Constructivism

A 20th-century movement in painting, sculpture, photography, design, and architecture that began in Russia in the late teens and quickly reached an international audience. Its antecedents were Cubism and the Futurism exemplified in Vladimir Tatlin’s 1913 reliefs and three-dimensional geometric constructions. Influenced by Tatlin’s ideas—as well as by the optimism and confidence inspired by the Russian Revolution—such artists as El Lissitzsky and Alexsandr Rodchenko sought to ‘construct’ works that combined geometric compositions with images from modern technology and industry, considering themselves ‘artist-engineers.’