Avant-garde tendency in 20th-century painting, sculpture,
photography, design and architecture, with associated
developments in literature, theatre and film. The term was first
coined by artists in Russia in early 1921 and achieved wide
international currency in the 1920s. Russian Constructivism
refers specifically to a group of artists who sought to move
beyond the autonomous art object, extending the formal language
of abstract art into practical design work. This development was
prompted by the Utopian climate following the October Revolution
of 1917, which led artists to seek to create a new visual
environment, embodying the social needs and values of the new
Communist order. The concept of International Constructivism
defines a broader current in Western art, most vital from around
1922 until the end of the 1920s, that was centred primarily in
Germany. International Constructivists were inspired by the
Russian example, both artistically and politically. They
continued, however, to work in the traditional