Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935
29 October 2011—22 January 2012
In the Sackler Wing of Galleries
This exhibition examines Russian avant-garde architecture made during a brief but intense period of design and construction that took place from c.1922 to 1935. Fired by the Constructivist art that emerged in Russia from c.1915, architects transformed this radical artistic language into three dimensions, creating structures whose innovative style embodied the energy and optimism of the new Soviet Socialist state. Read more and book tickets
Events Programme
Margarita Tupitsyn: Kandinsky and 'The House of Utopia’
Friday 4 November
Margarita Tupitsyn considers the legacy of abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky as a theorist of architecture whose influence extended from Russian Constructivism to the German Bauhaus. Read more and book
MaryAnne Stevens: Revolution – Ideals and Realities in Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935
Monday 7 November
A lecture by MaryAnne Stevens, exhibition co-curator, Royal Academy of Arts. Read more and book
Friday 11 November
Richard Pare, whose photographs are central to the exhibition Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935, discusses with The Times journalist Michael Binyon his 15-year campaign to capture Russia’s extraordinary but much neglected Constructivist architecture, and the issues and stories that have emerged as a result. Read more and book
Tuesday 15 November
Alexander Brodsky’s work transcends the boundaries between art and architecture, offering a perceptive critique and challenge to the architecture and urban development emerging in contemporary Russia. Read more and book
Friday 2 December
Architect and historian Jean-Louis Cohen, (Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York) investigates post-revolutionary Russia and the context for the emergence of this radical new architecture in parallel to contemporary experiments in Europe. Read more and book
Friday 13 January
Art historian John Milner explores the vast, dynamic Tower envisaged by Tatlin and his team, its radical embrace of world revolution, and its impact on Soviet architecture of the 1920s. Read more and book
EXHIBITION TOURS
45-minute introductory tours at 2.30 pm on Tuesdays and 7 pm on Fridays (1 November–13 January)
SPOTLIGHT TALKS
10-minute talks in either Building the Revolution or Recreating Tatlin's Tower at 4 pm every Thursday (24 November–26 January)
ACCESS PROGRAMME
Access events include an audio-description and handling event on Monday 24 October, 9–11 am; interactive talks from 6–7 pm with a lipspeaking talk on Friday 2 December and BSL on Friday 9 December; and a private view for wheelchairs also on 9 December, from 9–11 am. Read more about the RA's access programme
ASSOCIATED EVENT
Building the Revolution: Destroying the Past
Thursday 10 November
Using archival photographs and witness reports, campaigner and writer Clementine Cecil looks at the historic buildings destroyed by war or bulldozer to make way for the Soviet avant-garde's 'architecture of the future'. The series will continue with two more lectures and a debate on the future of this fragile legacy.
Pushkin House; 7.30–9 pm; for information visit Pushkin House's website
