Constructivism

Constructivism is an avant-garde movement of the 1910s to 1930s that proclaimed art to be not contemplation but the construction of a purposeful material environment for a new society. Instead of depiction, the Constructivist artist thinks like an engineer who builds the work from real materials according to the laws of expediency, technology and economy of means. Its key concepts were "construction," "faktura" (texture) and "tectonics": what matters is not the subject but the logic of joining elements, the bared structure and the properties of the material itself — metal, glass, wood, cardboard. The formal language of Constructivism consists of clear geometric forms, straight and diagonal lines, a dynamic asymmetrical composition, a limited palette of red, black, white and gray, and the active introduction of type and photomontage. The style was realized above all in design, printing, the poster, stage design, architecture and production art, striving to erase the boundary between artist and manufacturer. Its leading masters were Vladimir Tatlin with his "Monument to the Third International," Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Varvara Stepanova. In Ukraine a distinguished role was played by the Kharkiv artist Vasyl Yermilov, who created reliefs, journal designs and spatial constructions, and by Vadym Meller in theatrical stage design. Constructivism laid the foundations of modern graphic design, typography and functional architecture, and its visual language remains to this day a model of clarity and engineering beauty.