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Past exhibitions

Mother Tongue 09 March — 11 May 2019

Apparition of the Last Soviet Artist in London 16 October — 17 October 2018

ShadowMemory x Art Night Open 07 July — 08 July 2018

ShadowMemory х Ural Biennial 14 September — 12 November 2017

Postponed Futures 26 April — 24 June 2017

Destined To Be Happy 02 December 2016 — 28 February 2017

Superwoman: ‘Work, Build and Don’t Whine' 18 June — 15 October 2016

Unexpected Eisenstein 17 February — 30 April 2016

Between The Lines 26 January — 08 February 2016

Peripheral Visions 02 October — 30 November 2015

Bonobo 17 July — 30 August 2015

DNA Swap 05 June — 11 June 2015

Documenting Ukraine 14 May — 17 May 2015

Borderlands 20 March — 16 May 2015

Bolt 06 December 2014 — 28 February 2015

A Game in Hell. The Great War in Russia 27 September — 26 November 2014

Work and Play Behind the Iron Curtain 20 June — 31 August 2014

The Shabolovka Tower Model 31 May — 12 June 2014

Taint 08 April — 03 May 2014

Kino/Film: Soviet Posters of the Silent Screen 17 January — 29 March 2014

Utopia LTD 21 September — 20 December 2013

See USSR 07 June — 31 August 2013

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UTOPIA LTD

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.

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Henry Milner Photo

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.


‘Re-Constructivism’
‘Re-Constructivism’
Edited by John Milner and Elena Sudakova

Published to accompany the exhibition ‘Utopia Ltd’
(21 September — 20 December 2013)
112 pages, fully illustrated


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.

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AN EVENING DEDICATED TO EL LISSITZKY

21 November 2013

AN EVENING DEDICATED TO EL LISSITZKY

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.

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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.

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‘KLUCIS. THE DECONSTRUCTION OF AN ARTIST’ (dir. Peteris Krilovs, 2008, 90’)

07 November 2013

‘KLUCIS. THE DECONSTRUCTION OF AN ARTIST’ (dir. Peteris Krilovs, 2008, 90’)

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.

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‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. RODCHENKO’ (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2012, 52’)

24 October 2013

‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. RODCHENKO’  (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2012, 52’)

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.

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‘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.

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‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. TATLIN’ (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2009, 80’)

10 October 2013

‘CONSTRUCTIVISTS: EXPERIMENTS FOR THE FUTURE. TATLIN’  (dir. Ilya Lainer, 2009, 80’)

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.

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‘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.

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TATPROM PROJECT AND PREVIEW OF ‘UTOPIA LTD’

13 June 2013

TATPROM PROJECT AND PREVIEW OF ‘UTOPIA LTD’

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).

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