Gustav Klutsis. The right to experiment
Tonight on the Crimean Val opened the first major monographic exhibition of avant-garde artist in the Tretyakov Gallery. The task of the exhibition - to show the public his little-known heritage
Tretyakov Gallery, June 7 - September 22, 2013
Moscow, Krimsky Val, 10, Halls 21-22
Klutsis (1895-1938) - a bright and tragic figure of Russian avant-garde. Leader of constructivism, one of the creators of art photomontage, a master of political posters, an innovator in the field of exhibition design, he sincerely believed in the idea of transforming the world and transform the person directing all his talent to create a powerful means of political agitation. However, because of the paradoxes of the history of twentieth-century Russian artist that was destroyed by the system, to promote which he worked, and his work has been forgotten for decades.
Many of the works on display in recent years regularly exhibited abroad, but for the first time on display in Russia. The task of the first monographic show Klucis in the Tretyakov Gallery - open public a little-known heritage major avant-garde artist.
Klutsis Gustav was born in Latvia in the town Ruiena. Original art education he received at the Riga City Art School, where he studied in the years 1913-1915 by the famous landscape painter, founder of Latvian painting B. Purvita . With the outbreak of World War Klutsis was evacuated to Petrograd. Here in the 1915-1917 years, he continued his studies at the Drawing School of the Society for Encouragement of Arts. After participating in the revolutionary events together with the Latvian riflemen Klutsis was transferred to Moscow to serve in the Kremlin was in the 9th Latvian regiment. In autumn 1918 Klucis was sent to study at the State Free Art Studios (GSHM since 1920 Higher Art School), where he studied with K. Malevich , Korovin , Pevsner , and after graduation in 1921, he was invited to teach himself. Klutsis became an active member of the avant-garde movement, worked in the poster, typography and photomontage. The commitment to constructivism linked it with the group "production workers» ( Lyubov Popova , Alexander Rodchenko , In . Stepanova , A. Vesnin ) at the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhuK, since 1923). Klutsis collaborated with B. Mayakovsky in the literary and artistic association "Left Front of the Arts", in 1928 became one of the organizers of the poster artists association "October". Many worked on the design of clubs, revolutionary festivals, the largest exhibitions of Soviet art in the country and abroad. For example, for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, he created photomosaics panels «VIII Extraordinary All-Union Congress of Soviets of the USSR and the Constitution." Perhaps membership in the Latvian cultural and educational society "Prometheus" (1929-1937) was fatal to the fate of the wizard. In January 1938 Klutsis was arrested and soon died during interrogation.
 GUSTAV Klutsis Red Man. 1918 Oil on canvas Source: press.tretyakov.ru |
 GUSTAV Klutsis A dynamic city. 1919 Lithograph on paper. 22 x 18,5 Source: press.tretyakov.ru |
title of this exhibition refers to the manuscript Klucis "The Right to Experiment" (1920). It reflects the originality of the creative aspirations of the artist - the constant search for new means of expression, experimentation with form, space, movements. "The right to experiment," points to the specificity of the exhibition. The organizers, making an exception only for the three easel paintings by the master ("Red Man", 1918-1919; "Axonometric Painting", 1920, the two - GTG; "Building. Higher Art", 1920, The State Museum of VV Mayakovsky), marking the beginning its experimental creativity, build exposure for working materials Klucis. Chamber exhibition, which features more than 60 drawings and prints of the author demonstrates a kind of "kitchen" of the artist: dozens of sketches and drawings convey thought process wizard, the way of design, from the first ideas of design of plastic campaign "small architecture" - folding stalls "radiooratory", speakers, displays, advertising rotating blades - buy completeness and acute expressiveness. Timeframe exhibition covers the end of the 1910's - 1920's - the period of the most striking artistic experiments Klucis.
«See all sides" - Klutsis pursued this goal in creating tsvetotonovyh and planar-dimensional designs that visually acquire a three-dimensional volume and dynamics. Related dynamic structure of a series of images dedicated to the master of so-called "dynamic city." Some of the tracks assume that the top and bottom can they arbitrarily changed and the visual field - spinning. The dynamics in these works reinforce the diagonal alignments, rhythmically repetitive elements. The exhibition is a series of paintings, graphic prints, sketches in pencil and ink, as well as one of the most significant works in the works Klucis - "Axonometric painting." Complement this part of the exhibition works from the Museum of Mayakovsky (Moscow), among them - "Sketch for" a perspective composition "," (1920. Pencil) - preparatory drawing for the painting of the Tretyakov Gallery.
 GUSTAV Klutsis Tribune of the screen. 1920 Lithograph on paper. 27.5 x 14 Source: press.tretyakov.ru |
 GUSTAV Klutsis Set overalls. 1922 Lithograph on paper. 23,6 x 14,8 Source: press.tretyakov.ru |
