Revolutionary Pedagogy for the Masses

Established in 1920 in Moscow following a revolutionary conference on education, Vkhutemas was a radical merger of fine art and technical education. Entrance exams were eliminated, students voted on faculty, and pluralism ruled. Students also demanded free housing, studios, and food. “The pedagogy was designed around this idea that anybody could be taught,” said Anna Bokov, curator of the upcoming exhibition at Cooper Union Vkhutemas: Laboratory of the Avant-Garde, 1920–1930, which will run from January 18 to February 24, 2023. Graphic designer and Kharkiv native Polina Godz elaborated on the school’s graphics department and allied press, tracing their development and importance to revolution-era communication. Together, Godz and Bokov told a compelling story of collective culture and public interest, quite different from the contemporaneous Bauhaus. As late MoMA curator Alfred H. Barr, Jr. observed: “The Bauhaus aimed to develop an individual, whereas the Moscow workshops focused on the masses.”