VKhUTEMAS Centenary

1 July - 31 August 2020

[...]It is therefore the task of the present production workshop to bring together the specialist skills of artists in order to meet the actual requirements of individual and collective consumption.”

2020 marks the centenary of the founding of VKhUTEMAS, the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow. The school changed the course of Soviet architecture, and its influence can be seen internationally in many later developments. Its importance is reflected not just in art, architecture and design, but also in the overall progress of the Soviet Union as a major industrial country that played a central role in shaping the 20th Century.
Timed to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the school, our exhibition of rare, vintage photographs, documents the (now destroyed) sculptures and models created by students of the school.

Founded in Moscow in 1920, the VKhUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops) was the result of the merging of several artistic schools. Established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin, it merged art, life and technology, and was a center for three major movements in avant-garde art and architecture: constructivism, rationalism, and suprematism.

Tutors at VKhUTEMAS included many ground-breaking innovators, like artist Alexander RODCHENKO and like-minded peers such as his textile designer wife Varvara STEPANOVA, painter Lyubov POPOVA, and architect Nikolai LADOVSKY.
VKhUTEMAS, Vkhutemas IV-4-6, 1920s

History

Often referred to as ‘the Soviet Bauhaus’, VKhUTEMAS shared with the German art school a similar background and pedagogical aspirations. Like the newly established school of Bauhaus, founded in 1919 in Weimar, VKhUTEMAS students focused on using new industrial materials and advanced manufacturing techniques that recognized the constructive potential of these resources.

Both schools, VKhUTEMAS in Russia and Bauhaus in Germany, were founded after war and turmoil (First World War and Russian Revolution) and dedicated their work to the creation of a better future.

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the VKhUTEMAS united the most creative contemporaries of the young Soviet Union; classical and modern art as well as architecture were taught with the aim of improving the living conditions of the masses.
Exhibition of student‘s work on “Evidence and expression of mass and weight,” school year 1927-1928. © The Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow

Ideological tensions between adherents of the so-called 'rationalist' approach and the ‘constructivist’ devotees, along with dictatorial regimes, led to the closing of the school in 1930. Although most of the projects have remained on paper, it had a tremendous impact on the Russian avant-garde and its legacy remains influential even in these days.

The centenary of the school is being celebrated with a series of exhibitions and events throughout the year, such as 'VKhUTEMAS 100', at the Bauhaus Center of Tel Aviv, a major exhibition at the Museum of Moscow, and the International Scientific Conference: “VKHUTEMAS Space in World Culture of the XX– XXI Centuries”.

The Global Biennale of Graphic Design (8 October - 1 November 2020) is paying tribute to the anniversary with a commemorative poster project that celebrates one of the most influential art schools of the last one hundred years.
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