Synopsis
This film is a deeply personal view on the life of artist Gustav Klucis, one of the foremost representatives of early 20th century Russian avant-garde art, whose life drama reflects the tragedy of a whole nation during the years of Stalin’s repressions. It is a story about boundless ambitions, hope, love and artist’s responsibility that continues haunting him after his death.
Gustav Klucis (1895–1938), one of the pioneers and major exponents of constructivism and photo collage, is also one of the most controversial figures in Latvian art. Born in a peasants’ family, he is perhaps the best known Latvian artist in the world. Ironically, the art catalogues and textbooks call him a Russian artist, and in Latvia he is still largely regarded as some sort of a "lost son". Gustav Klucis’s life and artistic career pose many questions still unanswered today. Who was he? A hero or a victim of his own political naivety? An idealist or a conformist? A patriot or a traitor of his homeland? Killed during the Stalin’s purges at the end of the 1930s, his name lives on in art history as one of the classics of Russia’s avant-garde art. This film will endeavour to "decipher" Klucis by using the means of his own artistic thinking.
Gustav Klucis (1895–1938), one of the pioneers and major exponents of constructivism and photo collage, is also one of the most controversial figures in Latvian art. Born in a peasants’ family, he is perhaps the best known Latvian artist in the world. Ironically, the art catalogues and textbooks call him a Russian artist, and in Latvia he is still largely regarded as some sort of a "lost son". Gustav Klucis’s life and artistic career pose many questions still unanswered today. Who was he? A hero or a victim of his own political naivety? An idealist or a conformist? A patriot or a traitor of his homeland? Killed during the Stalin’s purges at the end of the 1930s, his name lives on in art history as one of the classics of Russia’s avant-garde art. This film will endeavour to "decipher" Klucis by using the means of his own artistic thinking.
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