- Russian revolution and the Bolshevik party was led by Vladimir Lenin in 1917. Russian revolution led to the creation of the Soviet Union.
- "Peace, Bread and Land"
- Battleship "Aurora" (Dawn)
- 1917-1921 was when civil war erupted between the Reds (revolutionary bolsheviks) and the whites (anti-revolutionary imperialists). This battle continues for many years until the Red's eventually became victorious.
Propaganda.
- 1917-mid1920's: intense artistic experimentation (80% illiteracy)
- The russian constructivists - leading Avant-Garde Artistic group.
Photomontage.
1. Superimposition eg. Rodchenko portrait, Klutsis 'Electrification' and with text Rodchenko's portrait of Osip Brik.
2. Cropping eg. Redchenko's cover for 'Mess Mend'.
3. Juxtaposition eg. Rodchenko's cover for 'Novy L.E.F'.
- The aim of the constructivists was 'of achieving the communistic expression of material structures'. ( The programme of the first working group of constructivists' 1921 quoted in Lodder (1983) Russian Constructivism, London&Yale, p.94).
- 1921 Lenin's New Economics Policy = consumer goods needed
- Stepanova & Popova: First state textile factory, Moscow
- 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs
- "For many artists on the left in the 1920's, including Moholy-Nagy, the single most significant reference point was no longer the parisian avant-garde but the revolutionary connotations of construction, with revolutionary Russia as the new symbol of advanced culture" Fer, B (1993) Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism, Yale, p.88
- VKHUTEMAS (higher state artistic and technical workshops)
"voile and prints have not just become artistically acceptable, they have reached the level of real art, and have brought the rich colours and intense ornamentation of contemporary art to the cities of our immense republic" D. Aranovich 1929 (quoted in: Lavrentiev,A (1988) Stepanova, London. P.83)
Revolutionary Design: Dictatorship and Propaganda
