Description
Book SynopsisExamines how Russian Constructivist artists in the 1920s imagined a new physical environment through the creation of recycled and reappropriated objects.
Trade Review“This is an important multi-disciplinary publication and should be in any library with readers interested in film, fashion, and ceramics, as well as early Soviet history and culture.”
—Stephen J. Bury ARLIS/NA Reviews
“A fascinating and beautifully illustrated cultural history of the artists who made it their business to recycle the rubble of one world into the everyday items of a new one. . . . This book remains a fascinating testament to the achievements these artists left behind.”
—Rodney Welch Columbia Free Times
“This book is informative, full of well-chosen imagery, and ultimately inspiring too.”
—Michael Mosher Leonardo Reviews
“Those familiar with twentieth century Russian history will read Catherine Walworth’s Soviet Salvage feeling the pendulum about to swing like a wrecking ball against the arts.”
—Samuel Scheib Russian Life
“Perhaps the most salient feature of Russian Constructivism is that its universal reputation rests not upon what it produced, but rather upon its unfulfilled intentions, dreams, blueprints, and prototypes. Drawing on rare bibliographical and archival sources and moving across film, photography, fashion, and other media, Catherine Walworth describes the ‘sweet nothings’ of the Constructivists by emphasizing their reliance on the ‘salvage’ of throwaway objects, built-in obsolescence, chance, and art trouvé. In this way she brings to bear an alternative and refreshing light upon the later phase of the Russian avant-garde, offering us a truly synthetic and interdisciplinary assessment.”
—John E. Bowlt,author of Russian Art of the Avant-Garde: Theory and Criticism, 1902–1934
“This lucidly written and generously illustrated publication offers fresh insights by bringing methods of material culture to bear on the complexities of cultural production in the first decade of Bolshevik rule.”
—Tom Cubbin West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Introduction
1 The Economic Shaping of Constructivism
2 A Blank Slate: The First Years of Soviet Propaganda Porcelain
3 Nadezhda Lamanova: On the Elegant Fringes of Constructivist Dress
4 Esfir Shub: “Magician of the Editing Table”
5 The Five-Year Plan Prompts a Fire Sale
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
