ADAM - Brussels Design Museum

M E N U

THE PAPER REVOLUTION

Soviet Graphic Design and Constructivism (1920 – 1930’s)

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the ADAM - Brussels Design Museum and Moscow Design Museum are going to present a special exhibition The Paper Revolution 1920 – 1930’s.

During its first decade, Soviet Russia, a young revolutionary state, needed its
own visual language. A new artistic movement was born from this dynamic and
was named Constructivism. Posters, magazines and book covers became the
main propaganda tool of the new political regime. Constructivist artists declared
the end of the traditional art and proclaimed the beginning of a new era. Social,
political changes were happening in parallel with aesthetic changes in the
art sphere up until the 1930s. The objective of the Constructivist revolution
was to change the role of the artist and to make him/her a creator of the new
materialistic world, a constructor of new things. Nevertheless, consumers
were not prepared for the minimalistic furniture projects, household goods and
clothes. No one was willing to pay for an art transformed into everyday objects.
So the aesthetic revolution lived mostly on paper.


Graphic design became the only area where designers could apply their
innovative ideas creating covers for books, magazines and posters. Graphic
design created by constructivist artists depicted and reflected their time and
aspirations. This type of art became the main vernacular of artists who dreamt
to conquer the material world but succeeded to conquer it only on paper.

©Rodchenko and Stepanova Archive

©rodchenko and Stepanova Archive

©Akinsha Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©MoscowDesignMuseum

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

©Ne boltai! Collection

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