VKhUTEMAS

Vkhutemas (Вхутемас, acronym for Высшие художественно-технические мастерские; Vysshie KHUdozhestvenno-TEkhnicheskie MASterskie Higher Art and Technical Studios) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, “to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for industry, and builders and managers for professional-technical education.” The school had 100 faculty members and an enrollment of 2500 students. Vkhutemas was formed by a merger of two previous schools: the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Stroganov School of Applied Arts. The workshops had artistic and industrial faculties; the art faculty taught courses in graphics, sculpture and architecture while the industrial faculty taught courses in printing, textiles, ceramics, woodworking, and metalworking. It was a center for three major movements