist
attitude. Futurism could make posters and it could make for a witty
So, quite suddenly, the 'left' arts gained independence and power of action ; a
and dramatic rally'. 'In speaking of "Futurism" Lunacharsky meant it
position in the centre of the stage for which they were only partially prepared but
in the sense of all "left" artists of the most varied tendencies — from
nevertheless took up with verve and confidence, prompting Ehrenberg to say in
the futurists themselves, the cubists and suprematists, right up to his memoirs:
the imaginists.'1
'The main reason why the streets of Moscow were decorated by the
suprematists and cubists was that the academic painters were in
opposition (political, not artistic).'3
Thus we have evidence of the strangely awkward interaction that had come into
practice between art and politics and was to inspire many great works. Without
the reality of the Revolution most of these works would not have come into
being (street decoration equally with much film and theatre) ; conversely, the
main creators of the constructive-futurist works brought to the situation a
sophisticated European outlook which they wanted to take straight to the people.
Ehrenberg again :
'The art now called "abstract", which today arouses so much
argument both in Russia and the West, was in those days issued
unrationed to all Soviet citizens.'4
One of the best-known artists to bring this 'unrationed' abstract art into public
places was Nathan Altman, one of 'the five', who had spent a good deal of time in
Paris and was now prepared to put his talents to the test in a number of visual
media and take them out of the claustrophobia of the salon. It could have been no
easy matter to carry out the Winter Palace Square project in what must have been
conditions of confusion and inexperience, compounded by a small budget. The
figures given by the art historian Rudnitsky give some clue :
'The scale and size of the "left" artists' work was grandiose. Ten
thousand metres of canvas were painted for the street celebrations.
N. Altman alone covered 1,500 yards of cloth !'

2