Читать книгу Russian Avant-Garde - Evgueny Kovtun - Страница 7

The Higher Art and Technical Studios (VKhUTEMAS) in Moscow became the centre from which the most innovative art radiated. Punin, returning to Moscow in February 1919, noted: ‘Suprematism poured out in an explosion of colour throughout Moscow. Signs, exhibitions, cafes – all is Suprematism.’[16] It had to compete, of course, with Constructivism, which began with the counter-reliefs of Tatlin in the years before the Revolution. The painter wrote: ‘Having constructed angular and central reliefs of a superior type,[17] I rejected as superfluous a whole series of ‘isms,’ the chronic disease of modern art.’[18] The Constructivists, giving up the aesthetic approach to creation, moved towards the creation of different and varied utilitarian objects. The functional rationality of an object became for them the equivalent of its artistic value. The rivalry between Tatlin and Malevich continued during the 1920s. ‘I don’t know when this started’ wrote Punin ‘but from what I remember they always shared the universe – the earth, the sky and interplanetary space – establishing their own sphere of influence. Generally, Tatlin kept the earth for himself, trying to send Malevich to research non-objectivity in the sky. Without giving up the planets, Malevich did not give up the earth either, judging, rightly, that it is also a planet and that it can therefore be non objective.’[19]