Aleš Erjavec is Research Professor in the Institute of Philosophy of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is the author of
This chapter focuses on the development of constructivism in Soviet Russia during the 1920s. It passes through various phases of the movement, touching upon notions of “pure” form, utilitarianism, and agitational or political application. While the achievements of artists such as Popova and Rodchenko are examined in detail, attention is also given to the theoretical or “aesthetic” supporters of constructivism or, at least, of the radical art such as Arvatov, Brik, Gan, Punin, and Tarabukin—arguments being that a primary aspiration of the constructivists was to reduce art to a formula, to make it accessible to the masses. In this regard, emphasis is placed on the formula that Punin elaborated in his analysis of modern art (1920) and on the 1921 exhibition 5 × 5 = 25.
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