Right wing for Letatlin model

Right wing for a reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin’s artwork ‘Letatlin’, by Henry Milner, 2013. Constructed of ash, leather, steel and cotton, Milner's 'Letatlin' is based on detailed study of Tatlin's only surviving prototype in the collections of the Russian Central Airforce Museum in Monino. This left wing is left uncovered to reveal the structure, as with Tatlin’s original. Milner was commissioned by Grad London for the Utopia Ltd exhibition in 2013, and the reconstruction featured in a number of international art exhibitions before being donated to the Science Museum Group.

Milner is a London-Based model-maker who has worked particularly on Russian constructivist art. Vladimir Tatlin was a founding father of that movement, best known for designing the Monument to the Third International, an unrealised monumental government building and telecommunications tower known as ‘Tatlin’s Tower’. In the 1930s, he experimented with flight, producing this artwork and prototype glider with a team of experts in engineering and physiognomy, including his ex-wife Maria Geintse, surgeon and anatomy expert. He referred to the piece as an air bicycle and intended it as an item of everyday use. Three models, or prototypes, of the Letatlin were exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in 1932, but Tatlin continued to experiment with the work until his last days. It is unclear if he thought it would fly, but he stated it should be seen as a work of art.