We say "Iofan" - we mean "Palace of Soviets", we say "House on the Embankment" - we mean "Iofan". With these two projects, one implemented and one that remained forever on paper, Boris Moiseevich Iofan entered the history of Soviet architecture so decisively and successfully as, perhaps, no other of his contemporaries succeeded. It is no coincidence that the exhibition was named “The Architect of Power” - although Iofan worked in completely different styles, he was perceived as the designer of one - the Most Important - customer.
His most famous works are the Barvikha sanatorium, the USSR pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris (the one crowned with Vera Mukhina's Worker and Collective Farm Woman), the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, the Gubkina and, of course, the House of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on Bersenevskaya Embankment are well known to the public. And there is nothing to say about the Palace of Soviets: an insignificant project of a 416-meter skyscraper with a statue of Lenin instead of a spire was widely published in Soviet times, and after it - already as the most vivid illustration of the concept of "totalitarian regime". In other words, the main body of the projects presented at the anniversary exhibition was known long before its opening.
However, the exposition, in principle, turned out to be more than predictable. This is how the jubilee exhibitions were organized at the Museum of Architecture five years ago, and even ten years ago. A few personal and similar things (a typewriter, a table, a lamp, a hanger with a lonely hat on it), a few photographs from the family archive (passing from hall to hall, you notice with involuntary envy how nobly and slowly Iofan succumbed to the influence of age), pictures of realized objects and numerous graphic sheets. Retrospectives in honor of anniversaries MuArt always shows in the Anfilade, using a long chain of halls to demonstrate the gradual evolution of the Master's work, and the exhibition dedicated to the author of the Palace of Soviets is no exception.
Boris Iofan missed the arrival of Soviet power: he studied and worked in Italy. After graduating from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts and the Higher School of Engineering in Rome, he designed a lot and fruitfully, so the first exhibition hall is filled with sketches and drawings of that period. This Iofan, who works in the classical tradition, is almost unknown to the Russian public (the exhibition features a lyceum in L'Aquila, a power plant in Tivoli, a school in Calabria, residential buildings in Rome), but even in these projects, the architect's subtle sense of composition and careful attention to detail are evident. …
The affair with the Soviet regime for Iofan began with a project of the USSR Embassy in Italy - it was never implemented, but it became an occasion for a close acquaintance with the Pre-Council of People's Commissars A. I. Rykov, who initiated the return of the architect to the Union, and also provided him with work "on first time". All subsequent halls of Enfilada are decades of Iofan's professional success: the second half of the 1920s - the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy and competitive projects of the Lenin Mausoleum, the 1930s - the triumph of the Palace of Soviets and the height of work on it, as well as a number of projects in the style of Art Deco, including the Izvestia printing plant, the Baumanskaya station and Soviet pavilions for the World Exhibitions of 1937 and 1939. Perhaps the 1960s-1970s remain as little known in Iofan's work as the Italian period, when the architect already knew for sure that his main brainchild would not be built, and the monument to the Worker and Collective Farm Woman could not find everything in the capital worthy (including in terms of the height of the pedestal) place of residence. At this time, the architect is working on a project for the Institute of Physical Culture and single-section residential towers in Izmailovo - the exhibition presents not only sketches, but also photographs of Iofan's last buildings, although it is most difficult to recognize the hand of a graduate of the Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Rome in the laconic and simplified forms of these structures.
Separate rooms are dedicated to the Palace of Soviets and the study of the topic of high-rise dominants: in the first case, the graphics are supplemented with decorative items that they managed to make for the future main building of the country (samples of fabrics, furniture and door handles), in the second - a panorama of American skyscrapers, which Iofan traveled to personally study. And it should be noted that the luxurious printed fabrics and projects of high-rises hung in the corners of the halls, placed on top of the silhouettes of skyscrapers built on the other side of the globe, are, in general, the only design "moves" in the exhibition design. All the rest of the material is presented in an extremely traditional way, and one can only guess why the museum decided to arrange such a significant exposition both in terms of date and personality on its own. However, at the opening of the exhibition there was talk that MuArt tried to invite the Children of Iofan for this, but they allegedly refused. It is a pity that the card called “continuity” was not played out, and the heading “architect of power” remained just a headline, without acquiring a modern artistic content. However, even if the theme of the exhibition is not fully disclosed by the organizers, the viewer always has a chance to do it on his own, since the work of Boris Iofan provides truly endless possibilities for this.
