Tatlin

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Best remembered as a visionary architect who worked in industrial design, Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953) based his famous model for the Monument to the Third International on the centuries-old Russian tradition of erecting a monument in the form of a building. A sailor, an icon-painter's assistant and a prop-maker at the Moscow opera during various phases of his checkered career, he combined a constructivist analysis of the living dynamics of bodies and objects with a feel for ancient Russian art and ordinary people, as reflected in his portraits of fishermen, book illustrations, costumes, interior decorations, ceramics, studies of female and male nudes. The virtue of this scholarly monograph lies in its rounded view of all phases of Tatlin's output, aided by reproductions of hitherto unavailable artworks from Soviet museums, archives and private collections. The album includes essays by Soviet art historians, commentaries by Tatlin's contemporaries and a generous selection of his writings on "material culture" as the bedrock of a new, humanistic design.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Though probably best known for his leadership in the Russian Constructivist movement, Vladimir Tatlin's contributions to modern art are profound. To prepare this book, which was ten years in the making, editor Zhadova drew together original writings and documentation from various Soviet institutions. The resulting book, while dense in compilation and translated commentary, is an invaluable first English-language edition for serious art historical research. Though collections are better served by the broader context of John Milner's Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant-garde ( LJ 9/1/83), Tatlin is an essential acquisition for specialized art libraries.
- Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.