Vladimir Evgrafovich Tatlin (1885-1953) was a Russian avant garde artist whose model of the "Monument to the Third International" remains the main symbol of Constructivism.

In years to come, Vladimir Tatlin may be viewed as one of the greatest visionary artists of the 20th century. He was born in Moscow and grew up in Kharkov. His father was a railway engineer and his mother a poet, their professions and outlook representative of some of the new middle-class mobility found in late 19th-century Russia.

In 1902 Tatlin "ran away to sea" for a year and traveled abroad in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Libya. From the end of 1902 to 1904 he attended the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He continued his art studies from 1904 to 1910 at the Penza Art School and studied under Goroshkin-Sorokopudov and the lesser-known Peredvizhnik ("Wanderers"-social realist) Afanasyev. Tatlin received his diploma in 1908 as a painter...