Avant-Garde as Method
Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920â1930
âThis magnificent book demonstrates how Vkhutemasâs dynamics, mission, personalitiesâand particularly its achievements in design, art and architectureâhave stood the test of time, unlike any other educational project in modern history. [âŠ] Every page is a revelation.â Michal Boncza, Morning Star, on the first edition
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With her groundbreaking book Avant-Garde as Method, architect and historian Anna Bokov offered the first scholarly exploration of art and technology education in the Soviet Union. This new, revised, and expanded edition reflects the latest findings of Bokovâs ongoing research on the Higher Art and Technical Studios in Moscow, commonly known as Vkhutemas, and its pedagogical program. It features rich additional visual material that has been discovered in various archives since the publication of the first edition in 2020.
Vkhutemas was the first school to implement mass art and technology education, which was seen as essential to the Soviet Unionâs dominant modernist paradigm. It combined longstanding academic ideas with more nascent industrial-era practices to initiate a new type of pedagogy that took an explorative approach and drew its strength from the continuous feedback and exchange between students and educators. Elaborating on the ways the Vkhutemas curriculum challenged established canons of academic tradition by replacing it with open-ended inquiry, Bokov shows how this pedagogy came to be articulated in architectural and urban projects within the schoolâs advanced studios.
The first edition was named one of the Most Beautiful German Books 2021 and a winner of the 2021 DAM Architectural Book Awards.
âIl volume di Anna Bokov contribuisce a svelare lâeccezionalitĂ del Vkhutemas, oscurata â complici le barriere linguistiche e ideologiche â dalla fama del Bauhaus, la scuola tedesca divenuta sinonimo di sperimentazione e libertĂ . Come sottolinea Kenneth Frampton nella prefazione, parte degli insegnamenti di design e architettura del Bauhaus vedono le loro origini a Mosca. Nel 1927 Alfred H. Barr jr., primo direttore del MoMA di New York, commentava: âapparentemente non câĂš posto in cui il talento di tipo artistico o letterario sia coltivato con tanta cura come a Mosca. Preferiremmo essere qui piuttosto che in qualsiasi altro posto sulla Terraâ. Tuttavia, nel 1936 tralasciĂČ il contributo del Vkhutemas nella mostra su Cubismo e Arte astratta: unâomissione ancora da colmare.â Gabriele Neri, Il Sole 24 Ore. Domenica
âBokovâs comprehensive and richly illustrated account of Vkhutemas demonstrates that much of the teaching methodology associated with the Bauhaus was, in fact, first developed at this Soviet institution.â Paul Mumford, Architectural Record
âThis magnificent book demonstrates how Vkhutemasâs dynamics, mission, personalitiesâand particularly its achievements in design, art and architectureâhave stood the test of time, unlike any other educational project in modern history. ⊠Every page is a revelation.â Michal Boncza, Morning Star