Constructivism, Dada and the Bauhaus

1919- 1933

Historical Context

● Russian Revolution: March – November 1917● Begun by workers strikes in St. Petersburg● Tsar removed and Soviet Union begins● Old autocracy replaced by Bolshevik

(Communist ) government led by Lenin (Oct) ● Lenin bases his ideas on Marx’s● Red vs white Bolsheviks in civil war● Redistribution of land in rural areas

Pre-revolution Russian icon

The term Construction Art was first used as a derisive term by Kazimir Malevich to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko

Malevich The Reaper 1912-13 Rodchenko Red and Yellow 1918

Stalin makes Socialist Realism state policy in 1932

Constructivism

● an artistic and architectural movement that emphasised art as a practice for social purposes

● Reflected in architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and to some extent music.

Album cover influenced by Rodchenkos poster

Alexander Rodchenko

● Artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, graphic designer, teacher

● In 1921 he exhibits 3 monochrome paintings and declares “the end of painting”

About this (1923)

Rodchenko photographs

Photomontage / Dada

John Heartfield

● He worked for two communist publications: the daily Die Rote Fahne and the weekly magazine Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (AIZ)

● “Adolf, the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk” (1932)

Dada 1918-

● Focused around Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich Switzerland (politically neutral)

● Writers, artists and poets met to make art which objected to war

● Tristan Tzara writes the Dada Manifesto● Spread to Berlin and then Moscow

Photomontage

Hannah Hoch Dada Dolls 1916Raoul Hausmann ABCD self Portrait 1923-4

Christian Shad (1918)

Bauhaus

● Innovative German school of design

● Existed in Weimar, Dessau and then Berlin between 1919 and 1933

● Teachers/Artists: Kandinsky, Mondrian

● Architects: Mies Van der Rohe, Walter Gropius

● Closed by Hitler in 1933

Laszlo and Lucia Moholy-Nagy

● Photography should move beyond reproducing the appearance of reality and produce something new

● Photograms

László Moholy-Nagy Berlin Radio Tower and Light Space Modulator 1922-1930

Herbert Bayer

● The Lonely Metropolitan (1932)

Key Features of Constructivism and Photomontage

Subjects/Themes

● The body and the city● Technology/machinery● architecture● Science ● Politics/the workers

Visual Language

● Often Black and white● Use of geometric shapes● 2- dimensional picture

plane● Use of text and type● Reuse of found images● Posters/ graphic design

Artists for Research

● A Rodchenko-photography, the city

● Gustav Klucsis● El Lissitzky

● Hannah Hoch- collage● Raoul Hausmann● John Heartfield

● Moholy- Nagy● Herbert Bayer● Germaine Krull● Christian Schad-

rayograms/shadographs