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Meer Eisenstadt. Toward Synthesis of the Arts
Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka
2018
2018
This was only the second-ever solo exhibition dedicated to Meer Eisenstadt, showcasing the work of one of the most paradoxical, unconventional, and striking Soviet sculptors of the late 1920s–1930s. His sculptures and graphic art remain undeservedly understudied and are still virtually unknown to the broader public.
The search for a new synthesis of the arts and the reinterpretation of the avant-garde, Suprematism, and Constructivism within the context of classical heritage was a major concern for graduates and professors of VHUTEMAS-VHUTEIN in the mid–1930s. Yet Eisenstadt was nearly a decade ahead of them. In many ways, he also anticipated postmodernism by more than half a century, prefiguring the use of palimpsests and collage-like citations as the foundation of his artistic language and ideology.
Eisenstadt studied under Yakov Kruger in Minsk and later at VHUTEMAS in Moscow, where his mentors included Iosif Chaikov and Vera Mukhina. However, his sculptures and graphic works defy categorization within any particular school or style and remain difficult to interpret even today. His explorations of the synthesis of sculpture and architecture, modernism and classical heritage anticipated not only the artistic debates of the mid–1930s but also the postmodernist sculptural experiments of the 1970s–1980s.
Few of Eisenstadt’s works have survived—many were destroyed by the artist himself, while others were lost after his death. Despite this, his legacy forms a cohesive, fully realized sculptural world, one that is both ironic and strange, populated by characters from his own mythology, balancing between the industrial reality of the late 1920s–1930s and the imagery of antiquity, Gothic art, and Northern Renaissance.
A significant portion of the works presented in the exhibition was provided by the artist’s heirs and displayed for the first time, including plaster, marble, and bronze sculptures, graphic works, photographs of lost pieces, as well as personal documents and letters.
In 2024, a catalog of the same name was published, featuring Eisenstadt’s works, art historical texts, and personal recollections from those who knew him.
The search for a new synthesis of the arts and the reinterpretation of the avant-garde, Suprematism, and Constructivism within the context of classical heritage was a major concern for graduates and professors of VHUTEMAS-VHUTEIN in the mid–1930s. Yet Eisenstadt was nearly a decade ahead of them. In many ways, he also anticipated postmodernism by more than half a century, prefiguring the use of palimpsests and collage-like citations as the foundation of his artistic language and ideology.
Eisenstadt studied under Yakov Kruger in Minsk and later at VHUTEMAS in Moscow, where his mentors included Iosif Chaikov and Vera Mukhina. However, his sculptures and graphic works defy categorization within any particular school or style and remain difficult to interpret even today. His explorations of the synthesis of sculpture and architecture, modernism and classical heritage anticipated not only the artistic debates of the mid–1930s but also the postmodernist sculptural experiments of the 1970s–1980s.
Few of Eisenstadt’s works have survived—many were destroyed by the artist himself, while others were lost after his death. Despite this, his legacy forms a cohesive, fully realized sculptural world, one that is both ironic and strange, populated by characters from his own mythology, balancing between the industrial reality of the late 1920s–1930s and the imagery of antiquity, Gothic art, and Northern Renaissance.
A significant portion of the works presented in the exhibition was provided by the artist’s heirs and displayed for the first time, including plaster, marble, and bronze sculptures, graphic works, photographs of lost pieces, as well as personal documents and letters.
In 2024, a catalog of the same name was published, featuring Eisenstadt’s works, art historical texts, and personal recollections from those who knew him.
Curator and Exhibition Architecture
Aleksandra Selivanova
Aleksandra Selivanova
This book explores the legacy of the sculptor Meer Eisenshtadt (1895−1961), a graduate of the Sculpture Department at VHUTEIN (VHUTEMAS) and the author of original sculptural and monumental architectural projects.
Intended for both specialists and general readers, the publication is based on the 2019 exhibition Meer Eisenstadt: Toward the Synthesis of the 1930s, held at the Avant-Garde Center on Shabolovka (curated by Aleksandra Selivanova). It features essays by Aleksandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungyan, and Aleksandra Shatskikh, alongside memoirs by the sculptor’s contemporaries and an interview with artist Zhenya Rzheznikova on the relevance of Eisenstadt’s method for contemporary art.
Most of the materials are published for the first time: the editors present a large body of previously unknown sculptures and drawings, offering new insight into the foundations of Eisenstadt’s artistic language. Tracing the evolution of his style from the 1920s to the 1950s, the book positions his work as a coherent and significant contribution to the history of Soviet art in the first half of the 20th century.
Intended for both specialists and general readers, the publication is based on the 2019 exhibition Meer Eisenstadt: Toward the Synthesis of the 1930s, held at the Avant-Garde Center on Shabolovka (curated by Aleksandra Selivanova). It features essays by Aleksandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungyan, and Aleksandra Shatskikh, alongside memoirs by the sculptor’s contemporaries and an interview with artist Zhenya Rzheznikova on the relevance of Eisenstadt’s method for contemporary art.
Most of the materials are published for the first time: the editors present a large body of previously unknown sculptures and drawings, offering new insight into the foundations of Eisenstadt’s artistic language. Tracing the evolution of his style from the 1920s to the 1950s, the book positions his work as a coherent and significant contribution to the history of Soviet art in the first half of the 20th century.
Moscow: Garage
360 pp
2024
360 pp
2024
About the LISI_CA series ↓
Meer Eisenstadt. Organics, Archaics, Modernism
Aleksandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungian
