VLADIMIR TATLIN AND HIS CHILDREN
Preface and biography from Sophia Maria Voznouk, great-granddaughter of Vladimir Tatlin:
I have always been drawn to artists and creatives, but I never knew why. When I found out later that Tatlin was my great grandpa, it came together for me. I started exploring whatever I could find out about him and found a wealth of material created by major universities. I also used social media to find other artists inspired by Tatlin. I moved to Palm Desert and found out about an art director at the Palm Springs Art Museum who wrote a book about the Russian avant-garde and even had a tattoo of Tatlin’s “Letatlin”. This solidified my belief in art’s ability to connect people, wherever they are.
In my free time, I try to read as much as I can about older and current academic studies on Tatlin to find out how he is of interest here as an artist in design, architecture, clothing, and other forms of art. I am currently reading “Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avante-Garde” by John Milner. I hope to discover more about the history of Slavic cultural influence in the avant-garde art movement and about my great-grandpa's friends’ contributions as ethnic artists in the USSR.
(Краткий перевод. София Мария Вознюк, правнучка Владимира Татлина: Меня всегда интересовали творческие личности, художники, но я не понимала, почему. Однако, когда узнала, что я правнучка Татлина, все стало на свои места. Оказалось, что о нем и его наследии существует масса материалов. Когда я переехала в Palm Desert, CA, то познакомилась с худ. директором Художественного музея в Палм Спрингз, автором книги о русском авангарде. У него даже татуировка была «ЛЕТАТЛИН». Это укрепило меня в мысли о всемирной миссии искусства без границ.
Я изучаю литературу о наследии Татлина и его влиянии на наше американское искусство: дизайн, архитектуру, одежду и пр. Читаю «Владимир Татлин и Русский Авангард» Джона Милнера. И надеюсь узнать больше о славянском культурном вкладе в мировой Авангард.)
About Tatlin, bio from Sophia:
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was an architect, painter, woodworker, and the godfather of Constructivism. Tatlin, Malevich, Kandinsky, Rodchenko, and Popova are among the better-known names of the Russian avant-garde, a movement that grew out of the need for a new frame of understanding in Russian society as it transitioned from empire to modern society in the 19th century. Tatlin was born in 1885 in Moscow. He was the son of an engineer and a poet. In his youth, Tatlin was a merchant sea cadet and attended art school in Moscow. Early on, he befriended several artists of the Russian avant-garde, and participated in art shows in Odessa, Moscow, and Petrograd.
A breakthrough in Tatlin’s ideology came about with his visits to Berlin and Paris, the latter of which involved him visiting Picasso in his studio and asking to become his mentee. Picasso declined, but Tatlin was nonetheless changed by his exposure to Picasso’s relief technique. After returning home and going on to create the prototype for his Monument to the Third International Tower, Tatlin moved on to work as founding member and teacher at Vkhutemas Art School in Moscow. There, alongside Malevich, Lissitzky, Popova, and other avant-garde artists, Tatlin developed his idea of Constructivism more fully.
Vkhutemas shared an interchange of ideas with the Bauhaus Art School in Germany, and both schools are best known for their emphasis on being student-led. Tatlin’s Constructivism was centered on reinterpreting how materials were used in art. Constructivism encouraged taking what minimal material could be found and used organically and embracing the nature of the material to fit the form of art being made out of it. With this philosophy in mind, Tatlin experimented with painting, sculpture, clothing design, and set design, and eventually, he produced his ornithopter piece named “Letatlin”.
This art piece reflected his taking the abstract theory of Constructivism to produce a concrete art form. Whether it was meant to be taken literally or figuratively as an idea that would allow the human being to fly is not important; Letatlin represented the culmination of Tatlin’s philosophies as developed throughout his artistic career. He went on to study bird flight, and eventually died of a contagious virus. After his death, most of his art was stored with his girlfriend, but eventually seized and mostly destroyed. His art lives on today in museums in Moscow and Sweden, as well as recreations of his works and art inspired by him throughout the entire world.
Literary piece on Tatlin by Ben Jorisch, NYC based writer and poet:
Tatlin was the father of our time, before Basquiat or Andy Warhol, before Picasso there was Tatlin. Before art became modern Tatlin defined the scope of what was to come in the following century. Without Tatlin what we know would be entirely different. From his work not only would literary movements arise, arguably being the force behind voices like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter S. Thompson the whole of the modern American century would come from the style of his lines and voice in his sculptures. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley his disciples, through Picasso in the same way, Diotima, and Aspasia taught Socrates, who taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, who taught Alexander, Tatlin gave birth to this modern century
Tatlin was the father of the movement known as constructivism, influenced by Cubism, and Futurism. Constructivism was considered to have begun in 1914 with “painting reliefs” which were abstract geometric creations of Tatlin’s. Tatlin’s movement had many followers, including Antoine Pevsner, and Naum Gabo. It was with the publication of the Realist Manifesto written by Tatlin who was assisted in this work by others in 1920, that led to him becoming the lead figure of the movement. This manifesto was greatly influential, and it was from it’s publication that the name Constructivism was inspired. In the manifesto was the commandment “to construct” art. The figures of the movement were infatuated with machines, and technology, and function modern industrial materials, the likes of which are found in all of modern life today. They used metals, glass, and petroleum derived materials for their art, and considered themselves creative engineers.
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was born December 28 1885 and died on May 31st 1953. Tatlin achieved notoriety and renown with his Monument to the Third International, publicly known as Tatlin’s Tower. He began construction of Tatlin’s Tower in 1919. Kazimir Malevich assisted him in this work, solidifying Tatlin as one of the most important figures in the Soviet Avant Garde movement of the 1920s.
Tatlin was birthed in Moscow, in the Russian Empire. Born to Yevgraf Nikoforovich, a nobleman from Oryol, and Nadezhda Nikolaevaena Tatlina (Bart), a poet who was associated with the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary movement, Tatlin was born into nobility. When his mother died, his father remarried and resettled in Kharkov. He graduated from the Technological Institute in St. Petersburg and became employed by the Moscow-Brest Railway. When his father died, young Tatlin left the Kharkov Arts School, to travel to Odessa and become a merchant sea cadet. It was foreign lands, and dreams upon the sea that fed and inspired Tatlin, as he traveled across the sea, and spent time in Egypt.
In 1905 he initiated his studies at N. Selivestrov Penza Art School, which he would finish in 1910. During his vacations he journeyed to Moscow and St. Petersburg becoming involved multiple art events. It was in 1911 that he relocated to Moscow to live near his uncle, to start his art career as a painter of icons. Playing the Bandura, a folk instrument of Ukraine, he had picked up during his time in Kharkov, he performed professionally as a Bandurist, which he paired with his own singing. It was in 1913 when Tatlin first became aware of Picasso who he would in turn influence with his own works.
With the construction of Tatlin’s Tower, which work began on in 1919, which overshadowed the Eifel Tower in Paris, with Tatlin’s Tower being 400 meters higher. The steel and iron construction consisted of twin spirals, and the design was made up of three building blocks with glass windows, that would rotate at different speeds. The cube window would rotate once a year, the Pyramid window every month, and the cylindrical window, every day. The building was intended to house the legislature of the Comintern, in order to serve as a primary center for the creation, for the purposes of distributing propaganda. Unfortunately, it was never built because of monetary reasons.
Tatlin was considered by all the forebear of Soviet Post Revolutionary constructivist Art, with his pre-revolutionary counter reliefs, three dimensional creations, consisting of wood and metal, placed in corners, with others more regularly placed. Tatlin’s intention was to question the standard thoughts of art at the time. Though he is considered a constructivist, he himself did not see himself through that lens, and rejected many of the movement’s ideas. Tatlin was friendly with Malevich at the beginning of their work as artists but would fight publicly during the time of the 0.10 Exhibition, which was in 1915, before constructivism officially began, it was known as the “Last Futurist Exhibition” because of the ‘supremacist’ works Malevich produced there. Tatlin put his efforts into the study of clothing, physical objects, and flight, with climaxed with the production of the Letatlin personal flying apparatus.
Besides sculptures, Tatlin directed theater, film, and produced many photographs at the Kyiv Art Institute from 1925 to 1927. In 1930 he began teaching in Kyiv where he instructed Joseph Karakis. Throughout the 1930’s Tatlin did productions for different theaters in Moscow, and during the Great Patriotic War, in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod). He also spent time with many Soviet Art organizations, along with the department of Fine Arts (IZO) of Narkompros. Because of his anticommunist stance he was greatly slandered, losing his job, but was not repressed.
In Tatlin we can find the seed of the modern era. Where Tatlin went so too soon would the world. He is a revolutionary art figure, whose importance cannot be understated. To understand the modern times we live in one must understand and appreciate Tatlin. It is no exaggeration to say without Tatlin we would be living in an alternate reality, as his influence was so monumental, it must be considered foundational. From Kanye West, to Charly Chaplin, to Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, his influence spread. Today it is important to remember without Tatlin we would have nothing, we would be as if naked, without our clothes, as it is the work of Tatlin, which is the garment, humanity clothes itself with in the modern era. That it was A Russian Artist, who the whole of modern American Century would stem from, might come as a surprise to some, but to those who know and understand his influence, the statement does not go far enough. It is only recently that the world has come to appreciate the vast influence Tatlin has had on the entirety of modernity.
(Editor’s note. The poetic exaggerations are accepted.)
Stories about Vladimir Tatlin from Nina Romova, Tatlin’s granddaughter.
Growing up, I heard very interesting family stories from my father, Anatoly Romov, and my stepmother, Natalya Pushkina.
I always heard from my dad and my mom that I look like my grandmother Nina, from my dad’s side. I never got a chance to meet her because she passed away before I was born.
Nina Ignatevna Bam was very intelligent and educated, spoke French, and was part of the hidden Soviet intelligentsia - the one to die for, literally. Intelligent Jew - always a threat to any society, especially Stalin’s Russia.
Nina was a journalist and friends with Stalin’s wife and sister. I heard that she got blacklisted by Stalin for revealing his family’s dirty laundry - his abuse towards his wife. Nina wrote a book called “Svetlana Alilyeva.”
Nina was always hiding from persecution and discrimination. She also had a son to protect - Anatoly, son of Vladimir Tatlin, the father of Modern Art.
My dad never knew until later that Tatlin was his father. Nina brought Anatoly to Tatlin when he was at his last breath on a deathbed and told him "This is your real father." My dad said that Stalin slowly "poisoned" Tatlin. In late 1940s Tatlin was overwhelmingly criticized for his anti-communist work and opinions.
Before that, Anatoly thought that Sergey Matveevich Romov, a Russian French immigrant, who was a social justice activist and was advocating for Jewish protection. Romov was branded a traitor and shot by the orders of Stalin.
Nina married Romov and took his last name to protect my dad from the fatal destiny - both she and Tatlin were on the blacklist, and she had to distance my dad from that name. Nina would even dress my dad as a girl - to hide his identity and send him to a sailor school to sail away from Moscow. Nina was very secretive and was afraid for my dad's safety.
Nina and Romov are buried in Moscow in Donskoi Monastery. Tatlin is buried at Novodevichey cemetery.
This love triangle will always remain a mystery. Their love survived through Stalin’s persecutions and produced Anatoly Romov. Famous mystery detective novelist and poet, and my father.
Tatlin’s Future:
While traveling through Sweden, I visited the Modern Art Museum and saw one of Tatlin’s work there.
Stalin failed to eradicate Tatlin’s creative genius.
Vladimir Tatlin has many living descendants: His son Anatoly S. Romov, Anatoly’s children Nina Romova, Phil Romov, Sergey Sychev, Jamby Jusubalieva. Tatlin’s great-grandchildren, Sophia Maria V. Samarsky and Lucas Romov. Sophia and her mother Tatiana, the owners of the Sophia’s Art Gallery in LA and Palm Desert, California, are working on incorporating Tatlin’s Memorial as part of their Gallery.
(Вольный перевод. Нина Ромова, внучка Татлина:
Много семейных историй знаю я и отца, Анатолия Ромова, и от приемной матери, Натальи Пушкиной. Говорят, что я очень похожа на свою бабушку Нину, которую никогда не видела.
Нина Игнатьевна Бам была образованна, умна, говорила по-французски и принадлежала к той оставшейся части русской интеллигенции, о которой говорилось: «Интеллигентный еврей – это угроза любому режиму, а сталинскому, тем более».
Нина была журналисткой и дружила с сестрами Алилуевами (они тоже были родом из Баку). Говорят, что была внесена Сталиным в «черный список» за разглашение правды о его жестоком обращении с женой Надеждой. Позже Нина написала книгу «Светлана Алилуева».
От Татлина она имела сына, Толю, но всячески скрывала его происхождение из соображений безопасности (Татлин тоже был в «черных списках» за свои антисоветские взгляды в конце жизни. Говорят даже, что Сталин его отравил). А Нина была замужем была за Сергеем Матвеевичем Ромовым, русско-французским ре-эмигрантом, «возвращенцем», активистом еврейского движения. Позже, он был объявлен «предателем» и расстрелян.
Нина привела сына Толю к Татлину, когда художник был уже при смерти. «Это – твой отец», она сказала. Мой папа Анатолий Ромов - автор многих детективных романов, сценариев известных кинофильмов, поэт. Живет в Нью-Йорке.
Как-то, путешествуя по Швеции, я попала в Музей Современного Искусства, где обнаружила работы своего деда. Так что, истребить память о гении Сталину не удалось.
А потомков у «отца конструктивизма» немало. Внуки: Сергей, Джамбы, Филипп и Нина. Их дети. Правнучка, со-владелица “Sophia’s Art Gallery in LA and Palm Desert, CА”, намеревается сделать постоянную экспозицию прадеда и даже назвать галерею именем Татлина.)
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I hardly remember Nina Ignatievna (Bam-Romova), but I do… She was a close friend of my Grandma and I remember her in our place (Brusov street in Moscow) and around, maybe (I was 2-5 of old)…
Children, they are like plants or animals – see the main structural feature of the person. I remember “Kindness”. Not some “psi-psi-psi” or “liu-li-lu”. Kind face and kind gestures.
Later. Her son, Tolya (Anatoly) Romov, he was a very attractive young man and the first husband of my aunt. By the way. He is a detective-story writer and his life itself is a love-detective story, but that’s the plot for another novelist. Apropos, he is a good poet and he has a great memory of world poetry. Plus - a life-stories teller. Here is one of these: He just came to New York in early 90-ies and one pleasant day he wanted to get some honey. Just the honey. He went to the nearest “Deli” and, not familiar with the word “honey”, tried to show the “Bee” to the salesman. It’s paid to say, that he is a really big guy (XXXX) and when he started waiving hands and making “BZZh” sounds with his roaring voice, impersonating the insect, the poor salesman did not know how to behave: to laugh or to grab the gun…
By the way. Anatoly in his young years looked very much like his father. His son Philipp – even more.
Later, and now. Nina Ignatievna’s granddaughter, Nina, lives close-by here, in New York. So, this article – is a la “by protection” (“po blatu”). A.A. Pushkin
(Я плохо помню Нину Игнатьевну, но помню... Она была подругой моей бабушки и часто приходила к нам на Брюсовский переулок. Может, гуляли вместе... (я был от двух до пяти). Дети, они ж как животные или растения, видят основную черту предмета или человека. Я помню: «Доброта». Не подарки, не конфеты, не «тю-тю-тю» и «лю-лю-лю», а просто доброе лицо. И так случилось, что сейчас ее портрет, в числе прочих, у меня на шкафу. Вот он.
Сын ее, Анатолий, был очень привлекательный молодой человек и муж моей тети. Как романист-детективист Ромов был романист и по жизни. Писал прекрасные стихи, а может, и сейчас пишет. Хороший рассказчик, и вот одна из историй: Он только что приехал в Нью-Йорк и захотелось ему меду. Английского слова он еще не знал, но меду хотелось. Пошел в лавку напротив и решил изобразить пчелу. Надо сказать, что Толя огромного размера мужик и голосок, как у трубы Иерихонской. И когда он начал махать ручищами и рычать «Бжжж», бедный испанец растерялся: тащить пистолет из-под прилавка, или как...
Чертами лица похож на Татлина, а сын его, Филипп, вообще копия. А дочка, Нина, живет здесь неподалеку, так что считайте, что вся эта статья «по блату».) А.А. Пушкин
