The founders of De Stijl, a small group of Dutch artists and architects led by Theo Van Doesburg (Counter-Composition XIII, 1925–26), believed that the formal properties of architecture, art, and design could foster harmony. To forge a visual language that was universal rather than individual, those De Stijl members who were artists experimented with a variety of means, although all created paintings with flat geometric shapes—paintings that differed in scale and in their range of colors. The De Stijl hope for revolutionizing social relations and culture at large via an artistic language of reduced forms resonated with other contemporary artistic movements such as the Bauhaus, a state- sponsored school of art, architecture, and design, founded in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, by architect Walter Gropius. The school assembled leading artists and designers of the avant-garde into a working community that could help reconstruct post-war society through art and design. Among the masters of the Bauhaus exhibited in Venice are Vasily Kandinsky (Blue Painting, 1924) and Josef Albers (Interlocked, 1927).

Vladimir Lenin and the other Bolsheviks who assumed power in Russia after the 1917 revolution also pursued a utopian vision, but theirs was centered pragmatically on restructuring class relations. In contrast to Lenin’s conservative artistic taste, Russian avant-garde artists utilized the radical poetics of non-objective art. Both Malevich and Lissitzky were idealists who believed that form could represent grand, if vaguely expressed visions, while Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, the Stenberg Brothers, and others who all called themselves Constructivists were more interested in concrete materials as bearers of value. The utopian visions of the Communist Party and the Constructivist avant-garde intersected in the 1920s, and utopian beliefs and cultural production were put into the service of the leftist programs of the government. The furthering of these ideologies to large-scale political ends ultimately limited these utopian groups and exposed the pitfalls possible in utopian endeavors.

Utopia Matters concludes in the early 1930s, when the ascendancy of fascism brought about the close of the Bauhaus in Berlin in 1933 and when Stalinism reframed Russian Constructivist projects in the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, utopian experiments persist, from artists’ colonies and collectives to ecologically self-sustaining communities, creating multiple chapters in this history, which leads up to the present day. Utopian ideals matter, and they continue in our societies.

The exhibition benefits from the support of the Regione del Veneto and of Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim. Hangar Design Group created the graphic design for communications. Clear Channel, Radio Italia and Corriere della Sera are media partners for the exhibition.

Alexia Boro / Maria Rita Cerilli
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