COLOR

L. Popova together with A. Vesnin lead one of the workshops of the faculty of painting. They started with such a very unusual task: it was necessary to develop one color in different textures. For example, a rectangular board (small size) was covered with oil paint of one colour (most often black or red), and then the whole plane was divided by lines into several parts (four or more), each of which had its own texture: lacquer, matte, rough, or textured with sand, coal, etc. The main thing was to achieve such an effect that each part of a monochrome composition was clearly distinguished by its texture. 

The tutors saw the essence of their discipline not in depicting the impression of the subject, but the essence of its color, noting everything unusual for this picturesque image. The composition must obey a certain regularity of color, not being deliberately random as in the Impressionists’ works. Like volume, color builds the mass of an object, not just stains it. In 1922, when Popova and Vesnin already formulated more detailed tasks of teaching this general artistic subject. At this stage, they divided their program into two stages: the first program- minimum related to the study of color regardless of the future specialty of the student, the second program- maximum to the special study of color, taking into account the specific faculty.

The minimum program, which was actually a general art propaedeutics, was the most thoroughly worked out.  Popova and Vesnin also took into account the fact that the objects on which students work at special faculties, in relation to space can be both two-dimensional (painting, graphics, textiles, etc.) and three-dimensional (architecture, sculpture, ceramics, metal and wooden products). At the same time, the given assignments were common to everyone, so that students who worked in volume could work with the plane surface, and students who worked with the plane surface could develop their color and spatial perception.

The general minimum program for the discipline included four topics: Color Volume on Plane Surface, Color Space on Plane Surface, Color Matching on Plane Surface, Color Matching in Space. The first theme related to the study of elements of color volume – cylindrical, spherical, conical surfaces, in the form of a dihedral angle, and the basic compositional patterns of construction on the vertical, horizontal, diagonal, cross, circle, etc. Then students performed tasks based on the analysis of still life and on a given theme. Students were given a specific task – to create on a plane surface a three dimensional space in a circle or vertically, in two diagonals, from the volume elements of the prism or cone, cylinder, etc., identifying the diagonal from right to left or vertical from bottom to top.

The second theme concerned the study of color and texture relations. Students learned to see in color the materialized color energy and identify such qualities of color as tension, weight, movement in three dimensions, speed, mechanical properties, etc.

The third theme is related to the study of interaction of materials, different  in color and texture, in one composition – black lacquer, wood, fabric, glass, porcelain, metal, foil, etc. According to the given compositional scheme, students compared three or five materials. Sometimes the assignments on texture and material were brought closer by the technique. To compare materials in space, a simple or complex spatial scheme was set, which depended on the number of compared materials – from three to seven.  

Popova and Vesnin urged their students to analyze the real elements of the objective world, to seek to discover the essence of things, to learn their nature.  

Based on VKhUTEMAS by S.O. Khan-Magomedov,
book 1, chapter Propaedeutics of L. Popova and A. Vesnin – Color discipline.155–159.