Title: Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant-Garde
Author: Catherine Cooke
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, 1990
Text edited by Catherine Cooke; 143 pages, color and black and white illustrations
Published in conjunction with a 1990 exhibition sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art, Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant-Garde features works created during the prolific period of modern art and architecture from 1917 to 1935. Following the October Revolution in Russia, Soviet architects strove to reconcile constructivist impulses and abstraction with the demands placed upon their structures by the government under Lenin and Stalin. The book looks at how architects served political bodies while using the plastic arts to subtly invoke progressive ideals. Soviet architecture specialist Catherine Cooke looks at the history of Russian architecture, its change in social priorities, and how theories in art and architecture melded in spirited works. Black–and–white and color photographs of buildings, models, drawings, collage, and whimsical architectural daydreams form the majority of the illustrations. Notably, photographs and drawings of now-demolished modernist experimentations from the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft industries exhibition from 1923 are reprinted along with obscure architectural drawing abstractions from Vladimir Krinsky and Alexander Gegello. One of the most striking sections in the book is the collection of radically different designs from various Soviet architects for the Palace of Soviets building design competition. An epilogue explains the history of the A.V. Shchusev State Research Museum of Architecture in Moscow and how it was the first museum in the world dedicated to architecture.
