Constructivism and the Visual Verities

I've just begun reading George Rickey's book Constructivism: Origins and Evolution (Revised Editon; NY: George Braziller, 1995) which I purchased some time ago at the Museum of Fine Arts bookstore in Boston. I wasn't into collage yet but look at those dots on the cover! Even back then they held an attraction for me.

The term "Constructivism" was invented c.1914 by Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin to define objects built rather than cast or carved, or any design in two or three dimensions reminiscent of Euclid: flat and rectilinear or made with straight edge or compass.

The constructivists (1913-1922) include some of my favorite Russian artists: Tatlin, Malevich, Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, Naum Gabo, Antoine Pevsner and (briefly) Wassily Kandinsky.

In the preface to the revised edition, the author presents this list of visual verities ". . . waiting like the keys of a piano for a human touch:"

Time

Space

Color

Light

Texture

Contrast

Passage

Impact

Echo

Void

Shape

Acute

Obtuse

Convex

Concave

Sound

Silence