Tatlin, Vladimir Evgrafovich( 1885 – 1953 )
Sketch of the Monument to the Third International, c. 1919 , Moderna MuseetVladimir Tatlin was born in Moscow in 1885. He attended the Kharkov Technical High School and
left soon after for the seaport of Odessa in 1902. There he found work on a ship that sailed the Black
Sea and the Mediterranean. He studied at the I.D. Seliverstova School of Arts at Penza and the
Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. It was through the painter Mikhail
Larionov that he was introduced to artists and writers in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Milner, 1983 ;
Zhadova, 1988 ). Around 1913 , Tatlin began a career as a painter and became a member of the Union
of Youth. His early work resembles impressionism and the paintings of the Kandinsky circle. In 1914 ,
he visited Paris and was inspired by the work of the fauvists and French cubist painting. Although
influenced by these groups, his work contained a vitality found in Russian art (Milner, 1983 ). During
this period, he began the constructions he called ‘painterly reliefs,’ paintings with three-dimensional
appliqué (Milner, 1983 , pp. 92 , 132 ).
An active artist throughout his life, Tatlin’s repertoire was varied: drawing, painting, three-
dimensional constructions, theater set design, clothing and costume design, furniture and domestic
objects, architecture, and even a flying machine. Tatlin was continually interested in materiality, and
especially exploring ‘materials as language’ (Milner, 1983 , p. 94 ).
Talin’s most influential and celebrated project was his proposal model for the Monument to the
Third International, commissioned by the Department of Artistic Work of the People’s Commissariat
for Enlightenment in 1920. The project, although never realized as a building, was an icon for theoret-
icians that combined the social aspects of communism with constructivist art (Milner, 1983 ). The
model displayed a series of leaning conical spirals meant to rotate at the various levels; the top portion
was to contain a telegraph office speculatively intending to transmit images. Employing ruled lines and
carefully constructed dimensions, this image (Figure 6. 5 ) shows a diagrammatic elevation of the
planned project. The page can be considered a sketch because it describes a preliminary or preparatory
diagram, although it appears similar to an etching. This view of the monument reveals little context,
consisting only of a few industrial buildings, either very distant or diminished in scale by the tower.
Consistent with a diagram, Tatlin labeled the various levels of the tower in case the audience was not
able to perceive his intent. The monument’s structure and proportions are completely proposed, but as
a building that was to house government offices, the sketch provided little explanation of mass or
inhabitable volume.
Although the page’s overall impression is not sketchy in technique, it reflects both the miniature
model and the model as idea. The much-publicized design became an icon for the Soviet Revolution.
It symbolized the forward-looking communist state, embracing a new ideology, and had far-reaching
impact as a rallying point for an optimistic future. John Milner speculates that its form represents the
‘progress of communism’ and the leaning spirals mimic a step forward ( 1983 , p. 156 ). They are also
suggestive of Hermes or Mercury, and the stepped transition resembles a Ziggurat (Milner, 1983 ).
As a sketch, this image could be left unfinished and unresolved, since its purpose was ideological.
The proposed monument speculated on a future and may have contributed to moving a political
machine. It did not need to be fully resolved as architecture, instead it could suggest a belief system
and through its vagueness, it could conjure and implore a whole country. Tatlin continued to alter and
redesign the tower over the years. This continual manipulation resembles qualities of sketches as in
process and the ambiguity of this image to be transformed. The Monument of the Third International
acted as a social mechanism, the sketch and especially the model through their visual powers were able
to help promote an ideological goal.H5719-Ch06.qxd 7/18/05 10:21 AM Page 153