Boris Iofan

Boris Mikhailovich Iofan (Russian Борис Михайлович Иофaн; * 16 Apriljul / April 28 1891greg in Odessa, .. † March 11, 1976 in Moscow) was one of the most important architects of the Stalin era. His works span several stages of development of socialist classicism which was part of socialist realism. He won the greatest influence in the 1930s and 1940s.

• 2.1 House on the Embankment
• 2.2 Palace of Soviets
• 2.3 Soviet Pavilion (1937 in Paris)

Life

Parents, early childhood and completion of art school in 1911

Boris Mikhailovich Iofan was born as the second child in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. His older brother Dmitri Iofan left home, with the aim of St. Petersburg, to educate yourself there and mitzubekommen to life and street scenes Petersburg.

Iofan recorded in his youth prefer the building of Odessa and sat them into huge, monumental buildings. His brother Dmitri sent him from Petrograd (present-day Saint Petersburg ) Books about neo-classical art, these books should shape its future architectural style, as soon became apparent later.

After finishing art school in Odessa in 1911, Boris was followed by 19 years his elder brother Dmitri and worked for two years in St. Petersburg as an assistant of the architect Alexander Tamanjan and his brother Dmitri Iofan, who worked for some time with Alexander Tamanjan, and Boris a place secured. During his time as an assistant, he studied books on the neo-classical art, which, as he said later, its architecture only to the made ​​to where it was. After this work as an assistant, he traveled to Rome to inquire there about new styles. In Rome, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with exams in 1916.

Since he preferred the classical tradition, he began in Rome to work with the architect Andrea Brasini. From this time his love came to Neoclassicism.

His love of Neoclassicism

Iofan designed and built much in Italy, this activity evaluated but later on as mere preparation for his work in the Soviet Union. He perfected his skills in the field of neo-classicism and was thus on the one hand prepared for the new situation in the artistic life of the newly formed Soviet Union, in which he returned in 1924, but on the other hand also included in the general form of system that the architecture of the totalitarian states of Italy, Germany and Russia was based.

Since Iofan the neoclassical art in the Soviet Union was not allowed to exercise, he turned his attention to the desired in the Soviet Union style of socialist classicism with which he projected his architectural masterpieces such as the Palace of the Soviets.

Work in the Soviet Union after 1924

Iofans first work appeared, the general architectural approach of the 1920s continue. These were not only a milestone in his career. He used herein, the latest technical achievements and solved complicated compositional tasks.

The very refined and sometimes small-scale geomorphology and the experiments of the architects and artists of the 1920s corresponded henceforth no longer the new symbolism, as well as it became increasingly clear. As part of the general trend towards the monumental neoclassical forms were gradually reactualizes and compositions with rigid axle preferred. For broad classes of society, these changes combined with the clear idea of the real achievement of the bright future.

Architectural works

With the name Boris Iofans the most important and programmatic next projects in the Soviet Union of the 1930s and 1940s are connected, like the house on the quayside, the pavilion at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937, or the pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1939, and the Palace of the Soviets, which he projected during the 1930s and 1940s.

House on the Embankment

The House on the Embankment in Moscow, built in the style of Soviet Constructivism, was one of the first buildings in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

Palace of Soviets

The Palace of the Soviets he held himself for his life's work, although the palace was due to the Second World War and other problems, never about the completion of the foundation out. Here he was, as he himself said, to develop its full spatial, visual and urban design capabilities. Whatever he then designed in the course of his long life and built, the 1930s were his special artistic talent to the greatest scope.

Soviet Pavilion (1937 in Paris)

For the Universal Exhibition of 1937 in Paris Boris Iofans proposal was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars for the construction of a Soviet pavilion. From a total of six drafts his design was the winner.

His proposal had a building in the tried and tested in the Soviet Union of Socialist Classicism architectural style, as it was also used in the Palace of Soviets. With its expressive design Iofan made ​​the pavilion next to the German the most impressive of the Expo of the year 1937. Signifier for the construction is the zweifigurige statue Worker and Kolkhoz sculptor Vera Mukhina the on the roof of the pavilion.