1910 -1930s · Fragmented body, modern craft and constructed figure

The constructivist portrait does not only seek resemblance: face, tool, clothing and movement are reconstructed as the active pieces of a modern world.

In the Russian avant-gardes of the early 20th century, the human figure crossed cubo-futurism, suprematism and constructivism. Tatlin fragments sailor, fishmonger or model into dense volumes which retain the weight of a profession and a body. Alexandra Exter transforms the nude and groups into combinations of colored planes, while Ivan Kliun sometimes combines face and mechanics to the point of making worker, saw and rotation inseparable. Mikhail Matiouchine uses the self-portrait to test a broader perception, less attached to the stable outline than to the forces that cross the subject. After the Revolution of 1917, the idea of an artist-builder and the search for socially art useful further moves the representation. The body becomes a stage actor, machine operator or unit of a collective composition. This collection therefore brings together different paths, united by the desire to build the figure rather than simply imitate it. The "Portraits and constructivist figures" selection notably compares female model and Poissonnier. His reading favors movement.

The constructivist figure is not posed in the face of modernity: its plans, its tools and its tensions show that it has become one of its mechanisms.