Alki1
Afterlives of Soviet Constructivism
"Another of the lectures given in Inkhuk, in December 1921, was by Varvara Stepanova, who spoke 'On Constructivism'. This is interesting as an indication of the point at which the term 'Constructivism' was acknowledged by the artists to describe their ideas. At first this ideology had simply been called 'production art'. The term 'Constructivism' is said, as is the usual way with 'isms', to have been invented by an art critic.
The various contemporary statements by the artists themselves on Constructivism are for the most part incoherent, doctrinaire, an unco-ordinated series of slogans: 'Art is Dead!'...Art is as dangerous as religion as an escapist activity...Let us cease our speculative activity [painting pictures] and take over the healthy bases of art - colour, line, materials and forms - into the field of reality, of practical construction.' These phases are quoted from the first important publication of the group's ideology - Constructivism by Alexei Gan, published in Tver 1922."
From The Russian Experiment in Art:1863-1922 by Camilla Gray
Afterlives of Soviet Constructivism
"Another of the lectures given in Inkhuk, in December 1921, was by Varvara Stepanova, who spoke 'On Constructivism'. This is interesting as an indication of the point at which the term 'Constructivism' was acknowledged by the artists to describe their ideas. At first this ideology had simply been called 'production art'. The term 'Constructivism' is said, as is the usual way with 'isms', to have been invented by an art critic.
The various contemporary statements by the artists themselves on Constructivism are for the most part incoherent, doctrinaire, an unco-ordinated series of slogans: 'Art is Dead!'...Art is as dangerous as religion as an escapist activity...Let us cease our speculative activity [painting pictures] and take over the healthy bases of art - colour, line, materials and forms - into the field of reality, of practical construction.' These phases are quoted from the first important publication of the group's ideology - Constructivism by Alexei Gan, published in Tver 1922."
From The Russian Experiment in Art:1863-1922 by Camilla Gray