Tatlin helped to pave the way to «Constructivism», a new form of art designed by Pevsner and his brother Naum Gabo in 1920 while Malevitch was launching «Suprematism» exhibiting his Black square on a white background, erasing any notion of resemblance with the use of primary structures to induce visual feelings instead. It seems that Tatlin showed his first relief paintings around 1913-14 while he took part in 1915 in an exhibition in Petrograd called «Tramway W» that was to become famous in the brief history of Russian Constructivism. Such exhibition was organised by Ivan Pugny and his wife Boguslavska while another event titled «O,10» was held a few months later in the same city.
Some 15,000 people attended the «Tramway W» exhibition and one of Tatlin's works was sold for the relatively important sum of 3, 000 roubles. At that time, and following a conference held by Marinetti in Moscow in 1910, all Avant-Garde works were considered as being produced by the «Futurist» movement.
Malevitch was somewhat affected by Tatlin's success and the relationship between these two rapidly deteriorated.
In 1915, Tatlin gave up his relief paintings in favour of what he called «counter relief» constructions, similar to his previous works except for the fact that these were no longer affixed on a supporting base to be hanged on a wall but suspended with a string in the angle of a wall to create an environmental process.
His constructions were often compared with airplanes with curved wings and multiplied planes. It is true that Tatlin glorified the works of engineers though he expressed at the same time some anguish regarding the future. An entire room was devoted to his counter-reliefs at the «O,10» exhibition while Tatlin further developed their possibilities in the decoration of the Picturesque Coffee-House of Moscow in 1917, a work he carried out with the help of Alexander Rodchenko and Yakulov, an architect who was also a painter.
At the same time Tatlin organised the «Shop» exhibition in Moscow. After the Revolution, art was considered as a medium to support revolutionary ideas as the aim of the socialist revolution was to change man. Most Avant-Garde artists and among them those who had been forced to leave Paris or Munich were given official tasks and gathered in those art schools which resembled the «Bauhaus», founded in Weimar in 1919.
However, the dispute between Tatlin and Malevitch amplified as they further became opposed regarding doctrinal questions. Several artists joined the group formed by Tatlin and Rodchenko in an effort to define «Productivism», a movement aimed at placing art to the reach of the people through utilitary or propaganda means. They faced the opposition of Pevsner, Gabo, Malevitch, Kandinsky, El Lissitzky or Chagall who were camapigning for the autonomy of art, which despite its revolutionary inclinations, was finding its own means that could induce changes for the world and contribute to the evolution of man.
At the start of his productivist period, Tatlin designed the plans and the mock-up of the Monument for the Third International conference, which was historically one of the first architectural forms conceived as an abstract sculpture with cylinders, a glass pyramid turning over themselves at different speeds inside a metallic tubular spiralling structure. The mock-up concept was 25-metre high while the monument was intended to reach a height of 400 metres. It had been designed to house conference rooms, concert halls and some exhibition areas but it was never carried out while the mock-up was eventually lost.
In 1919 Kamenev lashed out at the Avant-Garde artists, noted those who adhered to the «Suprematist» movement, saying that «these clowns were not proletarian artists» and adding that «their art is not ours». Lenin and Stalin also were much critical and the studios of many artists were closed forcing Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Pevsner, Gabo into exile.
Malevitch then seemed to be ready to come closer to Tatlin's constructivism which remained tolerated by the Soviet government. However, and despite the 1921 Constructivist exhibition and the proclamation made in the «LEV» magazine by Tatlin and Rodchenko according which art depended on practical construction and on daily functions, these artists were confined to producing graphics or industrial designs.
Tatlin left Moscow to work in Leningrad in 1922 and taught at the «Inchuk» Research Institute for Artistic Culture, which was promulgating experimentations on materials. In 1927 Tatlin returned to Moscow where he taught art in a State School and headed a department of ceramic designs.
While Malevitch continued to paint Suprematist works secretely, Tatlin designed a kind of glider, which he called the «Letatlin», and ended his life in a poorhouse probably ignoring that he would be considered as one of the inventors of abstraction after his death in 1953.
Home
