Today we had a lecture about Constructivism,the two main artists that we focused on were Kazimir Malevich and Alexander Rodchenko because they had opposite ideologies on art and what direction it should take.
Malevich (1879-1935) was a pioneer within the suprematist movement and had synthesized cubism and futurism into an early geometric abstraction. Malevich’s idea was to free art from representation and utility. Melevichi was the type of artist that would ask “what is art?” and would create paintings that seemed to have no meaning, and that were simply decorative.
Rodchenko was a founder of Constructivism, and his ideology for the future of art was that it should influence social culture rather than to respond to it. Contrasting to Malevich who had paintings in wealthy houses, Rodchenko wanted art to be for the people by the people. He didn’t want artists to create the type of paintings that Malevich was creating, he wanted artists to top painting useless stuff, and to start producing art that the general public wanted to see!
I personally hate the work of Malevichi, I find it incredibly pretentious, I understand that the work is supposed to provoke emotions. I just feel that for someone to gain so much praise over something so simple and dull, incredibly disrespectful to other artists that have a lot more talent that aren’t being as appreciated.
Rochenko was very much influenced by the upheaval of the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was heavily involved with what the general public want, so for example when he was creating furniture, he would always think of how multi-purpose it could be, such as an armchair that could change and turn into a bed. This practice also followed through into his graphic, photographical and photo montage work. He wanted to engage the viewer to make them more than simply a viewer, to make them into a participant of the work.
I find it hard to ignore the fact that this time period needed someone like Rochenko to come and flip art on its head. The time period needed constructivism to bring art back to the people that it should have belonged to all along, back to the general public, because art isn’t only for the wealthy.
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Website about Malevich: http://www.kazimir-malevich.org
Information about ‘Black Square’: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/philip-shaw-kasimir-malevichs-black-square-r1141459
Website about Rodchenko: www.designishistory.com/1920/aleksander-rodchenko/
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