Chapter 15 – A New Language of Form
Introduction, 298
Russian suprematism and constructivism, 298
De Stijl, 313
The spread of constructivism, 318
Key Terms (in order of appearance; the first page number of their appearance
is listed)
Cubo-futurism, page 298
Suprematism, page 299
Constructivists, page 301
Tectonics, page 301
Texture, page 301
Construction, page 301
PROUNS, page 301, (Fig. 15-8)
Novyi lef (Left Front of the Arts), page 307, (Figs. 15-26 through 15-28)
Serial painting, page 309, (Figs. 15-26 through 15-29)
Infantilism, page 313, (Figs. 15-38 through 15-40)
De Stijl, page 313, (Figs. 15-41 through 15-45)
De Stijl journal, page 314, (Figs. 15-46 through 15-48)
Mechano-faktura theory, page 320, (Fig. 15-61)
Roklama mechano, page 320
Devětsil (Nine Forces), page 322
Key People and Their Major Contributions (in order of appearance; the first page number of their appearance is listed)
Kasimir Malevich (1878–1935), page 299, (Figs. 15-5 through 15-7)
Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953), page 301
Alexander Rodchenko (1891–1956), page 301, (Figs. 15-26 through 15-29c)
Aleksei Gan (1893–1942), page 301
El Lissitzky, page 301, (Figs. 15-8 through 15-25)
Salomon Telingater, page 309, (Fig. 15-30)
Georgii (1900–1933) and Vladimir Augustovich (1899–1982) Stenberg, page 309, (Figs. 15-31 through 15-33)
Gustav Klutsis (1895–1944), page 309, (Figs. 15-34 through 15-37)
Vladimir Vasilevich Lebedev (1891–1967), page 309, (Figs. 15-38 through 15-40)
Théo van Doesburg (1883–1931), page 313, (Fig. 15-42)
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), page 313, (Fig. 15-41)
Bart Anthony van der Leck (1876–1958), page 313, (Figs. 15-43 and 15-44)
Vilmos Huszár (1884–1960), page 313, (Figs. 15-45 and 15-46)
Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (1890–1963), page 313, (Fig. 15-54)
László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946), page 313, (Figs. 15-69 and 15-70)
Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), page 317, (Fig. 15-53)
Henryk Berlewi (1894–1967), page 320, (Figs. 15-61 and 15-62)
Wladyslaw Strzeminski (1893-1952), page 321, (Fig. 15-63)
Ladislav Sutnar (1897–1976), page 321, (Figs. 15-64 through 15-66)
Karel Teige (1900–1951), page 322, (Figs. 15-67 and 15-68)
Chapter 15 – Study Questions
1. The constructivist ideal was best exemplified by ______, who was influenced by Kasimir Malevich and applied suprematist theory to constructivism, as evident in the 1919 poster “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge” (Fig. 15-9), in which he transformed suprematist design elements into political symbolism for communication purposes.
A. Ilya Zdanevich
B. El Lissitzky
C. Vladimir Tatlin
D. Alexander Rodchenko
2. By 1920, a deep ideological split developed in Russia concerning the role of the artist in the new communist state. Some artists argued that art should remain an essentially spiritual activity apart from the utilitarian needs of society. They rejected a social or political role, believing the sole aim of art to be realizing perceptions of the world by inventing forms in space and time. Others renounced “art for art’s sake” to devote themselves to industrial design, visual communications, and applied arts serving the new communist society. For example, ______turned from sculpture to the design of a stove that would provide maximum heat from minimum fuel, and ______gave up painting for graphic design and photojournalism.
A. Edward McKnight Kauffer and A. M. Cassandre
B. Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko
C. Frank Lloyd Wright and Peter Behrens
D. Kasimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky
3. One of the most influential book designs of the 1920s was ______, a forty-eight-page pictorially illustrated portfolio that El Lissitzky edited with Dadaist Hans Arp. The format for this book was an important step toward the creation of a visual program for organizing information. Other important design considerations included asymmetrical balance, silhouette halftones, a skillful use of white space, and sans-serif typography with bold rules, an early expression of the modernist aesthetic.
A. For the Voice
B. Notes of a Poet
C. The Isms of Art
D. Basic Concepts of Form-Making
4. ______, the master of propaganda photomontage, referred to the medium as “the art construction for socialism.” He used the poster as a means of extolling Soviet accomplishments, as in the 1931 poster “Building Socialism Under the Banner of Lenin.” His work has been compared to John Heartfield’s powerful political posters.
A. Vladimir Augustovich Stenberg
B. Alexander Rodchenko
C. El Lissitzky
D. Gustav Klutsis
5. With the growth of the Soviet children’s book industry under Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy of the 1920s, ______became the father of the twentieth-century Russian picture book. He cultivated “infantilism” in his work by borrowing the spontaneous and naïve techniques of children’s art. In his picture books, he illustrated Marxist parables on the superiority of the Soviet system to capitalism.
A. Gustav Klutsis
B. Vladimir Vasilevich Lebedev
C. Georgii Stenberg
D. Saloman Telingater
6. The De Stijl movement’s founder and guiding spirit ______was De Stijl, so it is understandable that De Stijl as an organized movement did not survive his death at age forty-seven in 1931.
A. Théo van Doesburg
B. Piet Mondrian
C. Bart Anthony van der Leck
D. Vilmos Huszár
7. After World War I, constructivist ideas were adopted by artists in other countries, including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. In Czechoslavakia, ______became the leading supporter and practitioner of functional design. He advocated the constructivist ideal and the application of design principles to every aspect of contemporary life. His book jackets and editorial designs evinced an organizational simplicity and typographic clarity, giving graphic impact to the communication. A good example is the 1929 cover design for Getting Married, in which a triangle creates a strong focal point, unifies the silhouetted figures, and becomes the main structural element in a delicately balanced composition.
A. Henryk Berlewi
B. Ladislav Sutnar
C. László Moholy-Nagy
8. In 1921, the Hungarian ______moved to Berlin, where El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, and Théo van Doesburg were frequent visitors to his studio. He saw type as form and texture, to be composed with a rectangle, lines, and spatial intervals in order to achieve dynamic equilibrium through which clarity of communication and harmony of form could be achieved, as in his design for Arthur Lehning’s avant-garde publication i10 (Figs. 15-69 and 15-70). This is one of the purest examples of De Stijl principles applied to typography.
A. László Moholy-Nagy
B. Ladislav Sutnar
C. Henryk Berlewi
9. The Polish designer ______evolved his Mechano-faktura theory while working in Germany in 1922 and 1923. He believed that modern art was filled with illusionistic pitfalls, so he mechanized painting and graphic design into a constructed abstraction that abolished any illusions of three dimensions, as on page 6 of the 1925 Putos Chocolates brochure (Fig. 16-62).
A. Wladyslaw Strzeminski
B. Ladislav Sutnar
C. Henryk Berlewi
Image Identification
I. Match the figure with the name of its designer or appropriate movement.
1. Fig. 15-17 ______
A. El Lissitsky
B. Théo van Doesburg
C. Alexander Rodchenko
2. Fig. 15 -16 ______
A. El Lissitsky
B. Théo van Doesburg
C. Alexander Rodchenko
3. Fig. 15-23 ______
A. El Lissitsky
B. B. Théo van Doesburg
C. Alexander Rodchenko
4. Fig. 15-42 ______
A. constructivism
B. Dada
C. suprematism
D. De Stijl
5. Fig. 15-47 ______
A. Piet Mondrian
B. Bart van der Leck
C. Théo van Doesburg
D. Gerrit Rietveld
II. During the postwar years, when Edward McKnight Kauffer and A. M. Cassandre were applying synthetic cubism’s planes to the poster in England and France, a formal typographic approach to graphic design emerged in Holland and Russia. Match the description of the movement listed below with the name of the movement.
1. The leaders of this movement rejected both utilitarian function and pictorial representation, instead seeking the “expression of feeling, seeking no practical values, no ideas, no promised land.” They believed that the essence of the art experience was the perceptual effect of color. Visual form became the content, and expressive qualities developed from the intuitive organization of the forms and colors. ____
2. This movement symbolized the creative process and the search for laws of visual organization. The movement’s leader developed a painting style that he called PROUNS (“projects for the establishment of a new art”), which introduced three-dimensional illusions that both receded behind the picture plane and projected forward form the picture plane. He developed visual ideas about balance, space, and form in his paintings, which became the basis for his graphic design and architecture. He put increasing emphasis on graphic design, as he moved from private aesthetic experience into the mainstream of communal life. ____
3. This movement was launched in the Netherlands in the late summer of 1917. Working in an abstract geometric style, the leaders of this movement sought universal laws of equilibrium and harmony for art, which could then be a prototype for a new social order. They worked within a proscribed SM Should be prescribed ( a rule to be followed) visual vocabulary that was reduced to the use of primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) with neutrals (black, gray, and white), straight horizontal and vertical lines, and flat planes limited to rectangles and squares. They advocated the absorption of pure art by applied art. The spirit of art could then permeate society through architectural, product, and graphic design. Under this system, art would not be subjugated to the level of the everyday object; the everyday object (and, through it, everyday life) would be elevated to the level of art. ____
A. De Stijl
B. suprematism
C. constructivism
III. As with earlier movements, unique publications spread ideas about suprematism, constructivism, and De Stijl. Match the descriptions of the magazines below with the titles of the publications.
1. Théo van Doesburg edited and published this journal. He designed a logo for the magazine with letters constructed from an open grid of squares and rectangles. The publication advocated the absorption of pure art by applied art and became a natural vehicle for expressing the movement’s principles through graphic design. ____
2. During the early 1920s, the Soviet government offered official encouragement to the new Russian art and even sought to publicize it through an international journal created by Ilya Ehrenburg and El Lissitzky. They saw the publication as a meeting point for new works from different nations in which parallel yet isolated art and design movements that had occurred during a seven-year period of isolation caused by revolution and war could be showcased. The title was chosen because the editors believed that art meant the creation of new objects. ____
3. Alexander Rodchenko designed this magazine for all fields of the creative arts. His design style was rooted in strong, static horizontal and vertical forms. Overprinting, kiss registration, and photomontage were used regularly. Rodchenko delighted in contrasting bold, blocky type and hard-edged shapes against the softer forms and edges of photomontages, as shown in Chapter 17 on the magazine’s cover designs. ____
A. Novyi lef (Left Front of the Arts)
B. De Stijl magazine
C. Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet
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