Utopia

Cultural Impact

Utopia

"At the core of Modernism lay the idea that the world had to be fundamentally rethought" (Modernism: Searching for Utopia, V&A ).   http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/modernism/

Utopia is the idea that a society can possess highly desirable or near perfect qualities.  Modernism was not so much a style of design but a collection of ideas whereby designers believed that technology and art could be

used to create a better world and social improvement. The end of WWI led to these new utopian ideas.  

There were different steams of utopian views including Communist utopia, Social utopia, Spiritual Utopia, Dionysian utopia and Rational utopia. 

Communist utopia relates to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the art that became part of everyday life.  Artists and achitects designed new types of buildings and innovative propaganda, sometimes referred to as constructivism.  Constructivism was not so much about decoration but functionalism and organisation.

At the heart of Social utopia was the idea that the machine and industry was a way of creating equality. Some designers incorporated the spiritual aspect (The Dutch group, De Stijl) while others like the Bauhaus school, abandoned it.

Spiritual utopia was a way of thinking that abandoned sterile materialism of the modern world and found expression from the intellect and soul. German Expressionist design was a prime example of this. 

Dionysian utopia was the idea that science and technology could transform the world.  Futurism was emotional and sensual, celebrating energy, violence and dynamism of modern urban life. 

Rational utopia had a more rational and practical approach to social change.  It held the views that mechanisation could improve daily life. 

Communist Utopia – Constructivism

The term 'construction art' was first used in 1917 to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko.

'Dance', 1915

The movement developed from Russian Futurism after World War 1. 

Constructivist theory derived from the Institute of Artistic Culture in Moscow, from 1920–22.

The founders of this abstract art movement are considered to be Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Vladimir Tatlin was largly influenced by cubism and Pablo Picasso.

Initially the constructivists worked on three dimensional constructions but later the term was used to describe two dimensional work too.  Montage and factography were a bit part of the two dimensional work. Factography refers a series of stories created by the communist regime out of real pieces from the past, changing the facts to create a greater truth.  The Constructivists were early developers of the techniques of photomontage.

The artists worked on designs for industry and also street designs for public festivals. One example is this propaganda poster by Lazar Markovich Lissitzky called 'Beat the whites with the red wedge'.  The red wedge represents the bolsheviks defeating their opponents in the Russian civil war.

The key work of Constructivism was Vladimir Tatlin's proposal for the Monument to the Third International (Tatlin's Tower) (1919–20). Tatlin's Tower was a design for a grand monumental building by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, that was never built. It was planned to be erected in Petrograd after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917,

Constructivists posters featured bright colours and geometric shapes, for example the work of the Stenberg brothers, Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg.

Poster for Dziga Vertov's The Man, Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg.

Some of the constructivists taught at the Bauhaus school in Germany.

Dionysian Utopia – Futurism

It was an artistic and socialist movement originating in Italy in early 20th century.  The artwork focused on the concepts of speed, youth, violence and technology. Its goal was to liberate Italy from its past. The founder of the movement was the Italian poet, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.  

Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound, 1913–1914

Many Italian Futurists supported Fascism in the hope of modernizing a country divided between the industrialising north and the rural, archaic South. Like the Fascists, the Futurists were Italian nationalists, radicals, admirers of violence, and were opposed to parliamentary democracy. After WW2 many Futurist artists had difficulty in their careers because of their association with a defeated and discredited regime.