Constructivism (art)

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The Constructivism is a strictly non-objective style of modernism in the first half of the 20th century. The direction at times had the character of a political movement and was developed in revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union ; the Dutch De Stijl is also mentioned in this context. The term constructivism refers to the Latin word constructio : "assembly", "construction".

properties

Characteristic is a simple geometric vocabulary of forms, as in the famous picture Black Square on a White Background by Kazimir Malevich . The new art direction, which also contained a social element in the theoretical manifestations, included painting, sculpture, architecture, furniture design, stage design, and poster design. In constructivist painting, e.g. B. in Malevich's Suprematism , there was no perspective illusion of space.

Although the attempt to create art objects by means of mathematically founded constructions is not new (see golden ratio ), the term constructivism is generally only used for modern art, mostly in connection with geometric forms of design. Constructivism is a form of expression of non-objective art that does not abstract from intuition. Unlike Cubism , constructivist works are not based on human figures, animals, landscapes or objects. Malewitsch, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Max Bill, Richard Paul Lohse and others have pointed out that it is therefore wrong to call Constructivism and Concrete Art (also called Constructive Art ) abstract art .

The constructivists represented a geometrical-technical design principle with colored areas, lines and basic geometric shapes. Its main representatives were artists of the Russian avant-garde . Constructivism emerged parallel to Dadaism and Futurism from the mid-1910s. His sources and inspirations were: applied art (e.g. woven carpets, textile patterns), new technical developments and cubism. Constructivism had a great influence on the development of the Bauhaus art and design movement .

development

Architecture was regarded by Constructivism as the “mother of all arts”. The name Constructivism is said to have been used for the first time in 1913 for abstract relief constructions by Vladimir Tatlin and for works by the painter Kasimir Malewitsch, who painted a black “perfect” square on a white square and vice versa; see suprematism . Constructivist artists described themselves as "sculptors" and categorically rejected naturalistic "replicas".

After the overthrow of 1917, Russian constructivism often shows propaganda traits due to the revolutionary political situation. In Petrograd in 1920, a 30 m high wooden object was built based on Tatlin's designs as a model for a planned but never realized 400 m high steel frame pavilion, which is a monument of the III. Communist International should be. It was planned to construct the individual parts like the moving spheres of a planetarium .

In a manifesto published in 1920 by Tatlin and the Pevsner brothers with government support, constructive realism and kinematics were emphasized as design principles. Since, as Lenin believed, art can only be used politically if it is understood and accepted by the general public, constructivism was replaced shortly afterwards in the Soviet Union by socialist realism .

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Apart from its Russian origins, artists' associations such as the Dutch De Stijl , the Bauhaus and concrete art ( Zürcher Konkrete ) were also influenced by Russian constructivism. The current based on the Soviet starting point is called analytical constructivism .

Like Malevich, Liubov Popova , Rodchenko and other members of the Russian avant-garde painted z. B. also Josef Albers , Lyonel Feininger , Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Thilo Maatsch compositions from geometrical forms. Victor Vasarely , Max Bill , Richard Paul Lohse and Barnett Newman later also represented the constructive principle. Oskar Schlemmer was known for his figural constructivism. The painters belonging to the English group “Unit one” sympathized with constructivism, but preferred less bound forms.

Constructivism was one of the early currents of modern art that a large number of visual artists grappled with. In Great Britain , after the Second World War, a new constructivist art movement was founded in London , largely influenced by Victor Pasmore and other artists. Many of these artists came from St Martin's School of Art and had the focus of their work in the 1950s and 1960s.

Constructivist artist

Arranged in the chronological order of their year of birth

  • László Péri (1889–1967), British sculptor and painter of Hungarian origin
  • Robert Jacobsen (1912–1993), Danish iron sculptor
  • Rudolf Ortner (1912–1997), German architect, painter and photographer
  • Rolf Rappaz (1914–1996), Swiss graphic designer and visual artist
  • Gottfried Honegger (1917–2016), Swiss graphic designer and visual artist
  • Karl Peter Röhl (1890–1975), German painter and graphic artist
  • Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), Dutch painter, writer, architect, sculptor, typographer and art theorist.

New Constructivism in Britain after World War II :

other artists , later:

See also: Constructivism (architecture)

Important collections of constructive art

If George Costakis had been able to collect art from 1946 that was cheap and unpopular, he started a trend as a result of which the market and collections are contaminated with forgeries. If you disregard the Costakis collection, you have to question the authenticity of works from famous collections.

See also

literature

  • Hans Heinz Holz : Being-Shapes. About strict constructivism in art. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2001, ISBN 3-89528-253-7 .
  • Miltiades Papanikolaou (ed.): Color and light of the Russian avant-garde. The Costakis Collection from the State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki. DuMont, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8321-7404-4 .
  • Willy Rotzler: Constructive concepts. A history of constructive art from cubism to the present day. 3rd, revised edition. ABC-Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85504-113-X .
  • Katrin Simons: EL LISSITZKY PROUN 23 N or the switch from painting to design (= Insel-Taschenbuch. 1376). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1993, ISBN 3-458-33076-3 .

Web links

Commons : Constructivism  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. www.kulturspeicher.de ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kulturspeicher.de
  2. https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/russische-avantgarde-ld.1378083 Christian Herchenröder: Hands off Russian art - this market is infested with forgeries, nzz.ch of June 30, 2018