Alexei Gan at the First OSA Conference 1928

Aleksei Mikhailovich Gan ( Russian: Алексей Михайлович Ган; born Imberkh; 1887Kristin Romberg, Aleksei Gan's Constructivism, 1917-1928. New York: Columbia University, 2010, Ph.D. Dissertation.
/ref> or 1893 – 8 September, 1942) was a Russian anarchist and later

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

avant-garde artist, art theorist and graphic designer. Gan was a key figure in the development of Constructivism after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

Life

Cover of Konstruktivizm by Aleksei Gan 1922

Gan's involvement with creative activity began in 1917 when he became involved with the Moscow Union of Food Workers with whom he set up an amateur theatrical group. The group encompassed various political groupings and following the Bolshevik seizure of power, some joined the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

, others the Black Guards or affiliated to the

Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (russian: Партия левых социалистов-революционеров-интернационалистов) was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Rev ...

. Gan reorganised the group as the Proletarian Theatre, which affiliated to the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. Gan was the first to write on art in the anarchist newspaper ''

Anarkhiia ''Anarkhiia'' was Russian weekly, then daily newspaper published by the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. It was edited by Vladimir Barmash, Abba Gordin, German Askarov, Pyotr Arshinov, Lev Chernyi and others. It was first launched in Septe ...

'' (Anarchy) when it introduced an art section in early 1918. In March 1921, Gan was one of the seven artists, including

Alexander Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders ...

and his wife

Varvara Stepanova Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (russian: Варва́ра Фёдоровна Степа́нова; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant ...

, who announced themselves as the

First Working Group of Constructivists The First Working Group of Constructivists was formed in March 1921 in Moscow by a group of seven artists. They were soon joined by four other people, to form one of the pioneering groups of Constructivism. They soon become part of the Institute of ...

. The group rejected fine art in favour of graphic design, photography, posters, and political propaganda. Gan collaborated with Aleksandr Rodchenko and

on a Constructivist manifesto in 1922, and published his own pamphlet ''Konstruktivism'' in the same year. He also founded the first Soviet film journal, '' Kino-Fot'' (or ''Kinofot''), in 1922. In 1928 he was one of the founders of the October Group. He married

Esfir Shub Esfir Ilyinichna Shub (Russian: Эсфи́рь Ильи́нична Шуб; 16 March 1894, Surazh, Russian Empire – 21 September 1959, Moscow, Soviet Union), also referred to as Esther Il'inichna Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker and edit ...

, a prominent female soviet documentary filmmaker. Gan was arrested for "counter-revolutionary" activities in October 1941, found guilty in August 1942, and executed on 8 September 1942.

Selected works

Written

*''Konstruktivizm'' (Constructivism). Tver: Tver'skoe izdatel' stvo, 1923.

Films

*''The Island of the Young Pioneers'', 1924. (Documentary) *''The Seventh October'', *''Trades Unions'' *''Greetings Teamworkers'' *''In the Battle for Time and Space'' (unknown whether completed)

References

External links

MOMA page on Gan.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gan, Aleksei Constructivism (art) Russian designers 19th-century births 1942 deaths Year of birth uncertain Russian Marxists Russian anarchists Soviet anarchists