constructivism

At the beginning of the 1920’s Gan became a Constructivism theorist. Constructivism was a movement of avant-garde visual code for making art serve Soviet society’s needs. Key visual features of constructivism are radical typography experiments and montage. It closely parallels Bauhaus and is focused around topics we now associate with design.

Constructivism also called for different arts to help radicalize each other, and thus Gan worked as a filmmaker, poster designer, photographer, and inventor, participating in a wide array of different art groups. He wrote his manifesto, Constructivism, in 1922, remaining active as a theorist until the early 1930’s, when the constructivism movement was destroyed by Soviet authority, making way for socialist realism.

 

he knew how to do everything. he cooked incredibly tasty pastries. if he waited for guests, he prepared the food and put it on the table himself. he chopped wood and heated the fireplace and the water heater himself. he liked the floor to be shining and thus he polished it himself. —anna konopleva, gan’s stepdaughter

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