1885 -1953 · From painting to material constructivism

Wood, metal, tension and real space make Vladimir Tatlin one of the most radical inventors of the Russian avant-garde.

Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was born in Moscow in 1885 and died in the same city in 1953. As a teenager, he became involved as a sailor and discovered the ports of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. This experience nourished Le Marin, a stylized self-portrait where the frontal silhouette, the flat areas and the decorative rhythm already announced his taste for construction. Tatlin studied in several Russian schools, attended Larionov and Goncharova, exhibited with the avant-gardes and assimilated the icon, popular art and cubism. During a stay in Paris in 1913, he saw Picasso's constructions. Upon his return, he gradually abandoned representation for reliefs composed of wood, metal, cardboard, glass, rope and plaster. Corner counter-reliefs no longer rest on a wall like paintings: threads, planes and curves tend the real space between two walls. The material imitates nothing; its texture, weight and resistance become the subject. After the revolution of 1917, Tatline designed the Monument to the Third International. Presented in 1920, this immense projected spiral was to house rotating geometric volumes devoted to political and media functions. Never built, the tower nevertheless became the emblem of a new, dynamic and collective architecture. Never built, the tower nevertheless became the emblem of a new, dynamic and collective architecture. Tatline teaches, works for theater, clothing, furniture and material culture. At the end of the in the 1920s, he developed Letatlin, an individual flying machine inspired by the anatomy of birds, another dream of uniting technique and organic form. His career, caught between experimentation and Soviet constraints, lastingly redefined the border between painting, sculpture, architecture and design. The "Vladimir Tatlin" selection notably compares The Sailor and Monument to the Third International. His reading favors drawing.

At Tatline, the material ceases to obey the image: wood, iron and wire discover their own energy in real space.