Vkhutemas

Architecture at Vkhutemas, book cover by El Lissitzky, 1927

Vkhutemas (Russian: Вхутемас, IPA: [fxʊtʲɪˈmas], acronym for Высшие художественно-технические мастерские Vysshiye Khudozhestvenno-Tekhnicheskiye Masterskiye "Higher Art and Technical Studios") was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas.

The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin[1] with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for industry, and builders and managers for professional-technical education".[2][3] The school had 100 faculty members[4] and an enrollment of 2,500 students.[5] Vkhutemas was formed by a merger of two previous schools: the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Stroganov School of Applied Arts.[6] The workshops had artistic and industrial faculties; the art faculty taught courses in graphics, sculpture and architecture while the industrial faculty taught courses in printing, textiles, ceramics, woodworking, and metalworking.[7]

Vkhutemas was a center for three major movements in avant garde art and architecture: constructivism, rationalism, and suprematism. In the workshops, the faculty and students transformed attitudes to art and reality with the use of precise geometry with an emphasis on space, in one of the great revolutions in the history of art.[1] In 1926, the school was reorganized under a new rector and its name was changed from "Studios" to "Institute" (Вхутеин, Высший художественно-технический институт, Vkhutein, Vysshiy Khudozhestvenno-Tekhnicheskii Institut), or Vkhutein.

The school was dissolved in 1930 following political and internal pressures throughout its ten-year existence. Its faculty, students, and legacy were dispersed into as many as six other schools.[8]

  1. ^ a b (in Russian) D. Shvedkovsky, Пространство ВХУТЕМАСа Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Современный Дом, 2002.
  2. ^ (in Russian) Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Вхутемас
  3. ^ (in Russian) "подготовить художников-мастеров высшей квалификации для промышленности, а также конструкторов и руководителей для профессионально-технического образования" – Собрание узаконений и распоряжений Рабочего и Крестьянского Правительства, 1920, 19 декабря, № 98, ст. 522, с. 540 – Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Вхутемас
  4. ^ Sybil Gordon Kantor, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art, MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 0-262-61196-1
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ George Heard Hamilton, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880–1940, Yale University Press, 1993, page 315, ISBN 0-300-05649-4
  7. ^ (in Russian) T. V. Kotovich, Encyclopedia of the Russian Avantgarde, Minsk: Ekonompress, 2003, page 83.
  8. ^ (in Russian) КАК проект, ШКОЛА МОДЕРНИЗМА Archived 2007-09-10 at the Wayback Machine accessed 2 August 2007.