Rhythm & Geometry: Constructivist Art in Britain since 1951 Review

This month, the Sainsbury Centre opened its doors to two exhibitions. Likely the most acclaimed is the Grayson Perry ceramics. However, recently, they’ve added the voguish Constructivist exhibition. With a palette of earthy reds and browns, mathematical and architectural foundations, it perhaps doesn’t punch above Perry on the shock scales, but what it does show is the rich history of Constructivism, it’s connection to thought, as well as aesthetic identity and the movements enormous scope and chronological flexibility. Opening with the rustic ‘De Stijl’ of Joost Baljeui, working all the way to the mesmeric, participatory work. Through, the exhibition is toying with the nature of art as well as replicability. What the exhibition highlights throughout is the role of replicability and blueprinting, the possibility for mathematical solutions to the world’s problems, through this you get themes of mass production and reproduceability. Constructivism’s character as subverting the role of artwork as a direct product of an artist and instead focusing on the role of art as an idea, or a conception. It’s about who thought of it, not necessarily the technical ability involved.

Stephen Gilbert, ‘Néovision’, 1955.

The exhibition stresses the broad scope of constructivism, utilizing works by the likes of Rana Begum, who’s warped and mirror-finished stainless steel sheet features in the first room. It emphasizes that this is a movement which has very real and direct relations with contemporary artists. Similarly, Jocelyn Chewett’s tabletop concrete shapes feel at home in the concrete clad UEA campus. It also emphasizes the technicality of the movement in Merete Rasmussen’s mindbending and playful ‘Form’, a rich blue continuously flowing stoneware piece.

Jocelyn Chewett, ‘Untitled’, 1949.

The mathematical works perhaps show off some of the more clinical, yet youthful works. The lines of Kenneth Martin encourage you to curiously follow the lines and understand the logic of the work. It becomes an exercise in problem solving by toying with probability, chance as well as strict regulation and rules. The forward-thinking explorations in Stephen Gilbert’s ‘Neovision’ house shows the utopian elements of the movement. It demonstrates the movement’s far-reaching potential for making things better via construction as well as a democratization of art. The playfulness of the final room is summarized quite neatly with Eric Snell’s ‘Cuneiform III’. With a name like an ambient EDM album, its electrical motor rotates the centrepiece, as the outer stems shift and rotate as the weight changes. It has a definite sense of character and personality, but also it makes for an exhibition which feels a little bit different.

Constructivism Exhibition Install, Image by Andy Crouch.

Largely containing pieces from the collections of the University and the Sainsbury Centre, it captures a certain place. With UEA’s creation coinciding chronologically with a lot of these works, and its genealogy closely connected to them, the setting feels natural and part of what the Sainsbury Centre and UEA is. It couldn’t be a better location to dive deep into Constructivist explorations.

This exhibition will be running at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art from 2 October 2021 through to 30 January 2022. You can book tickets for the free exhibition on the Sainsbury Centre website.