The Artist as Producer reshapes our understanding of the fundamental contribution of the Russian avant-garde to the development of modernism. Focusing on the single most important hotbed of Constructivist activity in the early 1920s―the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK) in Moscow―Maria Gough offers a powerful reinterpretation of the work of the first group of artists to call themselves Constructivists. Her lively narrative ranges from famous figures such as Aleksandr Rodchenko to others who are much less well known, such as Karl Ioganson, a key member of the state-funded INKhUK whose work paved the way for an eventual dematerialization of the integral art object. Through the mining of untapped archives and collections in Russia and Latvia and a close reading of key Constructivist works, Gough highlights fundamental differences among the Moscow group in their handling of the experimental new sculptural form―the spatial construction―and of their subsequent shift to industrial production. The Artist as Producer upends the standard view that the Moscow group's formalism and abstraction were incompatible with the sociopolitical imperatives of the new Communist state. It challenges the common equation of Constructivism with functionalism and utilitarianism by delineating a contrary tendency toward non-determinism and an alternate orientation to process rather than product. Finally, the book counters the popular perception that Constructivism failed in its ambition to enter production by presenting the first-ever case study of how a Constructivist could, and in fact did, operate within an industrial environment. The Artist as Producer offers provocative new perspectives on three critical issues―formalism, functionalism, and failure―that are of central importance to our understanding not only of the Soviet phenomenon but also of the European vanguards more generally.

The Artist as Producer: Russian Constructivism in Revolution

Arts & Photography

Gough, Maria

History & Criticism

University of California Press

This publication offers a definitive, career-spanning exploration of Polish sculptor Monika Sosnowska (born 1972), known for manipulating ordinary forms and spaces into fascinating and often disorienting new configurations. Freed from their original functionality, her architectonic works and environments evoke a moment when, as she puts it, “architectural space begins to take on the characteristics of mental space.” Optical illusions, shifts in scale, mazes, and other such techniques that challenge the intellect of the viewer are motifs throughout her oeuvre. Published for an exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum, this volume documents a decade’s worth of Sosnowska’s objects, installations and exhibitions and features new scholarship by Maria Gough, Adam Szymczyk and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson. It is the most comprehensive book on the artist in English to date.

Monika Sosnowska (ASPEN ART PRESS)

Szymczyk, Adam

Jacobson, Heidi Zuckerman

Aspen Art Press

The publication will include essays devoted either to particular problems within the artist-run organization or essayistic comparative studies. The conference organized in 2017 with the participation of scholars such as Maria Gough, Rebecca Uchill as well as Julian Myers and Joanna Szupińska was serving as a starting point for the development of its content. Besides, we have invited Masha Chlenova, Sandra Loschke, two former YUAG curators, Jennifer Gross and Frauke Josenhans, as well as several Polish authors to contribute to this publication. In total, we are planning to publish thirteen texts in two separate, Polish and English, versions. Both will contain, besides the mentioned texts, a selection of source materials, iconographical and textual. The publication will include essays devoted either to particular problems within the artist-run organization or essayistic comparative studies. The conference organized in 2017 with the participation of scholars such as Maria Gough, Rebecca Uchill as well as Julian Myers and Joanna Szupińska was serving as a starting point for the development of its content. Besides, we have invited Masha Chlenova, Sandra Loschke, two former YUAG curators, Jennifer Gross and Frauke Josenhans, as well as several Polish authors to contribute to this publication. In total, we are planning to publish thirteen texts in two separate, Polish and English, versions. Both will contain, besides the mentioned texts, a selection of source materials, iconographical and textual.

The Avant-Garde Museum: Ausst. Kat. Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz 2021/2022

Gross, Jennifer

Chlenova, Mascha

Josenhans, Frauke

Loschke, Sandra

Muzyczuk, Daniel

Uchill, Rebecca

Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig

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