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VESNIN BROTHERS
 
 
 
 
  Name  

Leonid Vesnin (Веснин, Леонид Александрович)

Victor Vesnin (Веснин, Виктор Александрович)

Alexander Vesnin (Веснин, Александр Александрович)

       
  Born  

Leonid Vesnin: November 28, 1880

Victor Vesnin: April 9, 1882

Alexander Vesnin: May 28, 1883

       
  Died  

Leonid Vesnin: October 8, 1933

Victor Vesnin: September 17, 1950

Alexander Vesnin: September 7, 1959

       
  Nationality   Russia
       
  School   CONSTRUCTIVISM
       
  Official website    
     
 
BIOGRAPHY
   

Among the many architects whose work adhered to the principles of Constructivism, perhaps the most stalwart and productive proponents of the movement were the Vesnin brothers: Leonid (1880–1933), Viktor (1882–1950), and Alexander (1883–1959), all of whom were raised in the town of Iurevets on the Volga River.

Although the brothers went to St. Petersburg at the beginning of the century for their professional education (Leonid graduated from the architectural program at the Academy of Arts in 1909 and Viktor and Alexander from the Institute of Civil Engineering in 1912), their careers were largely connected with Moscow both before and after their graduation. For example, in 1905–07 they worked as assistants to such leading Moscow proponents of the neoclassical revival as Ilarion Ivanov-Schitz and Roman Klein, and in 1909 Leonid worked with the artist V.A. Simonov in designing a large Arts and Craftsstyle house for V.A. Nosenkov in the Moscow suburbs. Alexander, the most artistically gifted of the three, worked in Vladimir Tatlin’s studio between 1912 and 1914 and also revealed a considerable talent as a stage designer.

During the material restrictions of the early postrevolutionary years, the theater stage provided the Vesnins—Alexander in particular—with a means for exploring methods of dynamic construction in space, under the obvious influence of Tatlin. The most remarkable product of this phase was Alexander Vesnin’s set design in 1922 for Alexander Tairov’s production of The Man Who Was Thursday at the Moscow Chamber (Kamernyi) Theater. With its intersecting planes and ramps, the set not only emphasized the dynamic of the actors’ motion but also bridged the gap between the theoretical constructions of artists such as El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and Antoine Pevsner and the practical design of large structures.

The Vesnins’ progression from dynamic, avant-garde set constructions to the much larger scale of major architectural projects was soon evident in their 1923 design for the Palace of Labor competition. Although their submission was awarded only third prize, it served as a programmatic statement in the development of a Constructivist aesthetic, combining both monumentality and severe functionalism in the massing of simple geometric shapes in a complex balance. The center of the plan was the oval meeting hall in the form of an amphitheater, 75 by 67 meters in size. The array of radio masts and docking ports for airships around the top was functionally justified despite its futuristic appearance in the context of a war-ravaged country reestablishing a modicum of civilized existence.

In 1925 Alexander and Viktor Vesnin, together with Moisei Ginzburg, founded the Constructivist organization OSA (Organization of Contemporary Architecture). Indeed, the preceding year Alexander had designed the book jacket for Ginzburg’s programmatic work Style and Epoch. With the quickening tempo of state construction during the late 1920s, all three brothers were actively engaged in projects extending from the Caucasus to the colossal hydroelectric dam across the Dnieper River, the DneproGES, designed by Viktor Vesnin in collaboration with Nikolai Kolli and others. Although each brother maintained a separate, distinct practice, they are best known for the projects they did together.

The brief flourishing of private commerce toward the end of the New Economic Policy (NEP) period is represented in the Vesnins’ design of the Mostorg retail department store (1927–29) in central Moscow. Located on an awkward trapezoidal lot in the Krasnaia Presnia working-class district, the store, with its double-glazed facade framed by a ferroconcrete structure, appeared strikingly modern when first constructed in its context of 19th-century brick buildings. It has since suffered by the addition of another story and by a lack of proper maintenance.

Like other major architects of the late 1920s, the Vesnins were much concerned with the creation of institutions for social communication. One of the most modernistic of such designs—and one of the last Constructivist buildings in Moscow—was the club for the Society of Tsarist Political Prisoners, begun in 1931. In addition to meeting rooms and a theater hall, the extensive complex was to contain a museum. In 1934, however, the society was disbanded (an ominous prelude to the Stalinist purges, which would create an altogether new society of political prisoners), and the larger plans for a museum were eliminated. Even in this truncated and deformed version, the harmony of the pure, undecorated volumetric forms is evident and reflects, if coincidentally, some of the oldest formal traditions in Russian architecture.

The culminating project in the Vesnins’ Constructivist oeuvre was an outgrowth of the concept of the workers’ club. In order to serve the social needs of the Proletarian district, which contained an automobile factory and workers’ settlement in southeast Moscow, the Vesnins designed a large complex of three buildings. The site overlooked the Moscow River and was adjacent to the Simonov Monastery, part of whose walls were razed in the course of constructing the project. Yet the largest part of the ensemble, a theater with a circular hall designed to seat 4000, was never built, nor was the projected sports building. The central element, however—the club building itself—was built between 1931 and 1937. This period was marred by the death of Leonid in 1933 and by the brothers’ increasing need to defend their Constructivist designs.

Nonetheless, the Vesnins persevered to a remarkable degree, bending to the system without rejecting the work that stood at the center of the Constructivist movement. In their writings it is clear that Viktor and Alexander Vesnin considered the Proletarian Region Club one of their most significant works, not only for its union of functions—a 1000-seat theater, ballroom, meeting halls, and exhibition space—but also for the way in which form followed function and space flowed effortlessly from one component to another.

The manner in which the design combined an acute aesthetic sensibility with function was particularly important at a time when Constructivism was under attack for its purported inability to recognize the people’s aesthetic needs. In the club building, the Vesnins’ fluency was reflected on the exterior in such details as the contours of the large rounded bay window over the entrance to the auditorium and a semicircular conservatory extending from the river facade. The club also included a small astronomy observatory, which created an additional visual component for the upper structure. Unfortunately, the interior of the building has been considerably modified since the Vesnins’ original design, but the structure itself is still relatively well maintained.

In 1935 the Vesnin brothers attempted a reply to the growing retrospectivist tendency in Stalinist architecture by stating that “the canonization of an old form, however excellent, is a brake on the development of content.” At the same time, Viktor and Alexander remained active in the architectural profession, were awarded high state honors, and participated in major competitions, such as the design for the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry (unrealized). Although structural concepts of the classical revival with which they began their careers appeared in their later designs, they continued to reject the role of monumental painting and sculpture that became so prominent in architecture of the late Stalinist period. To the end they adhered to their belief in the integrity of structure as the determining principle in architectural design.

WILLIAM C.BRUMFIELD

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
TIMELINE
   

Alexander Vesnin

16 May 1883 Born in Iurevets, Russia;

1901–12 Attended the Institute of Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg;

1909–11 studied painting with Yan Tsionglinsky, St. Petersburg, and Konstantin Yuon, Moscow ;

1913–14 visited Italy and studied Palladio ;

1909–11 Assistant to Ilarion Ivanov-Schitz, Roman Klein, and O.R. Munts ;

1912–13 worked in Vladimir Tatlin’s studio, The Tower ;

1916–17 Served in the Russian Army ;

1920 Became involved in stage design ;

1926–30 editor, with Moisei Ginzburg, Sovremennaya arkhitektura;

1933–35 director, architecture studio of the Mussoviet, then the architecture studio of the Commissariat for Heavy Industry and Ministry of Petroleum ;

1921–24 Professor of painting, VKhUTEMAS, Moscow ;

1930–36 taught at the Institute of Architecture, Moscow ;

1921 Member, Inkhuk (Russian Institute of Artistic Culture) ;

1925 founded, with Ginzburg, OSA (Russian Union of Contemporary Architects) ;

1933 member, All Union Academy of Architecture ;

7 November 1959 Died in Moscow, Russia.

 

Leonid Vesnin

10 December 1880 Born in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia;

1901–09 Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg ;

1922 Professor of architectural design, Moscow Higher Technical College. Member, OSA (Russian Union of Contemporary Architects); copresident, Moscow Association of Architects ;

Received the Order of the Red Banner.

8 October 1933 Died in Moscow, Russia.

 

Viktor Vesnin

9 April 1882 Born in Iurevets, Russia;

1901–1912 Attended the Institute of Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg ;

1913–14 visited Italy and studied Palladio ;

1909–11 Assistant to Ilarion Ivanov-Schitz, Roman Klein, and O.R. Munts ;

1933–35 director, architecture studio of the Mussoviet, then the architecture studio of the Commissariat for Heavy Industry and Ministry of Petroleum ;

1930– 36 Taught at the Institute of Architecture, Moscow ;

1937–49 Secretary, Union of Soviet Architects ;

1939–49 first president, All Union Academy of Architecture ;

1945 member, OSA (Russian Union of Contemporary Architects). Received the Order of Lenin; Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects ;

17 September 1950 Died in Moscow, Russia.

 

Alexander, Leonid, and Viktor Vesnin

Collaborated on numerous projects but never established a formal partnership; most active in the period between world wars.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
FURTHER READING
   

There are many publications in English on the Vesnins’ work, most notably KhanMagomedov’s monumental study. A comprehensive Russian selection of their writings from 1922 to 1947 is contained in the Barkhin volume.

Barkhin, M.G., et al. (editors), Mastera sovetskoi arkhitektury ob arkhitekture (Masters of Soviet Architecture on Architecture), 2 vols., Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1975

Brumfield, William C., The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991

Cooke, Catherine, Russian Avant-Garde: Theories of Art, Architecture, and the City, London: Academy Editions, 1995

Ilin, Mikhail, Vesniny, Moscow: Izd-vo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1960

Khan-Magomedov, S.O., Alexandre Vesnine et le constructivisme russe, Paris: Sers, 1986; as Alexander Vesnin and Russian Constructivism, New York: Rizzoli, and London: Lund Humphries, 1986

Lodder, Christina, Russian Constructivism, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1983; third edition, 1987

Riabushin, A.V., and N.I.Smolina, Landmarks of Soviet Architecture, 1917–1991, New York: Rizzoli, 1992

Zemtsov, S.M. (editor), Zodchie Moskvy (Architects of Moscow), 2 vols., Moscow: Moskovskii Rabochii, 1981–88

 

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