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One of the most important members of an important Russian family of architects, Aleksandr Vesnin is considered the most active and innovative of the Vesnin brothers, as well as being the most widely recognised in terms of painting and theatrical design. He studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering in St Petersburg and worked as an assistant at various architect's offices. Between 1909 and 1911, he studied painting with the Impressionist artists, Yan Tsionglinksy and Konstantin Yuon. He worked in the studio of Vladimir Tatlin where he met Lyubov Popova and other vanguard artists. At this time, he experimented with Cubism in numerous drawings of feminine nudes. In 1913-14 he visited Italy, where he studied Palladio. Around 1917, he executed abstract works inspired by the Suprematism of Malevich into which he later introduced stronger spatial and structural tensions. Around 1920, he began to concentrate on stage design, creating sets and costumes for various plays in Moscow. Between 1921 and 1924, he taught painting and joined the group, Inkhuk (Institute of Artistic Culture), set up to discuss vanguard art theories. In 1924, he designed the cover for Stili epokha, by Moisey Ginzburg, which established the theoretical bases for the foundation of Constructivism in architecture. During the 30s, Vesnin, his brother Viktor and Moisey Ginzburg expressed their opposition to the return to historicism in architecture. He taught at the Institute of Architecture in Moscow between 1930 and 1936, and directed the Mossoviet studio. He was, after 1933, a member of the All Union Academy of Architecture of which his brother, Viktor, was the president. After the Second World War, his projects were little sought after which led Vesnin to concentrate mainly on painting and drawing, in a very personal and figurative style.

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