Tatlin: New Art for a New World

by Simon Baier

"Painter, architect, engineer, set designer, father to the Russian Constructivist movement, inventor of the 'counter-relief' and author of one of modernism's greatest icons, the 'Monument to the Third International,' Vladimir Tatlin blazed an incredible trail of innovation through the glory years of the Soviet avant-garde. Nevertheless, 'Not the old, not the new, but the necessary' was his motto; having spent his early years as an icon painter, Tatlin eschewed the modernist disavowal of heritage in favor of a research-based attitude to materials and genres. His 'counter-relief' sculptures,...