constructivism

Abstract art movement that originated in Russia in about 1914 and subsequently had great influence on Western art. Constructivism usually involves industrial materials such as glass, steel, and plastic in clearly defined arrangements, but the term is difficult to define precisely, as the meaning attached to it has varied according to place and time. Some art historians distinguish between Russian (or Soviet) constructivism and the more diffuse European (or international) constructivism.

The founder of constructivism was Vladimir Tatlin, who, following a visit to Paris in 1914, began making small relief constructions using scraps of material such as pieces of wood and wire. These were influenced by the sculptural work of Pablo Picasso, whom Tatlin had visited in Paris. Picasso had virtually invented a new approach to sculpture. Instead of the two traditional methods of carving and modelling, he produced three-dimensional works by simply joining various materials together, and this lay at the heart of constructivism.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, there was great enthusiasm in the country for machinery and technology, through which the Soviets hoped to build a better society. In this climate Tatlin's use of industrial materials was eagerly taken up by other artists, some of whom thought that traditional painting and sculpture was elitist and would die out. Initially, constructivism was closely bound up with Soviet politics, and Tatlin made a design for what was intended to be the greatest symbol of the new regime. This was the Monument to the Third International, a gigantic spiral tower (something like a cross between the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa) that was planned for the centre of Moscow. Although it was never built, Tatlin exhibited an impressive model for it in 1920, and the Monument is regarded as the outstanding example of Soviet constructivism. Constructivist designs were used in other practical fields, including fabric design, pottery, and theatrical sets, and by about 1925 the word was used as a blanket term for any angular abstract work.

Some Soviet artists embraced the use of new materials but resisted the idea that all art must have an obvious social use. Among these were the brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, who left Russia in 1922 and 1923 respectively and played central roles in spreading constructivist ideas in Western Europe and the USA. Gabo lived first in Germany, then moved to France and England before settling in the USA; Pevsner lived briefly in Berlin then settled in Paris. The word constructivism has been used so broadly that it is sometimes little more than a synonym for any kind of geometrical abstraction, including minimal art (see minimalism) and hard-edge painting.

While constructivism has had a long and diverse life in the West, in the USSR it was ended abruptly in the early 1930s by the enforcement of socialist realism as the only acceptable kind of art under Stalin's dictatorship.