Alexander Vesnin

Alexander Vesnin
Photo by Alexander Rodchenko, 1924 (fragment)
BornMay 28, 1883
Yuryevets, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedSeptember 7, 1959 (aged 76)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian Empire, Soviet Union
Alma materInstitute of Civil Engineers,
Saint Petersburg
OccupationArchitect
PracticeVesnin brothers
BuildingsDnieper Hydroelectric Station
ZiL Palace of Culture

Alexander Aleksandrovich Vesnin (Russian: Александр Александрович Веснин; 28 May 1883 – 7 September 1959), together with his brothers Leonid and Viktor, was a leading light of Constructivist architecture.[1] He is best known for his meticulous perspectival drawings such as Leningrad Pravda of 1924.

In addition to being an architect, he was a theatre designer and painter,[2] frequently working with Lyubov Popova on designs for workers' festivals, and for the theatre of Tairov. He was one of the exhibitors in the pioneering Constructivist exhibition 5×5=25 in 1921. He was the head, along with Moisei Ginzburg, of the Constructivist OSA Group.[3] Among the completed buildings designed by the Vesnin brothers in the later 1920s were department stores, a club for former Tsarist political prisoners as well as the Likachev Works Palace of Culture in Moscow. Vesnin was a vocal supporter of the works of Le Corbusier,[4] and acclaimed his Tsentrosoyuz building as 'the best building constructed in Moscow for a century'. After the return to Classicism in the Soviet Union, Vesnin had no further major projects.

Selected work

  • 1934 People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry Project
  • 1930 Oilworkers' Club, Baku[5]
  • 1930-36 Likachev Palace of Culture, Moscow
  • 1928 House of Film Actors, Moscow
  • 1926 Mostorg department store, Moscow
  • 1924 Leningradskaya Pravda project
  • 1922-23 Palace of Labor project[6]

References

  1. ^ Khan-Magomedov, S.O. (1996). Architecture of the Soviet avant-garde: In 2 books: B. 1: Formation problems. Masters and currents. Moscow: Stroyizdat.
  2. ^ Chinyakov, A.G. (1970). The Vesnin brothers. Moscow: Stroyizdat.
  3. ^ Khan-Magomedov, S.O. (1994). ASNOVA, OSA and INKHUK group. Creative trends, concepts and organizations of the Soviet avant-garde. Series of issues of VNIITAG No. 4. Moscow: VNIITAG.
  4. ^ Chinyakov, A.G. (1969). "Le Corbusier and Vesnin Brothers". Soviet Architecture. 18: 133–142.
  5. ^ "Russian Constructivism in the Provinces > Photos". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
  6. ^ "Russian Utopia: a depository". Utopia.ru. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  • S.N Khan-Magomedov, Alexander Vesnin and Russian Constructivism (Thames and Hudson, 1988)
  • Khan-Magomedov S. O. Architecture of the Soviet avant-garde: In 2 books: B. 1: Formation problems. Masters and currents. - M .: Stroyizdat. 1996 .-- 709 pp., Ill. ISBN 5-274-02045-3.
  • A.G. Chinyakov. The Vesnin brothers. Moscow, 1970.