Boris Michailowitsch Iofan

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Cyrillic ( Russian )
Борис Михайлович Иофан
Transl. : Boris Michajlovič Iofan
Transcr. : Boris Michailowitsch Iofan

Boris Mikhailovich Iofan (Russian Борис Михайлович Иофaн * April 16 . Jul / 28. April  1891 greg. In Odessa ; †  11. March 1976 in Moscow ) was a Soviet architect . He is considered one of the most important architects of the Stalin era . His works span several stages of development of socialist classicism , which was part of socialist realism . He gained the greatest influence in the 1930s and 1940s.

Life

Building meeting (1948): Rector of Moscow University AN Nesmejanow (seated left), BM Iofan (2nd from left), Minister for Higher Education of the USSR SW Kaftanow (center), project manager AW Pekarew (standing left), chief architect JB Belopolski (right standing)

Parental home, early childhood and graduation from art school in 1911

Boris Michailowitsch Iofan was born in Odessa as the second child . His older brother, Dmitri Iofan , went to Saint Petersburg for further education and to learn about life and street scenes in Petersburg.

In his youth Iofan loved to draw the buildings of Odessa and convert them into huge, monumental buildings. His brother Dmitri sent him books on neoclassical art from St. Petersburg . These books were to shape his future architectural style, as would later become apparent.

After graduating from the Odessa Art School in 1911, Boris followed his older brother Dmitri at the age of 19 and worked for two years in St. Petersburg as an assistant to the architect Alexander Tamanyan and his brother Dmitri Iofan , who had worked with Alexander Tamanyan for a long time, and Boris one Secured place. In his time as an assistant he studied books on neoclassical art , which, as he later said, made his architecture what it became. After this work as an assistant, he traveled to Rome to find out about new styles . In Rome he graduated from the College of Fine Arts with exams in 1916.

Because he preferred the classical tradition, he began to work in Rome for the architect Andrea Brasini . His love for neoclassicism came from this time .

His love for neoclassicism

Iofan designed and built a lot in Italy , but later devalued this activity only as a preparation for his work in the Soviet Union . He perfected his skills in the field of neoclassicism and was thus on the one hand prepared for the new situation in the art life of the newly founded Soviet Union, to which he returned in 1924, but on the other hand was also included in the general system of forms, which also the architecture of fascist Italy and on the 1930s was based on National Socialist Germany .

Since Iofan was not allowed to practice neoclassical art in the Soviet Union, he turned his attention to the desired style of socialist classicism , with which he designed his architectural masterpieces such as the Palace of the Soviets .

Work in the Soviet Union after 1924

Iofan's first work seemed to continue the general architectural stance of the 1920s. These not only became a milestone in his work. Here he used the most modern technical achievements and solved complicated compositional tasks.

The very sophisticated and sometimes small-scale treasure trove of forms and the experiments of the architects and artists of the 1920s no longer corresponded to the new symbolism , as it became increasingly clear to him. In the course of the general tendency towards monumentality , the neoclassical forms were gradually updated and compositions with a rigid axis were preferred. For broad strata of society, these changes were combined with the clear idea of ​​the real realization of the bright future.

Architectural works

House on the Uferstrasse (2007)
Palace of the Soviets (Soviet postage stamp, 1937)
Soviet Pavilion in Paris (1937)

The name Boris Iofans is associated with the most important and programmatic projects in the Soviet Union of the 1930s and 1940s, such as the house on the Uferstrasse , the pavilion at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937, or the pavilion at the New York World Exhibition of 1939, as well as the Palace of the Soviets , which he designed during the 1930s and 1940s.

House on the quayside

The house on the embankment in Moscow, built in the style of Soviet constructivism , was one of the first Stalinist buildings in the Soviet Union.

Palace of the Soviets

He himself considered the Palace of the Soviets to be his life's work , although the palace never got beyond the completion of the foundation due to the Second World War and other problems. Here, as he himself said, he was able to fully develop his spatial, artistic and urban planning skills. Whatever else he designed and built in the course of his long life, the 1930s gave his special artistic talent the greatest leeway.

Soviet Pavilion (1937 in Paris)

Boris Iofan's proposal to build a Soviet pavilion was accepted by the Council of People's Commissars for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris . His design emerged as the winner from a total of six designs.

His proposal envisaged a building in the architectural style of Socialist Classicism , which was tried and tested in the Soviet Union , as was also used in the Palace of the Soviets . Thanks to its expressive design, Iofan made the pavilion next to the German one of the most impressive at the Expo in 1937. The two-figure statue worker and kolkhoz farmer by the sculptor Wera Muchina on the roof of the pavilion is significant . Iofan received a gold medal for his design of the pavilion at the World's Fair.

literature

Web links

Commons : Boris Iofan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Search result: Chiger, R. J: Pyti architekturnoj Mysli 1917-1932. ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Iofan, Boris Michailowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Иофан, Борис Михайлович (Russian); Iofan, Boris Michajlovič (scientific transliteration); Jofan, Boris (PND)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet architect
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Odessa
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1976
Place of death Moscow