Karlis Johansson (16 January 1890 – 18 October 1929) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

artist. In 1914 he joined the " Green Flower" (in Latvian: " Zaļā puķe", in Russian: " Зелёный цветок") association of avant-garde artists (besides Johansons, there were also

Aleksandrs Drēviņš Aleksandr Davydovich Drevin (, , 3 July 1889 – 26 February 1938) was a Latvian-Russian painter. Biography Drevin was born in Cēsis, Latvia, then a part of Russian Empire. He attended art school in Riga under Vilhelms Purvītis, th ...

Voldemārs Tone Voldemārs is a Latvian masculine given name. It is a cognate of the Germanic " Waldemar". Voldemārs may refer to: *Voldemārs Elmūts (1910–1966), Latvian basketball player * Voldemārs Lūsis (born 1974), Latvian athlete, javelin thrower, O ...

( lv) and

Konrāds Ubāns Konrāds Ubāns (December 31, 1893 – August 30, 1981) was a Latvian painter from Riga. He studied at the Riga Art School and was one of the founding members of the Riga Artists' Group before becoming a professor at the Art Academy of Latvi ...

. Through the era of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

he lived in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

where he was involved in the Russian constructivist movement. In 1921, "self-tensile constructions" were exhibited, which became globally known as "''

tensegrity Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression (physical), compression inside a network of continuous tension (mechanics), tension, and arranged in s ...

''" in the 1950s as the topical concept was popularized by

Richard Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more th ...

and sculptor

Kenneth Snelson Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works, exemplified by ''Needle Tower'', are composed of flexible and rigid components arranged according to the i ...

's work.Translated into English from the Latvian Wikipedia article on Kārlis Johansons.

Life

The Johansons family lived in Meļava, on what is now Piebalga Street in

Cēsis Cēsis (; (, , , ) is a town in Latvia located in the northern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges above the river, overlooking the woods below. Cēsis was selected to b ...

, their house now long gone. Kārlis' father, Voldemar Johansons, was a carpenter for the famous Cesis Builders Brothers Meganeels; his mother, Kristin, cared for their seven children. Kārlis started pre-school in 1901, then at the Cesis School of the City. He was not a successful pupil and it is unknown if he was artistic at school, however his sisters were crafty as Mary embroidered and Rosalie used pencil and colors. Johansons' playmate Jānis Zariņš said, "There was always talk of art and music in their home." In the autumn of 1910 Kārlis studied at the Riga School of Art. Johansons' choice to pursue an artistic career was unfavorable to his strict father Voldemar. However, in 1911, his father supportively wrote, "Dear son, Kārlis ...I intend to give you those wedge frames to be an artist's easel." Another letter: "...I want you to take a little clay with you from here." After attending the Municipal Art School in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

during the 1910s, in 1914 Johansons joined the " Green Flower" () artist group. He attended the art school in

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

in 1915-16. During the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

and in 1918 he lived in

and worked in the artist's workshop of the Latvian National Commission under the direction of Aleksandr Drevin, also a "Green Flower" member. In 1919/20 he returned to reside in Penza. At art school, Johansons developed a life-long friendship with

, and Aleksandr Drevin, also a Cesmen. When the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out in 1915 students from Riga Art School went to the Penza School of Arts in Russia. Johansons' parents wrote, "...We think you will have to join the Latvian rifle battalions." In one of his letters Johansons wrote the duties of both art students and soldiers alike were to "draw as much as possible the heroic Latvian positions for the new Latvian book of life." During the war was a strenuous active stage in the sculptor's work as Johansons and Konrad Ubana made a series of gypsum plaster

masks A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment, and often employed for rituals and rites. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes, ...

from fallen artillery riflemen. After the revolution and collapse of the Riga Front most Latvian riflemen with the Russian army retreated to Russia as did the young artists with the Latvian riflemen. On 26 June 1917, Kārlis wrote to his parents in a letter: "...a very interesting era has begun." Unlike his friends, Uban and Tone, Johannson did not return to Latvia in 1918, but stayed with

Gustav Klutsis Gustav Gustavovich Klutsis (, ; 4 January 1895 – 26 February 1938) was a pioneering Latvian photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century. He is known for the Soviet revolutionary and Stalinist pro ...

, Karl Veidemani, and Voldemar Anderson in Moscow. There he developed a different view of the arts, denying the emotional, fanciful, and ornamental. Johansons participated in a group of artists seeking new tasks for artists in post- revolution Russia. They called themselves Constructivists. In the fall of 1920 he joined the

Institute of Artistic Culture The Institute of Artistic Culture ( abbreviated to ИНХУК/INKhUK) was a theoretical and research based Russian artistic organisation founded in March Moscow in 1920 and continuing until 1924. Origins It was established under the authority of th ...

( abbreviated to ИНХУК/ INKhUK, de), a theoretical and research based artistic organisation in

founded March 1920 until 1924. At the INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) he was a founding member of the " First Working Group of Constructivists". In 1921 the Constructivists expressed their ideas at an ambitious Moscow exhibition under the umbrella of The Society of Young Artists ( abbreviated to ОБМОХУ/ OBMOKhU, ru, de). Johannson's nine

three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...

structures, "self-stressed constructions", exhibited innovative tension-integrity strain-stress principles of

. They were functional constructive systems to base new creative types of production and structures on. He exhibited his designs from 22 May through June 1921, at the 2nd exhibition of The Society of Young Artists. In the same year he participated in the INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) debate, "Analysis of Construction and Composition and their Mutual Demarcation". At the "First Russian Art Exhibition, Berlin, 1922" his works were shown.Translated into English from the German Wikipedia article on Karl Ioganson. In 1923 or 1924 until 1926, Johannson was appointed operating manager of the " Red Exhibition" works (Красный прокатчик). He did not operate there as a technician, rather as an "inventor" of design methods he wanted to develop into practical industrial products. According to Maria Gough, Johannson proved it was possible to overcome the contradiction between art and industrial production. Johansons commented on his own work,

"From painting to sculpture, from sculpture to construction, from construction to technology and invention - this is my chosen path, and will certainly be the ultimate goal of every revolutionary artist."

Russian artist

Viatcheslav Koleichuk Viacheslav Koleichuk (; 16 December 1941 – 8 April 2018) was a Russian sound artist, musician, architect and visual artist. Koleichuk mainly made installation art that involves tensegrity. Sometimes these sculptures function as an experimental m ...

claimed the idea of tensegrity was invented first by Johansons. Koleichuk's claim was backed up by Maria Gough for one of the works at the 1921 constructivist exhibition.

had acknowledged the Constructivists as an influence for his work and French engineer David Georges Emmerich noted how Kārlis Johansons's work seemed to foresee tensegrity concepts. He never knew of the profound influence of his ideas. To his Cesis family in letters from Moscow Johannson expressed a strong desire to return to his homeland, but could not as he became seriously ill and died in 1929 from untreated

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

he caught in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

region. That same year a photo of Johansons's work was published in a

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

book in Germany, one of the 20th century's most influential

design schools A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

. Johannson's work became part of teaching

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

s, and later Bauhaus professors shared it with the United States. The Johansons tensile structures were re-coined "

structures" by

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

, now a field of research employing countless worldwide. The

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(NASA) explores various uses of similar structures in space.

Works

His "self-stabilizing constructions" are considered prototypes of the

construction systems further developed by

and

in the 1950s. In photos of the 1921 INKhUK (

) exhibition, Maria Elizabeth Gough identified a total of nine sculptures made by Johansons, now numbered I-IX. Not a single one of Johansons' sculptures has been preserved, however, there are four prints in the former Costakis collection in the

State Museum of Contemporary Art State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

. In 2015, at the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

, Moscow, and in Cēsis, eight of Johansons' works were exhibited, reconstructed by well-known Moscow artist-designer Vyacheslav Koleichuk based on measurements accurately interpolated from 1921 photographs due to the loss of the original sculptures. The fundamental concept in all of Johansons' work relates to one issue: How structural tensile-stress stability occurs when objects are bound with simple contact without fusing, adhesives, or chemical reactions. Johansons called these simple connections "cold" as alternatives to "hot" rivets or welds. "All the cold joints are crosses," Johansons declared, as all of his work investigates intersections of material. Johansons' work helped revolutionize humanity's structural understanding of things. Tensile-stress is now common and critical to many structures. The new understanding of tensegrity structures was well expressed by

as, "''islands of compression floating in a great ocean of tension''." It's taken some time to better comprehend Johansons' discoveries and even today they've not been fully explored or embraced. Johansons' unique legacy is exhibited at the Cēsis History and Art Museum retaining oil paintings, watercolors, several prints, illustrated sketchbooks and pages, workshop exercises, sculptural composition sketches, original sculptures, and sculptural masks. Most of these were created at the Riga School of Art, some in Penza, and in 1916 back in Latvia. Prized documents, letters, and rare family photographs were donated by a Cēsis Museum's former employee and art scholar, Erna Berholce, a relative in Kārlis Johansons' mother's family. In his homeland Kārlis Johansons is revered, appreciated in a global art context, and recognized as the most radical Constructivist of 20th century avant-garde art.

Gallery

File:Karl Ioganson c1922.jpg, Kārlis Johansons aka Karl Ioganson File:Kārlis Johansons 1920 Construction from Spatial Cross series.jpg, Kārlis Johansons 1920 Construction from his Spatial Cross series File:Kārlis Johansons 1921 Spatial Constructions (Alt).jpg, Kārlis Johansons 1921 Spatial Constructions File:Abstract Composition (Karl Ioganson, 1920–21).png, Abstract Composition (Karl Ioganson, 1920–21), Russian Museum, Срб-21 File:Kārlis Johansons 1921 Graphic Representation of a Construction.jpg, Kārlis Johansons (aka Karl or Karel Ioganson) ''Composition'' or ''Construction'', 1921 File:Kārlis Johansons 1921 Plan of a Composition Natur-Morte.jpg, Kārlis Johansons (aka Karl or Karel Ioganson) ''Construction'' or ''Composition'', 1921 File:Kārlis Johansons 1922 Construction.jpg, Kārlis Johansons 1922 Construction File:Kārlis Johansons 1922 Electrical Circuit.jpg, Kārlis Johansons 1922 Electrical Circuit File:Karl_Ioganson_structure.jpg, Karl Ioganson's ''Mechanical Structure.'' IIIAfter the numbering of Maria Gough. 1921 (whereabouts unknown). Graphic illustration of the tensile/

structure, based on a 1920 photograph. File:Proto-Tensegrity by Ioganson.jpg, Karl Ioganson's Proto-Tensegrity

Writings

* Karl Ioganson: ''From Construction to Technology and Invention''. p. 70.

References

External links

Karl Ioganson
on th
Monoskop.org
art wiki in English. *
INKhUK
aka the Institute of Artistic Culture (Constructivism), on th
Monoskop.org
art wiki in English. *
OBMOKhU
aka the Society of Young Artists, on th
Monoskop.org
art wiki in English. *
Russian Avant-garde
on th
Monoskop.org
art wiki in English.
''The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932''
art book o
Archive.org

The Constructivist Project

Kārlis Johansons
search on Google images.
Karl Ioganson
a
Artsy.net
features 2 images. *
Visionary Structures: From Johansons to Johansons
a
Artsy.net
about the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) exhibit 13 Feb – 31 May 2015 in Brussels. * Latvian link (title translated into English)
"Karl Johansson, Cēsmean with a Worldwide Breath." la.lv
* Russian link (title translated into English)

* German link (title translated into English): [http://www.greekstatemuseum.com/kmst/collections/db/search.html?primary_control_0=AN&secondary_control_0=S&tertiary_control_text_0=Ioganson%20Karel&sort_order=1 Works by Johansons at the State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, Greece)] {{DEFAULTSORT:Johansons, Karlis 1890 births 1929 deaths People from Cēsis People from Cēsis county 20th-century Latvian artists 20th-century engineers 20th-century sculptors Latvian architects Latvian engineers Latvian sculptors Russian avant-garde