Varvara Stepanova: a Constructivist Life

by A.N. Lavrentiev

VARVARA STEPANOVA A CONSTRUCTIVIST LIFE ALEXANDER LAVRENTIEV CONSTRUCTIVISM ART 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN ARTISTS RODCHENKO

190 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I find the idea of constructivism appealing - a sort of abstract, industrialised art - but in practice it didn't pan out for me with Stepanova's work. She clearly led a very interesting life, but this book is - as might be expected in the biography of an artist - heavily illustrated with her various works, and I found them all... a bit boring, really. I don't think I really warmed to any of them, and even then my dislike was never piqued to any notable level. They were just all very mildly dull. The one thing she did which caught my aesthetic attention was a set design for a 1922 play, The Death of Tarelkin, which was very skeletal and architectural and which I quite liked, but as for the rest of her work... meh. More interesting to read about than to view, I think.

[Eleanor]

Great illustrations but the translation is terrible, making it almost unreadable.