Suprematism and Constructivism

We can trace the beginnings of suprematism to his sets and costumes for the Russian Opera. His designs reflected the complex synthesis of Russian and west European art that reached its height on the eve of World War I. From the simplest geometric, monochrome shapes, Malevich built an entire suprematist universe in a series of stunning canvases like this composition painted around 1916. For a production in 1915

In 1922 El Lissitzky, who had worked closely with Malevich at Vitebsk, left Russia for western Europe. The re-establishment of diplomatic relations with western European countries ended eight years of cultural isolation and intense ferment for Russian artists, during which every aspect of artistic activity had been called into question in relation to the aims of Communism.

The fourth dimension was pure sensation and the process and methods to achieve those feelings. Pure sensation was the result of tension and movement between color, form and ground. In attempting to reach the fourth dimension Malevich believed that the viewer must feel the art. Malevich broke down the art and abstracted it to basic geometric shapes and chose colors that were not represented in nature. The forms were now “non-objective”. He did this because he was trying to create only pure sensation, not pretty pictures; he wanted nothing to do with the three dimensional world.

Lissitsky was originally trained as an engineer and architect. His series of "prouns" experiment with Malevich-like forms are drawn with all the precision an architect. They hold a delicate and tense balance between seeming suspended in midair and about to collapse. He continued to follow his own development of suprematism, his Proun works, in Germany, while establishing contact with many groups of artists across Europe.

Generally, however, practical implementation of Constructivist ideas was very slow and sporadic. Industry had been decimated following almost seven years of conflict, and those factories that had survived were not sufficiently progressive to accommodate the new type of designer. In addition, the small-scale private enterprises set up under the provisions of NEP (New Economic Policy), implemented in 1921, were run by entrepreneurs known as Nepmen, who tended to be hostile to the geometric austerity of Constructivist designs. The government was keen to harness art to improve the quality of industrial production, but it encouraged the more traditional approach of applied art while sponsoring a return to realism in painting and sculpture. Constructivism was thus spurned by the Party, the working class and the new Soviet bourgeoisie (the Nepmen), who alone had the financial potential to become art patrons. The only area in which the Constructivists did establish a productive working relationship with any specific industrial enterprise was in the field of textile design. Popova and Stepanova produced many designs that were mass-produced by the First State Textile Printing Factory between late 1923 and 1924. They rejected traditional floral patterns in favour of economical combinations of one or more colors and simple geometric forms, as in Popova's Textile.

Some topics in this essay:
Black Square, Gan Constructivists, Russia Tatlin, Malevich's Suprematist, Church Rodchenko, Malevich’s Suprematist, Comintern Resembling, International Constructivists, Magnanimous Cuckold, Economic Policy, black square, fourth dimension, revolution 1917, el lissitzky, geometric forms, pure sensation, visual environment, painting sculpture, russian artists, painterly architectonics, colors simple geometric, simple geometric forms, institute artistic culture, popova gustav klucis, art exhibition held,