Published in 1922 in Russian, Aleksei Gan's Constructivism was the
first theoretical treatise of postrevolutionary Russia's emergent
Constructivist movement. Fired with revolutionary zeal, it was
unquestionably a declaration of war on traditional bourgeois art.
Constructivism recasts artists and architects as Constructors, turning
away from aesthetic or speculative problems in art and instead focusing
on the fusion of art with everyday life in order to create a functional
system of design, one in keeping with the great task of building the new
communist society. This edition replicates Gan's original layout, which
was one of the first experiments in Constructivist typography and
graphic design, and it also presents a substantial introductory essay by
art historian Christina Lodder that examines Gan's own odd, mercurial
character and the tracks he left across avant-garde Russian graphics,
architecture, film, and theater.
Nearly a century later, Constructivism remains a powerful manifesto,
and this new translation will help scholars trace its enduring influence
on twentieth-century art and design.