Constructivism

Constructivism

The movement started in Russia in 1919, Constructivism had rejected the idea of art for art’s sake and instead it promoted social ideas and practices.  The movement was considered to be very dark, because art was used to express people’s emotions. It had manipulated Russian citizens into forcing them to accept social ideas.   Russian constructivism artists expressed revolution, social order in order to create the new movement constructivism, a constructivist art piece had bold lettering, bold colours and simple shapes structures, the shapes were often lines, circles, triangles or squares.

It was the modern art movement that started in Russia in the 20^th century. The art movement itself was influenced by Cubism, suprematism and futurism, but it was a new approach replacing composition with construction.  Constructivists proposed to replace art’s traditional concern with a focus on construction; the objects created were not to express beauty, but to carry a fundamental analysis of materials forms of art, things that might lead to design of functional objects. The form of a constructivist artwork was dictated by the materials used for example: wood, glass, metal and plenty more other materials. The seed of constructivism was to express the experience of modern life.

Vladimir Tatlin is considered the father of Constructivism, a contemporary of the suprematists Kazimir Malevich. Tatlin was highly influenced by Picasso. Tatlin was a painter and architect, alongside Malevich, which were the two most important figures in the Russian Avant-garde in the 1920s. his most famoust design is the monument of the third international, known as the Tatlin’s tower which began in the 1919s.

Reference:

Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens , 19 June 2012 , Tatlin’s “new art for a new world”, available at http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/06/tat1-j19.html, [accessed 17^th November 2013]

Rob King, May 2^nd 2013, Constructivism Art Movement Animation by Rob King, avaible at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQalaHn0vMc, [accessed 17^th November 2013]

Theartstory , Constructivism, available at http://www.theartstory.org/movement-constructivism.htm , [accessed 17^th November 2013]