UNOWIS
The UNOWIS ( Russian УНОВИС ; acronym for Russian У твердители нов ого ис кусства U twerditeli Now owo Is kusstwa , German activist of New Art ) was an artists' association in Vitebsk that existed from 1920 to 1923. It was directed by Kazimir Malevich and had a significant influence on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century. UNOWIS is considered to be one of the most important groups in Russian art and was instrumental in spreading suprematist ideas and transferring them to design , graphics , architecture , theater and ballet . The association was often referred to as an arts party by the members themselves .
UNOWIS is closely connected to the Vitebsk Public Art School , whose students and teachers founded it and where performances and meetings took place. Despite great overlaps in terms of personnel and content, there are two differentiated objects that you consider. Not every student and teacher at the art school was a member of UNOWIS and UNOWIS later expanded beyond the circle of the art school.
history
Kazimir Malevich tried to found an art group around himself even before UNOWIS. The Supremus group, which he centered on, consisted of around ten artists, but because of the First World War had only limited room for maneuver in realizing the slogan of art in everyday life , an essential requirement of the young avant-garde. Malevich finally took the chance to take a position at the Vitebsk Public Art School, which was directed and founded by Marc Chagall . Vitebsk has been the most important art center in Belarus since Yehuda Pen founded an art school in 1896 . At the time UNOWIS was founded, Vitebsk was part of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR).
In November 1919 Kasimir Malewitsch met El Lissitzky , who also received a teaching post at the school, at the folk art school in Vitebsk. Marc Chagall, Dawid Jakerson , Wera Yermolajewa , Nina Kogan , Jehuda Pen and Alexander Romm taught at the school at that time . A week later, after Malevich's arrival, the First State Exhibition of Paintings by Muscovites and local artists was held, showing works by Chagall, Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky , Olga Rosanova , Robert Falk and others. Various lectures were given during the exhibition and Malevich was in great demand among the students. In 1919 Malevich's text About the new in art was printed lithographically by the students in an edition of 1,000 copies .
Malevich quickly gained supporters for his Suprematist conception of art, the first to join him were Lissitzky, Yermolajewa and Kogan. Malevich's influence was enormous; for example, Lissitzky, who previously created figurative painting in the style of Chagall, switched within weeks to abstraction, which he did not abandon when he died. Yermolajewa and Kogan also created representational works before 1919. This group of older Cubists among the teachers helped enormously in spreading Malevich's ideas. In addition to teachers who joined Malevich, various students from the Vitebsk Public Art School quickly supported Suprematism. This development was also accelerated by a major order in November 1919. For the second anniversary of the Vitebsk Committee to Combat Unemployment on December 4, jul. / December 17, 1919 greg. Large wall decorations were to be created on the White Barracks , the seat of the committee, and the city theater, where the celebrations were to take place, to be renovated. In retrospect, this work was seen as the work of UNOWIS, which, however, was only really founded shortly afterwards.
At the end of 1919 or beginning of 1920, some students went on an excursion to Moscow with Malevich for his first solo exhibition, the 16th State Exhibition of the Department of Fine Arts ( ISO ) of the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment of the RSFSR . There was possibly an encounter between the students and Vladimir Mayakovsky . The excursion also leads to a strong bond between the students and Malevich.
On January 19, 1920, students of the Vitebsk Public Art School formed the group MOLPOSNOWIS (Young Followers of New Art). Only nine days later they joined forces with the older Cubists and called themselves POSNOWIS (followers of the new art). On February 6, 1920, the opera Sieg über die Sonne was to be performed as the opening day of a so-called Front Week . Alexei Krutschonych had written the libretto, Yermolajewa designed the costumes and sets under Malevich's direction. Following the opera, the Suprematist Ballet by Nina Kogan was performed, which can be seen as an anticipation of the performance as an art form. This was followed by a public lecture by Mikhail Noskov on new art. On February 14, 1920, it was decided to rename the name UNOWIS, which should radiate more self-confidence.
In June the most important publication of UNOWIS, the UNOWIS-Almanac No. 1 appeared in an edition of five copies on typewriter and provided with hand drawings. This was not done out of artistic considerations; they actually didn't want to create a manuscript or artist's book , but instead advocated mass production; this could not be achieved due to the situation - the state was hardly industrialized and there was civil war . The Almanac explained the UNOWIS as a collective group striving for a new collective art form in which the individual artistic genius is not in the foreground, but an artistic program that is created and transformed by many people. This is also the reason why some artists did not label their works with their names but with the signature UNOWIS . UNOWIS was the first art group of the 20th century to have such a collective exhibition and working method, a revolution in the understanding of the role of the artist, whose “invention” was long attributed to the artist group OBMOChU .
From February 15 to March 1, 1920, the Vitebsk Public Art School celebrated its first birthday with the opening of the Second Student Union Exhibition , which featured 350 works, mainly by members of UNOWIS. The show attracted 3,000 visitors and the Museum of Painting Culture Vitebsk , which was organized by the Art School, acquired 17 of the works on display . By then, the museum had already acquired 50 works by 36 students at the art school.
On June 6, 1920, the group traveled to Moscow to take part in the First All-Russian Conference of Art Teachers and Students . For this journey, a railway wagon was specially decorated with decorations by Nikolai Suetin. The most famous group portrait of UNOWIS, which can be seen at the beginning of the article, was taken on departure. In Moscow the recently completed almanac was presented and speeches made. On this occasion, UNOWIS distinguished itself as the most radical and progressive among the art schools in the RSFSR. Various contacts were also made in other cities - to Perm , Yekaterinburg , Saratow and Samara . Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński had already founded a UNOWIS group in Smolensk and Iwan Kudrjaschow founded the Orenburg UNOWIS.
From 1920 to 1921 UNOWIS was involved in various festivities in Vitebsk. UNOWIS was involved in almost every major event and in various areas of life. They created decorations for houses and trams, designed shop signs, signposts and even food stamps. In addition to these artistic disciplines, UNOWIS was also aware of the importance of architecture for its conception of art. Lissitzky, who headed the architecture workshop of the art school from autumn 1919 to the end of 1920, had a great influence here. After his departure, Ilya Tschaschnik and Lasar Chidekel were the defining figures for the architecture of UNOWIS. As early as the end of 1919, Lissitzky began to give his works a high degree of three-dimensionality in addition to the usual Suprematist elements. Malewitsch used spatial Suprematist elements in his paintings sporadically from 1915 onwards, but pursued this approach only slightly, while Lissitzky focused on this aspect. His works are often from disturbing inconsistent perspectives that call the viewer's point of view into question. From mid-1920 he referred to this work as PROUN , which is an abbreviation for pro ekt Un owisa ( German project of UNOWIS ). The most important and first architectural design by UNOWIS comes from Ilya Tschaschnik. He designed a speaker's platform, which was later redesigned by Lissitzky, and for the latter gained great fame, although he never claimed its authorship for himself. The grandstand apparently abolishes the laws of gravity by leaning astonishingly at an angle, statistically this is made possible by a large concrete block. The stage was supposed to be built in Smolensk, but it was never realized.
A so-called creative committee was soon formed , which was responsible for the organization and monitoring of all activities. Yermolayeva was the committee's secretary and Osip Bernstein was its archivist. From 1920 to 1922 Malevich, Yermolajewa and Kogan were permanent members of the committee. Lissitzky, Tschaschnik, Chidekel, Iwan Gawris , Nikolai Suetin , Georgi Noskow , Iwan Tscherwinko , Lev Yudin and Natan Efros all worked on the committee at one time or another. The latter figure in particular is interesting in that Efros was not a painter, but a professional reciter of poetry. Efros also read UNOWIS that evening , a series that took place in the fall of 1921. On the first evening of the series on September 17, 1921, he read the poem War and Peace by Vladimir Mayakovsky . Yermolajewa and Lev Tsiperson designed a stage set and Malevich read a few poems.
In 1921, the areas of responsibility for art education institutions were transferred to the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment of the RSFSR . As a result, the school's teaching staff remained unpaid for a long time. Because of this, Malevich had already returned to Petrograd in June 1922 . The graduation of ten students from the school was also a reason for the slow dissolution of UNOWIS. Most of the protagonists also moved to Petrograd, such as Yermolajewa, Suetin, Chidekel, Tschaschnik, Judin, Anna Kagan , Magaril and Efim Rojak . Many of them continued to pursue the ideas of UNOWIS, especially at GINChUK, which was founded in 1924 .
Malevich tried to let UNOWIS go on, but it did not succeed. In May 1924 he wrote the text UNOWIS: Suprematist Manifesto and used the term Unowist in a letter to Dutch artists at the end of 1924. The name UNOWIS lived on in one person: Malevich's daughter Una Malewitsch (1920–1989) was named after the group of artists. The Polish Unism , which was founded by Kobro and Strzemiński in Poland, goes back theoretically and conceptually to the theory of UNOWIS.
Exhibitions and participations
- Second exhibition of student unions [1. UNOWIS exhibition Vitebsk] , Vitebsk Public Art School, February 15 to March 1, 1920 (participation)
- First All-Russian Conference of Art Teachers and Students [1. UNOWIS exhibition Moscow] , Moscow, June 5, 1920 (participation)
- [2. UNOWIS exhibition Vitebsk] , Vitebsk, March 28, 1921
- [2. UNOWIS exhibition Moscow] , Cézanne Club of WChUTEMAS Moscow, June 4-8, 1921 (with UNOWIS Smolensk and Orenburg)
- [3. UNOWIS Exhibition Moscow] , INChUK Moscow, December 1921
- [4. UNOWIS exhibition] , Moscow, March to April 1922 (participation)
- [3. UNOWIS exhibition Vitebsk] , Practical Art Institute Vitebsk, May 14-20, 1922
- First Russian Art Exhibition Berlin 1922 , Galerie Van Diemen & Co Berlin , October 15 to the end of 1922; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam , April 29 to May 28, 1923 (participation)
- Works by Petrograd artists of all tendencies, 1918–1923 , former Academy of Fine Arts Petrograd, summer 1923 (participation)
Documents
The following texts were written by UNOWIS members during their time as members and relate directly to UNOWIS, its goals and history.
UNOWIS statutes (May 1920–1921)
The first known version is dated May 15, the last to 1921.
- The first version of the statutes is dated May 15, 1920, but so far this has only been published in Russian: Alexander Lisov: UNOVIS, partiia Malevicha . In: Tatiana Kotovich (ed.): Malevich, klassicheskii avangard, Vitebsk . tape 4 . Vitebskii Oblastnoi Kraevedcheskii Muzei, Vitebsk 2000, p. 19-21 .
- The Statutes of UNOVIS [Vitebsk, 1920] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 246 .
- An alternative version and an expanded version in 1921 is printed in: Anna Kafetsi (Ed.): Russian Avant-Garde 1910–1930. The G. Costakis Collection . Ministry of Culture, Athens 1995, p. 564-565 .
UNOWIS Almanac No. 1 (June 1920)
The so-called UNOWIS almanac was produced in June 1920 in an edition of five copies. Texts from the almanacs were published as:
- Nina Kogan: Concerning the Suprematist Ballet . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 247 .
Leaflets and other texts
- Creative Committee of UNOVIS [Kazimir Malevich]: We Want! [Vitebsk, 1920] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 243-244 .
- Ivan Gavris: A Short History of the Origins of UNOVIS [Vitebsk, 1920] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 244-245 .
- Lev Yudin: Journal (excerpt) [Vitebsk, November 13, 1921] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 248-249 .
- Lev Yudin: Journal (excerpt) [Vitebsk, December 14, 1921] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 249-250 .
- Lev Yudin: Journal (excerpt) [Vitebsk, February 12, 1922] . In: Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 250-251 .
Members
Vitebsk UNOWIS
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Smolensk UNOWIS
Orenburg UNOWIS
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literature
- Alexandra Schazkich: UNOWIS: focus of a new world . In: The great utopia. The Russian avant-garde 1915–1932 . Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 57-69 .
- Aleksandra Shatskikh: Vitebsk: The Life of Art . Yale University Press, New Haven 2007 (English).
- Angela Lampe (Ed.): Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 (English).
- Pamela Kachurin: The Center of Artistic Life: The People's School of Art in Vitebsk, 1919–1923 . In: Kachurin (ed.): Making Modernism Soviet: The Russian Avant-Garde in the Early Soviet Era, 1918–1928 . Northwestern University Press, 2013, pp. 37-70 (English).
- Tatiana Goriacheva: The Almanac Unovis: A Chronicle of Malevich's Vitebsk Experiment . In: Tretyakov Gallery Magazine 1 . 2003 (English, Russian, PDF ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Angela Lampe (Ed.): Chagall Lissitzky Malevich. The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918–1922 . Prestel, Munich / London / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-7913-5807-9 , pp. 250-251, 259-265 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Alexandra Schazkich: UNOWIS: focal point of a new world . In: Schirn Kunsthalle (ed.): The great utopia. The Russian avant-garde 1915–1932 . Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 57-69 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Aleksandra Semenovna Shatskikh: Vitebsk: The Life of Art . Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-10108-9 , pp. 81-83, 317 ff .
- ↑ The date April 14, which is sometimes mentioned, is incorrect.