Grigory Yudin on the antiwar protests in Russia

Posted by Ross Wolfe

An interesting and insightful interview into the current situation. Continue reading →

A revolutionary impulse: Russian avant-garde at the MoMA

Posted by Ross Wolfe

If the art of the Russian avant-garde has a timeless quality, it is because of its unique historical origin. Continue reading →

VKhUTEMAS exhibition in Berlin: Rediscovery of a Russian revolutionary art school

Posted by Ross Wolfe

These works speak for themselves, refuting the lie that the October Revolution inevitably led to Stalinism. Continue reading →

Women of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde

Posted by Ross Wolfe

Aleksandra Ekster, Liubov Popova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Natalia Goncharova, Olga Rozanova, and Varvara Stepanova. Continue reading →

Architecture in cultural strife: Russian and Soviet architecture in drawings, 1900-1953

Posted by Ross Wolfe

“Paper architecture” — drawn but unbuilt — exercises a strange grip on the imagination. It affords a brief glimpse into lost worlds: not only the real or historical world in which architects actually lived, but the worlds they imagined themselves to be building. Continue reading →

Яков Чернихов, «Архитектурные фантазии: 101 композиция» (1925-33) — Along with fully searchable, downloadable PDFs of the original Russian texts

Posted by Ross Wolfe

Forty-five sketches by the brilliant former Suprematist painter and visionary architect Iakov Chernikhov, all composed between 1925-1933 and published together in his book Architectural Fantasies: 101 Compositions. For any of my readers who know Russian, please feel free to download … Continue reading →

The Soviet Moment: The Turn toward Urbanism, the Crisis in the West, and the Crossroads of the Architectural Avant-Garde in Russia

Posted by Ross Wolfe

Introduction to Part Two of The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde The Soviet architectural avant-garde was never as unified as its counterparts in the West. Almost from the moment of its emergence in … Continue reading →

Captioned Images of the Soviet Avant-Garde (in Russian)

Posted by Ross Wolfe

The following images are taken from Selim Khan-Magomedov’s vastly influential Russian-language book, Архитектура советского авангарда (Architecture of the Soviet Avant-Garde). They are captioned in Russian. Since the book includes so many excellent photos, and because it would take several weeks to … Continue reading →

Dawn and decline: Two eschatological visions in turn-of-the-century Russia

Posted by Ross Wolfe

Both eschatologies, it will be seen, predict a coming catastrophe. The religio-philosophical saw the utter destruction of the old world and perhaps some sort of spiritual rebirth rising from the ashes. The Marxist materialists saw the collapse of the capitalist mode of production, but not some sort of reversion to a prior mode of production, but rather the overcoming of capitalism in building a more perfect society. Continue reading →

The aesthetics of Russian Orthodox Church architecture: A philosophical, historical, and critical investigation

Posted by Ross Wolfe

The architecture of a cathedral can almost be seen as the ultimate unifying element for the aesthetic experience of the Orthodox service. Continue reading →

“Comrades!

The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities. The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. The ruined cities await new builders[…]

To you who accept the legacy of Russia, to you who will (I believe!) tomorrow become masters of the whole world, I address the question: with what fantastic structures will you cover the fires of yesterday?” ⎯ Vladimir Maiakovskii, “An Open Letter to the Workers” (1918)

“Utopia transforms itself into actuality. The fairy tale becomes a reality. The contours of socialism will become overgrown with iron flesh, filled with electric blood, and begin to dwell full of life. The speed of socialist building outstrips the most audacious daring. In this lies the distinctive character and essence of the epoch.” ⎯ I. Chernia,“The Cities of Socialism” (1929)

“The idea of the conquest of the substructure, the earthbound, can be extended even further and calls for the conquest of gravity as such. It demands floating structures, a physical-dynamic architecture.” ⎯ El Lissitzky, The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union (1929)

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The Charnel-House

From Bauhaus to Beinhaus

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Grigory Yudin on the antiwar protests in Russia

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A revolutionary impulse: Russian avant-garde at the MoMA

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VKhUTEMAS exhibition in Berlin: Rediscovery of a Russian revolutionary art school

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Women of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde

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Architecture in cultural strife: Russian and Soviet architecture in drawings, 1900-1953

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Яков Чернихов, «Архитектурные фантазии: 101 композиция» (1925-33) — Along with fully searchable, downloadable PDFs of the original Russian texts

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The Soviet Moment: The Turn toward Urbanism, the Crisis in the West, and the Crossroads of the Architectural Avant-Garde in Russia

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Captioned Images of the Soviet Avant-Garde (in Russian)

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Dawn and decline: Two eschatological visions in turn-of-the-century Russia

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The aesthetics of Russian Orthodox Church architecture: A philosophical, historical, and critical investigation

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