Constructivism

Aleksei Gan's "Constructivism" was the first theoretical treatise of post-revolutionary Russia's emergent Constructivist movement. Published in 1922, this iconoclastic blast of revolutionary zeal was a declaration of war on traditional Bourgeois art.

By defining its three core principles: tectonics, faktura & construction, Gan recasts artist and architect as Constructors, no longer fretting about aesthetic or speculative problems in art but focusing instead on the fusion of art with everyday life to create a system of design where "everything will be conceived in a technical and functional way" - a fitting contribution to the great task of building the new communist society.

Christina Lodder's illuminating introductory essay examines the intriguing character of the mercurial author. Gan, the "Mass Constructor", was a key figure among Russia's post-revolutionary avant-garde, working across theatre, architecture, graphics and cinema. Agitator, publisher, activist and promoter, he was a close friend of Rodchenko and Stepanova and was the foremost theoretician of Moscow's Working Group of Constructivists.

Penned, typeset and printed by Gan, himself, this version of the text respects his original layout - one of the first experiments in Constructivist typography and graphic design.  With this slim volume, he announced the arrival of the Constructivists to the wider world with the power and immediacy of a clashing cymbal. This edition allows Aleksei Gan's contribution to one of the defining movements of 20th century art finally to be fully appreciated and understood.