Imagine Moscow

15 March – 4 June 2017, The Design Museum, London

Curated by Eszter Steierhoffer

Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov (1889–1951), compositional sketch, 1920. Black ink, 120 × 120 mm. DMC 1377.

100 years after the Russian Revolution, this exhibition at The Design Museum showcased the hope present in 1917 for a new Russia through the visions of the artists and architects who planned to build it.

Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov (1889–1951), compositional sketch, 1920. Black ink and pencil on paper, 120 × 120 mm. DMC 1374.

It divided the vision into six key areas: collectivisation, urban planning, aviation, communication, industrialisation, communal living and recreation, drawing on rarely-shown sketches and plans to paint an artistic ideal of Moscow, one interlinked with political aspiration but not limited by it.