The constructivists and their bid to annoy the French.

The constructivists believed that art should be straight forward and describe without metaphor or indulgence the workings of the world around them. They saw the act of using colour as inherently wrong, as the essence of a thing is not merely about it’s colour. The essence of a thing is merely how it looks and acts. The manifesto of the constructivists calls into question the legitimacy of the beliefs brought on by the futurists, seeing them as inherently old fashioned, but a vital and important step towards  progression.

They also had a strong belief in justice, a sense of fairness that was lacking from the more aggressive manifesto of the futurists.

Mainly a Russian phenomena, one of the most impressive ideas the constructivists came up with was never realised, a massive rotating building, larger in scale than the Eiffel tower and designed as a symbol of a newer, better Russia after the revolution. Designed by Vladimir Tatlin, it's a shame he never actually got a chance to make it. Look at this thing. It was an impressive, slightly insane, mass of metal, and could have been used as a helter skelter.

It was also designed to rotate,  which is pretty hardcore considering we’re talking about something designed before the 1920’s.

http://va312gulcebaycik.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/constructivism/
http://magus71.wordpress.com/category/the-realists-manifesto/
http://web.mac.com/davidrifkind/fiu/library_files/gabo.the-realistic-manifesto.lib-iss.pdf