Russian Constructivists

Constructivist Exhibition: Soviet Constructivism at ALVA

2012-06-07T18:48:00.008+03:00

Recent graduates of the University of Western Australia have exhibited recent work,Soviet Constructivism. Each student selects a building which encapsulates a significant theoretical position in architectural history. In 2010 the Soviet Avant Garde of constructivism was picked as the epoch of exploration. A model of the chosen example will be made to an agreed scale, which will be accompanied by a written paper of not more than 2000 words. The written component is to be a critical analysis of the treatise or manifesto from which the built form is derived. The critical analysis also serves as a reference point for the realization of three dimensional forms of models.

Exhibition: Soviet Constructivism, The University of Western Australia Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA).

via designboom

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Requiem Mass: A Tribute to Wolfgang Amadeous Mozart

2012-06-02T14:43:00.002+03:00

"A combination of Russian Constructivism and my love of piano music led me to this poster. I created an abstract and unconventional view of the piano key, much like Mozart himself who saw music so much differently than those who criticized him."

by Melanie Stovall

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About 2 Cubes

2012-05-29T17:31:00.000+03:00

‘About 2 Cubes’ is an interactive e-book which adapts El Lissitzky’s “About 2 Squares” book into a 3d environment, and presents a radical thinking of what a book is, demonstrating a new way of organizing typography and relating it to visual images, and shows the integration of typographical effects with visuals.

‘About 2 Cubes’ lets people to enter the world of visual books, e-books and its pages.

http://about2cubes.blogspot.com/

How to...

W, A, S, D - directions

Mouse - angle

Z, X - previous/next page

I - information page

http://about2cubes.blogspot.com/

Deconstructivism: Experimentation of Constructivism

2011-09-29T09:14:00.002+03:00

Deconstructivism is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin, non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit the many deconstructivist "styles" is characterized by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.

Originally, some of the architects known as Deconstructivists were influenced by the ideas of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Eisenman developed a personal relationship with Derrida, but even so his approach to architectural design was developed long before he became a Deconstructivist. For him Deconstructivism should be considered an extension of his interest in radical formalism. Some practitioners of deconstructivism were also influenced by the formal experimentation and geometric imbalances of Russian constructivism. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century movements: the modernism/postmodernism interplay, expressionism, cubism, minimalism and contemporary art. The attempt in deconstructivism throughout is to move architecture away from what its practitioners see as the constricting 'rules' of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."

Bilbao Museum Guggenheim, Spain

UFA-Cinema Center, Dresden, Germany

Parc de la Villette, Paris, France

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Stylish Constructivist Poster & Graphic Design by Teo Brito

2011-09-27T23:39:00.001+03:00

by Teo Brito

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Cafémam - Constructivist CD Artwork

2011-09-21T18:15:00.006+03:00

by Giuliano Cesar

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Typeface Adec - Inspired by Constructivism

2011-09-20T18:03:00.002+03:00

by Serge Shi

Download SS_Adec2.0.zip (4.41 mb)

SS_Adec2.0.zip

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Constructivism In Fashion

2011-09-19T16:10:00.000+03:00

Several artists tried to work with clothes design with varying success: Varvara Stepanova designed dresses with bright, geometric patterns that were mass-produced, although workers' overalls by Tatlin and Rodchenko never achieved this and remained prototypes. The painter and designer Lyubov Popova designed a kind of Constructivist flapper dress before her early death in 1924, the plans for which were published in the journal LEF. In these works Constructivists showed a willingness to involve themselves in fashion and the mass market, which they tried to balance with their Communist beliefs.

(Stepanova's Constructivist dress, 1924)

(Design for a Window Display, 1924, Lyubov Popova)

(Dress design, 1923-24, Lyubov Popova)

(Rodchenko, Design for Working Clothes, 1922)

(Dress design, 1923-24, Lyubov Popova)

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'Proun' the Game - A Lissitzky & Kandinsky Inspired Game

2011-09-18T03:18:00.000+03:00

‘Proun - the game’ by Joost van Dongen is a strange racing game in a world of geometric objects and large colored surfaces. It is inspired by Russian constructivist El Lissitzky and Russian expressionist Wassily Kandinsky. You avoid obstacles by rotating around a cable in order to gain as much speed as possible. There is no up or down; there is only the cable to which you are attached.

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Inspirational Modern Constructivist Posters

2011-09-13T21:56:00.000+03:00

by Dog On Fire Design

by Team 8 Design

by National Design Museum

by Aron Jancso

by Dress_kot

by z1freeride

by FuckNewRave

by XNDR

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Constructivist Architectural Fantasies Iakov Chernikhov

2011-09-06T20:52:00.001+03:00

Russian constructivist architect and graphic designer Iakov Chernikhov, illustrate 101 Architectural Fantasies and comprise one of the only avant-garde art books published in the Eastern bloc during the Stalinist era. Peep his innovative architecture after the jump.

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Rusakov Workers’ Club

2011-09-05T11:44:00.000+03:00

The Rusakov Workers' Club in Moscow is a notable example of constructivist architecture. Designed by Konstantin Melnikov, it was constructed in 1927-28. The club is built on a fan-shaped plan, with three cantilevered concrete seating areas rising above the base. Each of these volumes can be used as a separate auditorium, and combined they result in a capacity of over 1,000 people. At the rear of the building are more conventional offices. The only visible materials used in its construction are concrete, brick and glass. The function of the building is to some extent expressed in the exterior, which Melnikov described as a "tensed muscle".

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BBC Presents: The Art of Russia

2011-09-02T02:41:00.001+03:00

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels through time to unlock the world of Russian art.

This four-parted of video that is shared is one of the three episodes of 'The Art of Russia'.

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The Proun Series by El Lissitzky

2011-09-01T16:30:00.000+03:00

El Lissitzky attempted to show architecture through art. He wanted to express his desires for abstract design using 3 dimensions and began doing this on 2 dimensional landscapes. It was his suprematist style where he developed a series of geometric paintings that were Picasso-like to the senses. He is quoted as saying his Proun series was:

“The station where one changes from painting to architecture.”

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Constructivism Inspired Posters - Shakespeare Company

2011-08-31T16:00:00.000+03:00

by Katie Kuehl

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Constructivism Inspired Ad - History Channel

2011-08-30T16:45:00.000+03:00

by Paola Andrea Reyes C.

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The Story of 'About 2 Squares' by El Lissitzky

2011-08-25T17:27:00.002+03:00

Front Cover:

In a thin ruled rectangle in the top four-fifths of the page are three elements, the Russian word "PRO," meaning "About" or "Concerning," the arabic numeral 2, and a red square. Below the title is the signature of El Lissitzky, printed at an angle, with the first and last names sharing the letter "L."

Lissitzky was very careful with his choice of colors--the intensity of the red square is finely tuned for a psychological contrast to the black square and text. Your computer monitor might not render it as well as the printed copy. Note also the dynamically varying angles of the signature and the word "PRO".

Lissitzky wrote at about this time, "Today we have two dimensions for the word. As a sound it is a function of time, and as a representation it is a function of space. The coming book must be both." Since, he wrote, "the words on the printed page are learnt by sight, not by hearing," he chose number and image on the cover, and only used a word, "about," because he needed it to signify his meaning.

Dedication Page:

The initial "P" (Latin "R") of "children" is a huge capital letter, emphasizing the sound. The words "to all" are repeated and angled, as if emanating from a radio broadcast. (Railing points out that war radio appeals always began, "TO ALL ALL.") Radio was a fascinating new technology.

This page is black and white; on the other side of the signature, the endpaper is all black. The space of the book is emphatically enclosed.

Title Page:

The movement of the eye reading the slanted text seems to reproduce dynamically the sound as in a radio announcement. The emphasized similar parts to the Russian words for "two squares" (BA BA) is an example of Lissitzky's innovative letter typography. He wrote, "From the passive, non-articulated letter pattern one goes over to the active, articulated pattern. The gesture of the living language is taken into account." (Typographical Facts, 1925)

Instructions:

In another zig-zag, we read the joke, but also receive a little summary of Lissitzky's artistic philosophy, one that was used at the Vitebsk institute and independently at the same time at the Bauhaus. It is more than Montessori: it is the leap from passive reading to active construction, from the two-dimensional paper world to the three- and four-dimensional real world.

Introducing two squares:

Below the red and black squares are the text in modern sans serif type, angled. The black square sits parallel with the margins, and the consonant "T" seems to be standing still. In contrast, the red square is tilted dynamically, and the letter "A" is emphasized and repeated, smaller each time. Lissitzky: "The pattern of speech becomes increasingly concise, the gesture sharply imprinted. It is the same for typography."

Flying from far away:

The red and black squares, both tilted and close together, seem to approach the Earth, which is represented by a large red circle, with some abstract constructions rising from its upper circumference.

Beneath, the type has an angled "flying" and "toward earth," and a horizontal "from far away." At the bottom right, the single vowel sound "and" points to the next page in time.

And they see a black mess:

The black and white picture is of miscellaneous blocks and rectangular or angled objects, all rendered without a unifying perspective or projection, so they seem to be floating in a gravityless space. It is chaotic, and also disturbing, because the eye can't organize the scene logically with light and shadowed areas, front to back, or in any other human order.

The text beneath is again in sharp contrast to the picture. It has become almost telegraphic, with emphasized percussive consonants, and the words "black" and "alarming" set perpendicular to the angle of the blocks.

They crash and scatter everything:

The sharp corner of the red square falls down on the black and white worldly objects and scatters them. The impact seems already to have produced some sort of order, as the objects somehow are grouped by size and shape. A gray square provides a stable background to sharpen the impact.

The text beneath has the angled word "crash," with the consonant enlarged, and the word "scattered" set horizontal and some distance away.

And red organizes a settlement on the black square:

Here the large black square is a solid but moving base for the reassembled objects, which now are red and white, and organized like skyscrapers in a city. In the middle heights is a small black triangle pointing up.

The text below is stable and horizontal. The phrase "red(ly) and clear(ly)" in Russian, "krasno yasno," shares a suffix, joined in common to both words by two lines. This typographical device is repeated from earlier pages, emphasizing the way Lissitzky is able to transmute words and pictures. The consonants express sharp, energetic sounds, according to Railing. Again the words and images are congruent; Lissitzky's treatment of the letters brings out the sound quality embodied in the words while relating them to the figure.

Here it ends... And keeps going:

The black square, now smaller, departs the black circle, with its colony of red-white objects. The larger red square seems to be floating above the Earth here. In the background is a series of cosmic arcs or circle segments, expressed as varying densities of a gray wash.

The text is now tiny. Starting with an angled "here" at the left, it has a horizontal "it ended" and, far to the right, an angled "more" beneath a longer angled line. Railing comments that Lissitzky must have carefully placed the words dynamically on the page after, and as part of, his suprematist construction. The world will not die, but a revolutionary fourth-dimensional change will energize it continually through infinities of time and space. (Well, perhaps Lissitzky communicated this more economically and artistically!)

Colophon:

A red square inside a thin black line and circle stand for the art institute UNOVIS. Below, the words indicate that Lissitzky made this project two years before this publication.

On the reverse of the colophon, verso, is the text in Russian, "assembled by the author for Sythian Press, Berlin, printed in Leipzig by Haberland Printers. 50 copies of this edition autographed and numbered." Below is the same information we supply at the head of this page.

Rear cover:

The back cover art shows a quiet but energetic arrangement of three objects. A small black circle at the left is balanced by a large, long gray rectangle at the right, which in turn is shadowed and stabilized by a smaller black rectangle behind.

*There is also a 'Endpaper', which is entirely black.

Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/el/pro.html

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Shoe Designs - Inspired by Russian Constructivist Sculptors

2011-08-24T01:25:00.003+03:00

by Tea Petrovic

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Alexander Rodchenko and the Russian Avant-garde

2011-08-22T15:03:00.000+03:00

The film by Michael Craig of Copernicus Films

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Constructivism Inspired Book: Códex Romanoff

2011-08-21T00:40:00.000+03:00

by André Santos

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Constructivism Inspired Posters

2011-08-19T18:53:00.000+03:00

by Susannah Briggs

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Constructivist Motion Graphics & Music

2011-08-18T19:02:00.000+03:00

Carousel from Keith Bogan on Vimeo.

by Keith Bogan

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Poster & Parfume Package Design

2011-08-17T19:23:00.000+03:00

by Martina Fagschlunger

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The Constructivism Book

2011-08-16T19:14:00.000+03:00

by Diogo Massano

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'Proun Room' Poster

2011-06-03T19:14:00.006+03:00

This poster focuses as a piece of information for a major landmark piece in the world of graphic design. El Lissitzky's Proun Room, built in 1923, is used as the underlying structure for the poster.

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