Inspired By: Ivan Leonidov
One of my favorite architects is someone most Americans have never heard of. The great Russian Avant Garde architect Ivan Leonidov was introduced to me by me thesis tutor Elia Zenghelis and has since been someone whose work I have regularly returned to.
Leonidov is generally agreed to be the most idealistic architect of the young group of Utopian idealists that came to prominence in the interwar period, prior to Stalin’s rule. His designs were so bold and so ambitious that they were never built, except for one modest landscape project later in his careers.
I was fortunate enough to see some his original paintings on a trip to Moscow in 2002 and the 1988 book on his work by Andrei Gozak and Andrei Leonidov (the architect’s son) is one of my prized possessions. I found a few web pages that show his drawings and paintings.
– Brent