Today many artists incorporate the use of digital tools into their work and the lines between creativity and engineering are increasingly blurred. Before the 1920s however, art was considered the preserve of creatives working in the more traditional mediums of painting and sculpture.

A major Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) exhibition seeks to highlight a transformative period of art-making that arose in the 1920s and 30s. Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented will present the political engagement, fearless and groundbreaking visual experimentation and utopian aspirations of artists in the early 20th century.

On view in The Robert B. Menschel Galleries from May 10 through September 12, 2020, Engineer, Agitator, Constructor will showcase the activities of historical avant-gardes, including galvanizing works of Dada, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Futurism, and Russian Constructivism, and highlights figures like Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lyubov Popova, John Heartfield and Hannah Höch.

“We regarded ourselves as engineers, we maintained that we were building things… we put our works together like fitters," declared Höch. Such wholesale reinvention of the role of the artist and the functions of art took place in lockstep with that era’s shifts in industry, technology, and labour, and amid the profound impact of momentous events: World War I, the Russian Revolution, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rise of fascism. 

Illuminating the essential role of women in avant-garde activities while mapping vital networks across Europe, Engineer, Agitator, Constructor presents the social engagement, fearless experimentation, and utopian aspirations that defined the early 20th century, and how these strategies still reverberate today.

moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5072

May 10, 2020 – September 12, 2020

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