BERLIN.- This exhibition is dedicated to the work of one of the most important Soviet architects, Boris Iofan (1891-1976). 2021 marked the 130th anniversary of his birth. From 1932 to 1947, Iofan was considered a key figure in the architecture of the USSR and Moscow. His proximity to Joseph Stalin made him the “court architect”. Iofan not only brought his own architecture to life during those years; he also implemented the dictator’s architectural visions. Some of these visions were realised in the Soviet pavilions at the 1937 World’s Fairs in Paris and 1939 in New York. In 1937, Iofan entered into direct competition with Albert Speer when the two architects’ respective pavilions were built opposite each other. However, some other visions never made it beyond Iofan’s drawings.

Boris Iofan’s most important work was the design for the gigantic but never built Palace of the Soviets, a skyscraper in the centre of Moscow intended to impress both Soviet citizens and people from all over the world; indeed, they were to be overwhelmed by the sight. This was the Soviet response to American skyscrapers, a response that only gradually reached its peak. First, several competitions – both open and by invitation only – were held, from which Iofan emerged as the winner. Then Stalin personally expressed the idea of topping the building off with a gigantic statue of Lenin. The Soviet leader appointed two important Leningrad architects, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh, who often worked together, as co-authors for the palace. The final design of the involuntary trio came about as a result of their joint trips to Italy and the USA; the idea belonged not only to Iofan and the two additional architects, but also to Stalin himself.

Iofan was born in the Russian Empire, studied in Rome and became an Italian architect. He married an aristocrat and joined the Italian Communist Party. Iofan was drawn to Soviet Russia and after Mussolini came to power, he returned to his homeland. He immediately sought out and found proximity to the Soviet government. He made a name for himself with his Neoclassical and then his Constructivist projects, most notably the Government House in Moscow and the Barvikha Sanatorium, near the capital. From the early 1930s, he easily switched from the Constructivist back to the Neoclassical codes, as if understanding the unspoken wishes of both Stalin and his entourage. Thus, the design for the Palace of the Soviets and the subsequent projects of the thirties and forties are in his Neoclassical style – generalised and blurred, grandiose and pompous – which nevertheless adheres to classical tropes. Here we can speak of the architect’s own style.

In 1947 Iofan fell out of favour; he wrote to Stalin and other Soviet government officials several times, but received no reply. After the dictator’s death, he carried on designing and constructing, though now in Neo-constructivist and International Modernist style, as if continuing his experiments from the second half of the 1920s. The architect believed in communist ideas until the end of his life, and in building the Palace of the Soviets, which he continued to redesign throughout those years, changing its form and style.

The exhibition mostly presents previously unseen original drawings and sketches from the Museum for Architectural Drawing’s collection. Only a few are photocopies of drawings that have not survived. The exhibition design emphasises the stages of the architect’s life and stresses the design of the Palace of the Soviets and projects of this period as the highlight of his career.

DOM Publishers is bringing out a new biography of Boris Iofan to accompany the exhibition, a detailed study of his creative development illustrated by extensive visual material, most of which has not been published before.

Vladimir Sedov is the curator of the exhibition and author of the publication. He is an architectural historian and professor at Moscow State University, where he heads the Department of the History of Russian Art. Sedov is the author of numerous publications on the history of Russian architecture and curator of exhibitions on the history of architectural drawing.