Gropius Bau

VKhUTEMAS – A Russian Laboratory of Modernity

05 Dec 2014 - 06 Apr 2015

Exhibition poster “VKhUTEMAS – A Russian Laboratory of Modernity”. V. Krinsky: Experimental-methodic study work "“Color and spatial composition.” Composition in space, 1921. Paper, pencil and gouache
© The Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow
VKHUTEMAS – A RUSSIAN LABORATORY OF MODERNITY
Architecture designs 1920 – 1930
5 December 2014 - 6 April 2015

Curator Irina Chepkunova

Vkhutemas, often referred to as the “Russian Bauhaus”, was a legendary art school of Modernism in the 1920s. This is the first exhibition in Germany to show an important sampling – mainly focused on architecture – of the work of Vkhutemas. On display will be some 250 works: sketches, drawings, paintings and models by staff and students. The exhibition has been mounted by the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow. These “Higher Artistic-Technical Workshops” were founded in 1920 by decree of the Soviet government. In eight faculties divided into production workshops (Wood, Metal, Textiles, Printmaking, Ceramics) and art workshops (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture) several thousand students received instruction. An introductory course with a completely novel artistic and scientific curriculum was followed by a degree course lasting several years. The staff of the school consisted of famous artists and architects of both sexes, whose names are associated with the heyday of the Russian avant garde: El Lissitzky, Naum Gabo, Moisei Ginzburg, Gustav Klutsis, Vasily Kandinsky, Nikolai Ladovsk, Alexander Melnikov, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Alexei Shchusev, Varvara Stepanova, Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Vesnin. The aim was to harness art and architecture to the task of making the “New Man”, thus bringing about a revolutionary renewal of the relationship between art and society. But the bitter disputes that broke out over the “right” course were also reflected in the history of the school, its teachers and its students, since architecture, as a “synthetic art”, had a key role to play here. The degree dissertations and experimental research projects show enormous utopian zeal and architectural potential. They also illustrate, often in extreme form, the credos of the conflicting tendencies at the Vkhutemas.read more

Organizer Berliner Festspiele.
An exhibition of the Martin-Gropius-Bau and The Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow

Curator Irina Chepkunova

Partners Wall, ALEXA, BTM-Visit Berlin, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, VBKI

Media partners Der Tagesspiegel, Weltkunst, Exberliner, RBB kulturradio
 

Tags: Naum Gabo, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klutsis, El Lissitzky, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko