Oil painting -> List of Painters -> Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin

   Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin

Early Days: Tatlin was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the son of a railway engineer and a poet. He worked as a merchant sea cadet and spent some time abroad. He began his art career as an icon painter in Moscow, and attended the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was also a professional musician-bandurist, and performed as such at the Paris World Fair in 1906.

Career:

Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed the huge Monument to the Third International, also known as Tatlin's Tower. Planned in 1920, the monument was to be a tall tower in iron, glass and steel which would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Inside the iron-and-steel structure of twin spirals, the design envisaged three building blocks, covered with glass windows, which would rotate at different speeds. High prices prevented Tatlin from executing the plan, and no building such as this was erected in his day.