Varvara Fedorovna Stepanova

(Russian, 1894-1958)

Design 3, step 3 (1923 - 1924) in plexiglass

Footnotes

Provenance
The estate of the artist
Ex-collection Modern Art Oxford, deaccessioned in 2013
Private collection, UK

Exhibited
Oxford, Museum of Modern Art, 1984 (label on verso)

Stepanova was born in Kaunas, Lithuania and after training in Kazan Art school travelled to Moscow. During the collapse of the Russian Empire, a new order emerged and Stepanova found herself in the epicentre of the Revolution. The Soviet regime had brought about massive fundamental changes in all areas of culture: avant-garde artists began to experiment and the new art of "constructivism" appeared.

Stepanova designed books, magazines, posters and clothes, and led the textile department at VKhUTEMAS (Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops). Around 1921, Stepanova moved exclusively into the realm of production and made an impact on the development of Soviet society, cooperating with the new regime and reform. Her clothing was designed to promote the new ideology regarding women and as Lenin had noted "We want female workers to achieve equality with male workers, not only in the law, but in life as well." (Vladimir Lenin, Pravda, February 22, 1920). Stepanova's designs were made for the new post-Revolutionary liberated woman. Through the use of vivid fabrics and geometrical patterns, the artist was promoting a more easily accessible, functional, unisex, and utilitarian clothing with which she would reform Russian fashion. Stepanova based her designs on the political thrust towards equality in society and her designs followed the constructivist philosophy of creativity enhancing life in society. She designed clothes for the new hard-working, active and healthy Soviet citizen.