VKhUTEMAS

About the School

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  Aleksandr Rodchenko. The Courtyard of VKhUTEMAS. 1926–28. Gelatin silver print, 9 1/8 x 6 11/16" (23.2 x 17 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

  VKhUTEMAS is an acronym for Vysshie khudozhestvenno-tekhnicheskie masterskie (Higher state artistic and technical studios).[1] Established in 1920 in Moscow as the successor of SVOMAS (Free state art studios), it was conceived as a specialized institution that would prepare qualified master artists, professors, and directors to work in both industry and higher education. It aimed to fulfill the state’s goals for efficiency and production by linking art with politics. The curriculum of VKhUTEMAS was similar to that of the Bauhaus. First-year students were required to complete the basic course, which covered subjects including color theory, construction, and art history, providing both an artistic and a political education. Other concentrations included metalwork, woodwork, textiles, and architecture. Although photography and film were not formally taught at VKhUTEMAS, they were used as supplemental mediums for related projects, such as sketching from photographs or photographing objects for study. Aleksandr Rodchenko, who joined the faculty of VKhUTEMAS shortly after its founding, taught the construction component and metalworking classes and lectured on topics such as “The Graphic Construction of a Plane.” It was at this time that Rodchenko and others turned away from abstract painting and toward spatial constructions and photography, which allowed the Russian avant-garde movement known as Constructivism to move beyond philosophical inquiries about the nature of art and to consider art as industrial production—and a means of educating the public.[2]  The roster of students and faculty at VKhUTEMAS included Alexandra Ekster, Gustav Klutsis, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and Lyubov Popova. In 1928 VKhUTEMAS was reorganized and renamed VKhUTEIN (Higher art and technical institute), and in 1930 it closed permanently.

  —Ksenia Nouril

  [1] Masterskie is commonly translated as “workshops” in this context; however, “studios” is the literal translation.

  [2] Alfred H. Barr, Jr., “Russian Diary 1927–28,” October 7 (Winter 1978): 21. This text makes reference to INKhUK (Institute of artistic culture) in Moscow, which was active from 1920 to 1922, and its movement away from easel painting or the art object toward production and industry. Members of INKhUK included Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Vesnin, Varvara Stepanova, and the theorists Aleksei Gan, Boris Arvatov, and Osip Brik. See Maria Gough, The Artist as Producer: Russian Constructivism in Revolution (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2005), for detailed descriptions of these events.

Related Links

• Cultural Hubs Moscow
  
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Related Events

Walther Artists

• Instructor

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    Gustav Klutsis
    Latvian
    1895 -1938
  • 
    El Lissitzky
    Russian
    1890 -1941
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    Aleksandr Rodchenko
    Russian
    1891 -1956

• Student

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    Gustav Klutsis
    Latvian
    1895 -1938
  • 
    Georgii Zimin
    Russian
    1900 -1985

Walther Photographs

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  Untitled
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  N²ATUR + T²ECHNIK + K²UNST = √-1 = i
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  Kurt Schwitters
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  Self-Portrait
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  Untitled
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  Untitled (El Lissitzky Working on a Stage Design of Sergei Tretyakov's Play "I Want a Baby" in the Meyerhold Theater)
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  Record
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  Untitled