View source for Alexander Vesnin

{{Short description|Soviet architect (1883–1959)}}
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{{Infobox architect
| name = Alexander Vesnin
| image = A.Rodchenko 1924 portrait of A.Vesnin.jpg
| image_size = 140
| caption = Photo by [[Alexander Rodchenko]], 1924 (fragment)
| nationality = [[Russian Empire]], [[Soviet Union]]
| birth_date = 28 May 1883
| birth_place = [[Yuryevets]], [[Kostroma Governorate]], Russian Empire 
| death_date = {{d-da|7 September 1959|28 May 1883}}
| death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union
| alma_mater = Institute of Civil Engineers,<br>[[Saint Petersburg]]
| practice = [[Vesnin brothers]]
| significant_buildings = [[Dnieper Hydroelectric Station]]<br>[[ZiL]] Palace of Culture
| significant_projects = 
| significant_design = 
| awards = 
}}
'''Alexander Aleksandrovich Vesnin''' ({{langx|ru|Александр Александрович Веснин}}; 28 May 1883 – 7 September 1959), together with his brothers [[Leonid Vesnin|Leonid]] and [[Viktor Vesnin|Viktor]], was a leading light of [[Constructivist architecture]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Architecture of the Soviet avant-garde: In 2 books: B. 1: Formation problems. Masters and currents|last=Khan-Magomedov|first=S.O.|publisher=Stroyizdat|year=1996|location=Moscow}}</ref> He is best known for his meticulous [[Perspective (graphical)|perspectival]] drawings such as ''[http://vma.muar.ru/ru/objects/proekt-moskovskogo-otdeleniya-gazety-leningradskaya-pravda Leningrad Pravda]'' of 1924.

In addition to being an architect, he was a theatre designer and painter,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vesnin brothers|last=Chinyakov|first=A.G.|publisher=Stroyizdat|year=1970|location=Moscow}}</ref> frequently working with [[Lyubov Popova]] on designs for workers' festivals, and for the theatre of Tairov. He was one of the exhibitors in the pioneering Constructivist exhibition [[5×5=25]] in 1921. He was the head, along with [[Moisei Ginzburg]], of the Constructivist [[OSA Group]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=ASNOVA, OSA and INKHUK group. Creative trends, concepts and organizations of the Soviet avant-garde. Series of issues of VNIITAG No. 4|last=Khan-Magomedov|first=S.O.|publisher=VNIITAG|year=1994|location=Moscow}}</ref> Among the completed buildings designed by the Vesnin brothers in the later 1920s were department stores, a club for former Tsarist political prisoners as well as the Likachev Works Palace of Culture in Moscow. Vesnin was a vocal supporter of the works of [[Le Corbusier]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chinyakov|first=A.G.|date=1969|title=Le Corbusier and Vesnin Brothers|journal=Soviet Architecture|volume=18|pages=133–142}}</ref> and acclaimed his [[Tsentrosoyuz building]] as 'the best building constructed in Moscow for a century'. After the return to Classicism in the Soviet Union, Vesnin had no further major projects.

<gallery>
File:Alexander Vesnin Abstract Composition 1915c..jpg|''Abstract Composition.'' 1915c. [[M.T. Abraham Foundation]]
</gallery>

==Selected work==
*1934 [[People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry]] Project
*1930 Oilworkers' Club, Baku<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mhp.moscow.russia.museum/english/exhibitions/moscow/russianconstructivizm/photo1.html |title=Russian Constructivism in the Provinces > Photos |access-date=2007-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929005945/http://www.mhp.moscow.russia.museum/english/exhibitions/moscow/russianconstructivizm/photo1.html |archive-date=2007-09-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*1930-36 Likachev Palace of Culture, Moscow
*1928 House of Film Actors, Moscow
*1926 Mostorg department store, Moscow
*1924 Leningradskaya Pravda project
*1922-23 Palace of Labor project<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.utopia.ru/english/item.phtml?id=191&type=graphics&sortby=view&start=0 |title=Russian Utopia: a depository |publisher=Utopia.ru |access-date=2014-07-17}}</ref>

==References==
<references />
*S.N Khan-Magomedov, Alexander Vesnin and Russian Constructivism (Thames and Hudson, 1988)
*Khan-Magomedov S. O. Architecture of the Soviet avant-garde: In 2 books: B. 1: Formation problems. Masters and currents. - M .: Stroyizdat. 1996 .-- 709 pp., Ill. {{ISBN|5-274-02045-3}}.
*A.G. Chinyakov. The Vesnin brothers. Moscow, 1970.

==External links==
*{{archINFORM|arch|8971}}
* [https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search?query=%22Aleksandr%20Aleksandrovich%20Vesnin%22&filters=%7B%22forms_collection_library_bookstore%22%3A%5B%22photographs%22%5D%7D Alexander Vesnin, photographs], [[Canadian Centre for Architecture]] ([https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search?query=%22Aleksandr%20Aleksandrovich%20Vesnin%22&filters=%7B%22forms_collection_library_bookstore%22%3A%5B%22photographs%22%5D%7D&img_filter=1 digitized items])

{{Authority control}}
{{Constructivism}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vesnin, Alexander}}
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:Academicians of the USSR Academy of Architecture]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour]]
[[Category:Architects from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Constructivist architects]]
[[Category:Modernist architects]]
[[Category:Modernist architecture in Russia]]
[[Category:Russian architects]]
[[Category:Russian avant-garde]]
[[Category:Soviet architects]]
[[Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery]]
[[Category:Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering alumni]]