UTOPIA LTD
21 September — 20 December 2013
FREE ENTRY
GRAD presents an exhibition of Soviet avant-garde artwork reconstructed for a contemporary audience. Utopia Ltd takes the blueprints for change laid down by the radical Constructivist group and reimagines them in three dimensions.
UTOPIA LTD
07 June — 31 August 2013
FREE ENTRY
Curated by JOHN MILNER and Elena Sudakova
Exhibition design by Calum Storrie and Katya Sivers
Photographs by Henry Milner and HUGH KELLY
GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design presents an exhibition of Soviet avant-garde artwork reconstructed for a contemporary audience. Utopia Ltd takes the blueprints for change laid down by the radical Constructivist group and reimagines them in three dimensions. Model maker Henry Milner creates striking sculptures inspired by the geometric experiments of Soviet artists El Lissitzky and Aleksandr Rodchenko, and brings to life designs by Vladimir Tatlin and the pioneering graphic artist from Latvia, Gustavs Klucis.
Henry Milner,
after Aleksandr Rodchenko
Spacial Construction (Hexagon)
from the series
Surfaces Reflecting Light, 2013, mirrored acrylic
Henry Milner,
after Aleksandr Rodchenko
Spacial Construction (Circle)
from the series
Surfaces Reflecting Light, 2013, mirrored acrylic
Henry Milner,
after Aleksandr Rodchenko
Spacial Construction (Oval)
from the series
Surfaces Reflecting Light, 2013, mirrored acrylic
Henry Milner,
after Aleksandr Rodchenko
Spacial Construction (Square)
from the series
Surfaces Reflecting Light, 2013, mirrored acrylic
From the mathematical precision of Rodchenko’s Oval Hanging Construction to the dimensional exploration of Lissitzky’s New Man, Milner brings together some of the most compelling artists from this incredible period of artistic innovation. Despite the gulf of time between their conception and Milner’s refined sculptural forms, his work still shares the spirit in which they were conceived. Where the Constructivists advocated for collaboration and momentum in their work, Milner accepts their open invitation to continue and experiment with forms and materials.
Henry Milner,
after El Lissitzky
The New Man
2009, wood, metal,
plexiglass, arcrylic
Henry Milner,
after El Lissitzky
2009, wood, metal,
plexiglass, arcrylic
Henry Milner,
after El Lissitzky
2009, wood, metal,
plexiglass, arcrylic
Henry Milner,
after El Lissitzky
Gravediggers
plexiglass, arcrylic
Tatlin! Poet of Propellers, austere oracle of airflow! One of the Sun-catchers!
Velimir Khlebnikov, 1916
Henry Milner,
after Vladimir Tatlin
2013, green ash, cork,
2013 leather, steel, calico,
cotton webbing, ply
and twine
A detailed flying machine of impossible ambition unfolds its wings at GRAD; its fragile structure bound by a skeletal frame, flutes and curves with avian symmetry. Inspired by anatomical study of seabirds, the founding father of Russian Constructivism, Vladimir Tatlin designed the Letatlin to fuse man and machine in one fluid unit, epitomising the figure of the Soviet artist-as-engineer. Another of Tatlin’s utopian visions constructed in painstaking detail by Milner at GRAD, is the hugely influential Monument to the Third International. Conceived as the headquarters of Communist world government, this mammoth feat of engineering, 400m in height, would allow the three sections of the structure to revolve independently, and although it was never built in reality, the idea has assumed a ubiquity that has seen countless revisions and reconstructions over the last century. Milner’s tower marks the first faithful reconstruction of Tatlin’s final refined design of 1925, the most accurate embodiment of this revolutionary monument.
Henry Milner,
after Vladimir Tatlin
Model for theMonument
to theThird International
(1925 version),
2013, wood, paper
Henry Milner,
after Gustavs Klucis
Design for a Stand with Rotating Slogan
2013, wood, paper
Co-curated by Courtauld Professor of 20th Century Russian Art, John Milner, and GRAD’s Director, Elena Sudakova, ‘Utopia Ltd’ is also the first significant UK presentation of work by Gustavs Klucis, the youngest of the Constructivists. Klucis upheld the principles of Soviet modernism, aspiring to a functional and revisionary use of architecture, design and public artwork to promote the Communist agenda. He developed a style that crossed mediums from paint to architecture, united by the eloquence of pure geometric form. His visionary designs for multi-media public address systems, combining print, projection, radio and live oratory platforms, preceded Western developments in this field by decades. Klucis introduced a devotion to practical aestheticism that today remains the principal tenet of contemporary product design. Transposing these visions into the present, Henry Milner reflects the transition the Constructivists introduced to the course of modern art and design.
Combining Milner’s ‘retro-engineered’ sculptures with his source materials, prints, and documentary film and photography from the period, Utopia Ltd immerses the viewer in the spirit of revolution. By showing these works constructed in three dimensions GRAD’s latest exhibition advances the Constructivists’ objective to reassess the visual culture we engage with daily, bringing a contemporary perspective to their original body of work.
Henry Milner is a Maker. He specializes in the realisation of lost and/or un-built works. Using archive data, he submerges himself into a subject and its original author to bring lost works to life.
After taking a degree in Product Design, he travelled around the world, frequently working as a photographer and model-maker. On his return to London, as Production Director for the established firm Pipers he designed and managed the construction of models for some of the city’s major architectural projects, including the Shard, Cannon Place, the proposed ‘Boomerang Tower’ for the Southbank and the enormous model of London at the NLA [New London Architecture] headquarters in Store Street. Since forming his own company in 2009, his major clients have included Scott Brownrigg, RTKL, MAKE and Ron Arad. He modelled the prestigious new extension designed by Rick Mather for Keble College, Oxford, and for his new buildings at the Salem Museum in Connecticut.
Milner’s extensive installations at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, marked a creative new departure. These were ambitious reconstructions of projects proposed by Lissitzky and Malevich but never realised in their day. Some were exhibited at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland, and at The World Fair in Beijing. In 2013 Henry worked with the Russian artist Ilya Kabakov on the exhibition Lissitzky - Kabakov in which his displays ‘after Lissitzky’ were contrasted with Kabakov’s own installations. A reduced version of the exhibition toured from Eindhoven to the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg in 2013. Henry’s works are in the permanent collections of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Henry Milner lives and works in London.
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‘Re-Constructivism’Edited by John Milner and Elena Sudakova
Published to accompany the exhibition ‘Utopia Ltd’ Contents: ‘Notwithstanding’ by John E. Bowlt and Nicoletta Misler ‘Gustavs Klucis: Stands for the revolution’ by Christina Lodder ‘Gustavs Klucis: A Pioneer of Multimedia Design’ by Aleksandr Shklyaruk ‘After Lissitzky’ by Willem Jan Renders ‘Re-constructivism’ by John Milner ‘Artist as Inventor and the Letatlin’ by Maria Tsantsanoglou Texts from the period translated into English for the first time, including ‘Art into Technology’ by Vladimir Tatlin ‘A Trip to Monino’ by Elena Sudakova For more information, please visit our Shop. |
UTOPIA LTD EVENTS
Free entry
LAUNCH OF ‘UTOPIAN REALITY’
28 November 2013
GRAD welcomed many distinguished guests to the launch of ‘Utopian Reality: Reconstructing Culture in Revolutionary Russia and Beyond’. Published by Brill and edited by Christina Lodder, Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva, this collection of essays deals with the manifestation of utopian aspirations in Russia of the 1920s and 1930s.
AN EVENING DEDICATED TO EL LISSITZKY
21 November 2013
The architect Gabor Stark visited GRAD to discuss his project ‘Black Currency | The Portable Monument’, a circulating tribute to El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Kueppers. The talk was accompanied by a screening of ‘El Lissitzky: A Film of the Life’, directed by Alexandra Arkhipova, curator of the ‘Worlds of El Lissitzky’ competition.
COME FLY WITH US! CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP
16 November 2013
GRAD invited our youngest visitors to engage with the works of Tatlin, Rodchenko, Lissitsky and Klucis through interactive games and activities. Drama, art and re-construction featured in a workshop led by drama teacher and performance artist Molly Flynn, with special guest model-maker Henry Milner.
‘KLUCIS. THE DECONSTRUCTION OF AN ARTIST’ (dir. Peteris Krilovs, 2008, 90’)
07 November 2013
The subject of this documentary, by outstanding Latvian director Peteris Krilovs, was Gustavs Klucis. One of the major exponents of Russian constructivism and a pioneer of Soviet agitprop graphic design and photomontage, Klucis fell victim to Stalin’s purges in the late 1930s.
‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. RODCHENKO’ (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2012, 52’)
24 October 2013
Another UK premiere at GRAD, this documentary explored the life of the leader of the Constructivist movement using memories, diaries, letters and manifestos. The screening was followed by ‘Man with a Photo Camera’ (21’), a film-essay by Ilya Lainer about Rodchenko as a photographer, presented in partnership with the Sepherot Foundation, Liechtenstein.
‘INSIDE THE RAINBOW’, BOOK LAUNCH
17 October 2013
GRAD hosted the launch of the extraordinary book ‘Inside the Rainbow: Russian Children’s Literature 1920–1935: Beautiful Books, Terrible Times’, edited by Julian Rothenstein and Olga Budashevskaya, the first publication of its kind in the English language. The event was centred around a musical and theatrical performance that involved actors, acrobats and children re-enacting stories featured in the book, directed by the prominent UK theatre director Irina Brown.
‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. TATLIN’ (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2009, 80’)
10 October 2013
Shown for the first time in the UK, this documentary about Vladimir Tatlin explored the artistic development of the father of Russian Constructivism through the diaries and memoirs of his contemporaries. The screening was followed by an engaging panel discussion with Ilya Lainer, the film’s director, and film historian Lutz Becker, chaired by Elena Sudakova.
‘UTOPIA LTD’ OPENING SEMINAR
21 September 2013
The exhibition opened with a seminar that brought together an international panel of experts in Russian art and design, chaired by Professor John Milner (Courtauld Institute of Art). Speakers included museum curators, such as Willem Jan Renders (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven) and Maria Tsantsanoglou (Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki), as well as academics such as Christina Lodder (University of Kent, Canterbury). The event ended with an illuminating discussion between the speakers and Henry Milner, whose re-imagined Constructivist structures are on display in the exhibition.
TATPROM PROJECT AND PREVIEW OF ‘UTOPIA LTD’
13 June 2013
GRAD presented a special evening preview in advance of the exhibition ‘Utopia Ltd’, a display of architectural models by Henry Milner inspired by the Russian avant-garde. The event was accompanied by lectures from Professor John Milner, architect Charles Phu and Henry Milner, who investigated two distinctive building projects as embodiments of their time: the Tatlin Tower and the Lakhta Tower (also known as the Gazprom Tower).