Architectural Compositions by Iakov Chernikhov showcases Chernikhov’s groundbreaking work from 1924 to 1931. Born in Pavlograd, Ukraine, Chernikhov studied at Odessa College of Art and the Imperial Art Academy. Despite interruptions due to military service, he completed his architectural studies in 1925. Working with various firms, he designed numerous projects and taught graphic arts. His publications, starting with The Art of Graphic Representation in 1927, emphasized imagination and abstract compositions. Later works like Fundamentals of Modern Architecture (1930) and Architectural Fantasies (1931) highlighted his visionary approach. His works explored historical and fantastical themes, reviving architectural legacies and blending imagination with modern creativity.
Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov was among the most original artists of an era rich with talent. Born on December 17, 1889, in Pavlograd, Ukraine, he first studied at Odessa College of Art, graduating in 1914. He then attended Petrograd’s Imperial Art Academy, now the Russian Academy of Art, initially focusing on painting and education before switching to architecture in 1916. Chernikhov completed his teacher training and a thesis on drawing methods in 1917. Despite being called up for military service in 1916, he continued his studies and teaching. He resumed his architectural studies at VKhUTEMAS in 1922, completing his degree in 1925 with extensive experience in educational theory and practice.
From 1927 to 1936, Iakov Chernikhov worked for various architectural firms, designing and building numerous projects. Until his death in May 1951, he continued to teach diverse graphic arts subjects, such as representational geometry and construction drawing. He became a professor in 1934 and was granted tenure in 1935. By contemporary standards, he was a successful and accomplished architect. His publications, earning him a favorable reputation among colleagues between 1927 and 1933, fell into obscurity after the Stalinist era. Only in recent decades have his books and graphic art gained renewed recognition, highlighting his unique creative genius. Chernikhov’s first book, “The Art of Graphic Representation,” was published in 1927 by the Leningrad Academy of Arts as a textbook for his devised drawing course. Despite its title, it was not intended to teach drawing skills. Instead, it focused on graphic, spatial, and abstract compositions, encouraging students to use lines, planes, and solids to express beauty and movement without depicting anything recognizable. This volume, an extract from Chernikhov’s extensive work, targeted young secondary school and university students with no prior training in drawing or painting, reflecting ambitious aims. Publications of this nature were rare at the time, as modern art had primarily been used to express slogans, manifestos, and principles over the preceding fifteen years.
Few leading figures in modern art were teachers, but Chernikhov, a passionate educator, viewed his books as textbooks, with his exceptional graphics serving as illustrations. Unlike many renowned artists and architects, he did not advocate specific styles or techniques. Instead, he focused on practical subjects like the use of materials and methods of depicting form and space. Chernikhov’s emphasis on imagination is evident in the first chapter titled “Fantasy and Object.” “The Art of Graphic Representation” primarily depicts imaginary spaces, a field where he excelled. His systematic approach compelled him to share this knowledge. For Chernikhov, the ability to sketch and draw was essential, but imagination was paramount. Even his critics acknowledged the uniqueness of his work, which highlights the supremacy of the imaginary over the factual and representational.
Chernikhov’s first publication was revolutionary for its time, yet it went largely unnoticed by critics. In his educational philosophy, realism was not a priority; the goal was to accurately depict the artist’s imagination. Graphic expression was valued far more than creating an illusion of reality. Chernikhov believed that conveying thoughts and ideas in visual form without the need for correctness, as long as it mirrored the imagination, was sufficient.
Chernikhov often employed his unique terminology in his theoretical works. He embraced the concept of Suprematism, introduced by Kazimir Malevich in 1915, as one of the few avant-garde principles he considered universally valid. To Chernikhov, Suprematism involved creating abstract compositions free from traditional canons and procedures.
He structured his teaching curriculum into three main sections: Lines, Surfaces, and Solids. Each section was further divided into Architectural, Spatial, and Dynamic Considerations. The core theme was the rhythm of construction, consisting of composition and color. The book contains seventy-two chapters, each presenting a specific problem to solve, demonstrating the depth of Chernikhov’s concept. These tasks likely inspired students with vivid imaginations, supported by numerous illustrations, totaling 1,163. Unfortunately, the book only included thirty-eight high-quality but faint black-and-white graphics, which likely contributed to its lack of attention.
Chernikhov’s theory of learning was closely aligned with the “psychoanalytic” method developed by leading figures at ASNOVA and professors Nikolai Ladovskii, Nikolai Dokuchaev, and Vladimir Krinskii of VKhUTEMAS (unrelated to Freudian psychoanalysis). This method, used at VKhUTEMAS from 1923 onwards, taught the principles of spatial depiction. A 1927 publication by the college’s architecture faculty described it as a method explaining the laws of artistic forms and their elements, properties, and nature, based on individual psychophysiological perception. Chernikhov, like Ladovskii and his colleagues, employed similar methods to tackle similar problems. The main difference was their target audience, as the “psychoanalytic” method was intended for architects. However, Chernikhov noted in his introduction that he achieved interesting results across various educational institutions, including ordinary schools, village schools, and colleges for women and workers. The 1927 publication introduced spatial depiction for those with no experience in graphic design and was the only good textbook of its kind at the time. It was not widely read but remains significant. Notably, the word “architecture” does not appear in “The Art of Graphic Representation,” even in chapters on graphics in the arts, science, technology, and business. This likely reflects its intended audience, which included students of various professions, though his teaching methods are crucial for training architects.
Chernikhov’s book, “Fundamentals of Modern Architecture,” was published by the Leningrad Association of Architects in 1930, although the contents page is dated June 12, 1927, indicating it was written earlier. Like “The Art of Graphic Representation,” this book serves as a composition manual, but it is explicitly targeted at architects. In it, Chernikhov explores the theoretical and philosophical principles of modern architecture, accompanied by over two hundred of his own illustrations. The book posed a significant challenge to the architectural community by claiming universality while citing no other architects, including notable constructivist theoreticians like Moisei Ginzburg and Aleksei Gan. The title itself was a deliberate provocation.
Chernikhov’s biographer, Anatolii Strigalev, notes that the abbreviation OSA on the book’s cover is also the acronym for the Association of Modern Architects, the central hub for Soviet constructivist architects at the time. This publication goes beyond Chernikhov’s personal definition of constructivism, addressing issues debated in numerous books and architectural journals for years, and sparking intense conflicts between different architects’ associations.
In his final volume, Architectural Fantasies: 101 Compositions, Chernikhov defended the significance of visionary paper architecture, emphasizing the role of fantasy in cultural and artistic progress. His dynamic use of diagonal lines, ellipses, and bright colors created industrial yet context-free imagery, fresh and full of potential.
Chernikhov’s works, including Architectural Fairy Tales (1927-1935), Architectural Romanticism (1931-1944), Old Cities (1933-1941), and Wooden Architecture, explored historical and fantastical architectural themes. He aimed to revive architectural legacies from forgotten cultures, blending historical imagination with modern creativity.
From the late 1920s onward, Chernikhov diligently produced a series of graphic works focused on architectural painting, including cycles such as “Architectural Fairy Tales” (1927-1935), “Architectural Romanticism” (1931-1944), “Old Cities” (1933-1941), “Wooden Architecture,” and “Windmills.” In “Architectural Fairy Tales,” he conjures the atmosphere of distant eras and styles, as seen in his compositions on Italian and Spanish medieval motifs or old Russia. He also aimed to reconstruct the architectural legacy of ancient cultures, like those of Babylon or the Stone Age. His imagination revived the nearly forgotten architectural achievements of bygone civilizations, breathing new life into both past eras and the visions of former masters whose names have been lost to history.
The Renaissance and the subsequent eras are closely associated with the architectural fantasies of da Vinci, Piranesi, Boullée, and Mendelsohn, as well as Russian fantastical painters whose early works are known only through unconstructed buildings. Chernikhov wrote:
We do not, and probably never will, know what the builders of ancient times dreamt about, what worlds and compositions they saw in their mind’s eye. But it is hard to believe that architects — of whatever era — only though within the limits of a given canon. There have probably always been architects, by whatever name and under whatever circumstances they may have worked, who had great dreams and visions which they were unable to realize.
In discussing his “Architectural Fairy Tales,” Chernikhov explained:
I have chosen the thematic of the architectural fairy story because I want to apply the excrescences of “untrammeled fantasies” in practice, in order to see where this may lead. I was overcome by this wish when I began to think that the normal brain is not in a position to create something “absurd” unless it is the “fantastical” architectural design of a master of the field. My “aspiration” was to allow even more, to completely avoid the real world and give myself over to utopias, illusions, and the ephemeral. I examined architecture from every age and era, created by every people. I immersed myself in the most secret worlds of thought and fantasy. I discovered hitherto unseen visionary treasures and tried to take myself and the viewer into a world of mysterious, intense, and exciting experiences. In this regard, people who knew nothing of my new experiments often told me that my work was purely of the imagination and entirely removed from reality. Many were of the opinion that I should set aside my “pretty” but “fey” designs and concentrate on “real and realistic projects” just like everybody else…Quite apart from that, they said, the architecture of the past could no longer be of any use to us from a constructional or any other point of view, even though it was one of the most interesting periods. Having recourse to times long past with only the help of graphics makes architectural painting and painting processes necessary in contrast with modern, mechanized architecture. From the most primitive architectural structures to clay or reed huts, wooden huts, stone buildings, and others, all the way through to complicated styled edifices, I tried to established how “space can be designed,” how “one can shape it with ornaments.”
In my fairy tales, I have permitted myself every manner of digression, accumulation, exaggeration, and assumption, but in this way I was able to reveal the shortcomings and advantages of the characteristics which influence the creation of a form.
Gallery
