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Russian Avant-Garde Essay

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Russian Avant-Garde was born at the start of the 20th century out of intellectual and cultural turmoil. Through the analysis of artworks by Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky this essay attempts to explore the freedom experienced by artists after the Russian Revolution in 1917. This avant-garde movement was among the boldest and most advanced in Europe. It signified for many artists an end to the past academic conventions as they began to experiment with the notions of space, following the basic elements of colour, shape and line. They strove for a utopian existence for all benefited by and inspired through the art they created. They worked with, for and alongside the politics of the time. The equality for all that they sought would …show more content…

Rodchenko overlaps planes of colour, form and texture in an architectural way. His design includes a large clock signifying the importance the Revolution placed on precision and efficiency, as well as a speaker’s rostrum, a huge billboard and a space to sell books and newspapers. Rodchenko became an indisputable supporter of the Bolsheviks after the revolution and held roles within the newly formed Fine Art Department of the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment. El Lissitzky was a Suprematist and therefore his goal was to create work that embodied utopian ideals and values. His work was more transcendental and he sort to manipulate space and perspective to shape the new world. El Lissitzky developed Prouns (an abbreviation of Russian words meaning ‘project for the establishment of new art’). These images were meant to move and inspire the masses. El Lissitzky described the ‘Proun’s power is to create aims, this is the artists’ freedom, denied to the scientist’ (Margolin 1997, p. 33). He aimed to create works that would be clear to everyone in an attempt to build a classless society. Despite the isolation of Russia from the rest of the world as a result of the Revolution, El Lissitzky still believed in a utopian world. He chose to recreate form and space from scratch. The Proun brought together architecture and painting. Proun 1 E, The Town (see figure 2), closely models a town plan. There is volume to the shapes he uses which indicate the form of

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