Alexander Rodchenko is as much a symbol of Soviet photography as Vladimir Mayakovsky is of Soviet poetry. Western photographers, from the founders of the Magnum photo agency to modern stars like Albert Watson, still use the techniques Rodchenko introduced into the photographic medium. In addition, if it were not for Rodchenko, there would be no modern design, which was greatly influenced by his posters, collages and interiors. Unfortunately, the rest of Rodchenko’s work has been forgotten - and yet he not only took photographs and drew posters, but was also involved in painting, sculpture, theater and architecture.
Anatoly Skurikhin. Alexander Rodchenko at the construction of the White Sea Canal. 1933© Museum “Moscow House of Photography”
Alexander Rodchenko. Funeral of Vladimir Lenin. Photo collage for the magazine “Young Guard”. 1924
Alexander Rodchenko. The building of the newspaper "Izvestia". 1932© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
Alexander Rodchenko. Spatial photo animation “Self-Beasts”. 1926© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
Rodchenko and art
Alexander Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg in 1891 into the family of a theater prop maker. Since childhood, he was involved in the world of art: the apartment was located directly above the stage, through which you had to pass to go down to the street. In 1901 the family moved to Kazan. First, Alexander decides to study to become a dental technician. However, he soon abandoned this profession and became a volunteer student at the Kazan Art School (he could not enter there due to the lack of a certificate of secondary education: Rodchenko graduated from only four classes of the parochial school).
In 1914, futurists Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burlyuk and Vasily Kamensky came to Kazan. Rodchenko went to their evening and wrote in his diary: “The evening ended, and the excited, but in different ways, audience slowly dispersed. Enemies and fans. There are few second ones. Clearly, I was not only a fan, but much more, I was a follower.” This evening became a turning point: it was after it that a volunteer student at the Kazan Art School, keen on Gauguin and the World of Art, realized that he wanted to connect his life with futuristic art. In the same year, Rodchenko met his future wife, a student of the same Kazan art school, Varvara Stepanova. At the end of 1915, Rodchenko, following Stepanova, moved to Moscow.
Rodchenko, Tatlin and Malevich
Once in Moscow, through mutual friends Alexander met Vladimir Tatlin, one of the leaders of the avant-garde, and he invited Rodchenko to take part in the futuristic exhibition “Shop”. Instead of an entry fee, the artist is asked to help with the organization - selling tickets and telling visitors about the meaning of the works. At the same time, Rodchenko met Kazimir Malevich, but, unlike Tatlin, he did not feel sympathy for him, and Malevich’s ideas seemed alien to him. Rodchenko is more interested in Tatlin’s sculptural paintings and his interest in design and materials than Malevich’s thoughts on pure art. Later, Rodchenko would write about Tatlin: “I learned everything from him: attitude to the profession, to things, to material, to food and all life, and this left a mark for the rest of my life... Of all the modern artists I have met, there is no equal to him".
Kazimir Malevich. White on white. 1918 MoMA
Alexander Rodchenko. From the series “Black on Black”. 1918© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / MoMA
In response to Malevich’s “White on White,” Rodchenko wrote a series of works, “Black on Black.” These seem to be similar works solve opposite problems: with the help of monochrome, Rodchenko uses the texture of the material as a new property pictorial art. Developing the idea of a new art inspired by science and technology, for the first time he uses “non-artistic” tools - a compass, a ruler, a roller.
Rodchenko and photomontage
Alexander Rodchenko. "Exchange everyone." Project cover for a collection of constructivist poets. 1924 Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum Rodchenko was one of the first in the Soviet Union to recognize the potential of photomontage as a new art form and began experimenting with this technique in the field of illustration and propaganda. The advantage of photomontage over painting and photography is obvious: due to the absence of distracting elements, a laconic collage becomes the most vivid and accurate way of non-verbal transmission of information.
Working in this technique will bring Rodchenko all-Union fame. He illustrates magazines, books, and creates advertising and propaganda posters.
“Advertising designers” Mayakovsky and Rodchenko
Rodchenko is considered one of the ideologists of constructivism, a movement in art where form completely merges with function. An example of such constructivist thinking is the 1925 “Book” advertising poster. El Lissitzky’s poster “Beat the Whites with a Red Wedge” is taken as a basis, while Rodchenko leaves only a geometric design from it - a triangle invading the space of a circle - and fills it with a completely new meaning. He is no longer an artist-creator, he is an artist-designer.
Alexander Rodchenko. Poster "Lengiz: books on all branches of knowledge." 1924 TASS
El Lissitzky. Poster “Beat the whites with a red wedge!” 1920 Wikimedia Commons
In 1920, Rodchenko met Mayakovsky. After a rather curious incident related to the advertising campaign “” (Mayakovsky criticized Rodchenko’s slogan, thinking that it was written by some second-rate poet, thereby seriously offending Rodchenko), Mayakovsky and Rodchenko decide to join forces. Mayakovsky comes up with the text, Rodchenko is in charge of the graphic design. The creative association “Advertising-constructor “Mayakovsky - Rodchenko”” is responsible for the 1920s posters of GUM, Mosselprom, Rezinotrest and other Soviet organizations.
Creating new posters, Rodchenko studied Soviet and foreign photographic magazines, cutting out everything that might be useful, communicated closely with photographers who helped him shoot unique subjects, and ultimately, in 1924, bought his own camera. And he instantly becomes one of the main photographers in the country.
Rodchenko the photographer
Rodchenko began taking photographs quite late, being already an established artist, illustrator and teacher at VKHUTEMAS. He transfers the ideas of constructivism into new art, showing space and dynamics in the photograph through lines and planes. From the array of these experiments, two important techniques can be identified that Rodchenko discovered for world photography and which are still relevant today.
Alexander Rodchenko. Sukharevsky Boulevard. 1928© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
Alexander Rodchenko. Pioneer trumpeter. 1932© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
Alexander Rodchenko. Ladder. 1930© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
Alexander Rodchenko. Girl with a Leica camera. 1934© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum
The first step is angles. For Rodchenko, photography is a way to convey new ideas to society. In the era of airplanes and skyscrapers, this new art should teach us to see from all sides and show familiar objects from unexpected points of view. Rodchenko is particularly interested in top-down and bottom-up perspectives. This one of the most popular techniques today became a real revolution in the twenties.
The second technique is called diagonal. Even in painting, Rodchenko identified the line as the basis of any image: “The line is the first and the last, both in painting and in any design in general.” It is the line that will become the main structural element in his further creativity— photo-montage, architecture and, of course, photography. Most often, Rodchenko will use the diagonal, since, in addition to the structural load, it also carries the necessary dynamics; a balanced, static composition is another anachronism that he will actively fight against.
Rodchenko and socialist realism
In 1928 in the magazine " Soviet photo“A slanderous letter is published, accusing Rodchenko of plagiarizing Western art. This attack turned out to be a harbinger of more serious troubles - in the thirties, avant-garde figures were condemned one after another for formalism. Rodchenko was very upset by the accusation: “How can it be, I am with all my soul for Soviet power, I work with faith and love for it with all my might, and suddenly we are wrong,” he wrote in his diary.
After this work, Rodchenko again falls into favor. Now he is among the creators of a new, “proletarian” aesthetics. His photographs of physical culture parades are the apotheosis of the socialist realist idea and shining example young painters (among his students is Alexander Deineka). But since 1937, relations with the authorities went wrong again. Rodchenko does not accept the totalitarian regime that is coming into force, and his work no longer brings him satisfaction.
Rodchenko in the 1940-50s
Alexander Rodchenko. Acrobatic. 1940 Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum After the war, Rodchenko created almost nothing - he only designed books and albums together with his wife. Tired of politics in art, he turns to pictorialism, a movement that appeared in photography back in the eighties of the 19th century. Pictorialist photographers tried to get away from the nature-like nature of photography and shot with special soft-focus lenses, changing the light and shutter speed to create a picturesque effect and bring photography closer to painting.. He is interested in classical theater and circus - after all, these are the last areas where politics does not determine the artistic program. The New Year’s letter from his daughter Varvara says a lot about Rodchenko’s mood and creativity at the end of the forties: “Daddy! I would like you to draw something to go with your works this year. Don’t think that I want you to do everything in “socialist realism”. No, so that you can do as you can do. And every minute, every day I remember that you are sad and don’t draw. I think you would be more fun then and know that you can do these things. I kiss you and wish you a Happy New Year, Mulya.”
In 1951, Rodchenko was expelled from the Union of Artists and only four years later, thanks to the endless energy of Varvara Stepanova, he was reinstated. Alexander Rodchenko died in 1956, just a short time before his first photographic and graphic exhibition, also organized by Stepanova.
The material was prepared jointly with the Multimedia Art Museum for the exhibition “Experiments for the Future”.
Sources
- Rodchenko A. Revolution in photography.
- Rodchenko A. Photography is an art.
- Rodchenko A., Tretyakov S. Self-beasts.
- Rodchenko A. M. Experiments for the future.
- Visiting Rodchenko and Stepanova!
Pioneer trumpeter 1930
Alexander Rodchenko was born in 1891 into the family of a theater prop maker. His father did not at all want his son to follow in his footsteps, and tried with all his might to give the boy a “real” profession. In his autobiographical notes, Rodchenko recalled: “In Kazan, when I was 14 years old, I climbed onto the roof in the summer and wrote a diary in small books, full of sadness and melancholy from my uncertain situation, I wanted to learn to draw, but I was taught to become a dental technician...” Future photographer The avant-garde artist even managed to work for two years in the technical prosthetic laboratory of the Kazan dental school of Dr. O.N. Nathanson, but at the age of 20 he left his medical studies and entered the Kazan Art School, and then the Moscow Stroganov School, which opened the way for him to independent creative life. Rodchenko did not immediately turn to photography. 
Self-portrait
In the mid-1990s, he was actively involved in painting, and his abstract compositions took part in many exhibitions. A little later, he showed his talent in a new field, taking part in the design of the Pittoresk cafe in Moscow, and for some time he even abandoned painting, turning to “industrial art” - a movement that in its extreme form denied art and addressed purely to the creation of utilitarian objects.
Summer day 1929
In addition, in the late tenths and early twenties, the young artist participated a lot in public life: he became one of the organizers of the trade union of painters, served in the fine arts department of the People's Commissariat for Education, and headed the Museum Bureau. Rodchenko’s first steps in the field of photography date back to the early 20s, when he, at that time a theater artist and designer, was faced with the need to capture his work on film. Having discovered a new art for himself, Rodchenko was completely fascinated by it - however, in photography, as in painting, at that time he was more interested in “pure composition”, exploring how objects located on a plane influence each other. 
Shukhov Tower.1929
It is worth noting that Rodchenko was luckier as a photographer than as an artist - the former was recognized faster. Soon enough, the young photographer established a reputation for himself as an innovator, producing a series of collages and montages using his own photographs and magazine clippings. Rodchenko’s works were published in the magazines “Soviet Photo” and “New LEF”, and Mayakovsky invited him to illustrate his books. Rodchenko’s photomontages, used in the design of the edition of Mayakovsky’s poem “About This” (1923), literally became the beginning of a new genre. 
Portrait of a Mother 1924
Since 1924, Rodchenko increasingly turned to classical areas photography - portrait and reportage - however, here too the restless innovator did not allow established traditions to dictate his terms. The photographer created his own canons, which ensured his work a place of honor in any modern photography textbook. As an example, we can cite a series of portraits of Mayakovsky, for which Rodchenko discarded all the traditions of pavilion photography, or “Portrait of a Mother” (1924), which became a classic of photography close up.
Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924
The photographer also made a great contribution to the development of the photo reportage genre - it was Alexander Rodchenko who was the first to use multiple photographs of a person in action, which allows one to obtain a collective documentary-figurative idea of the model. Rodchenko’s photo reports were published in a number of central publications: the newspaper “Evening Moscow”, magazines “30 days”, “Daesh”, “Pioneer”, “Ogonyok” and “Radio Listener”. However, the real business card“For Rodchenko, angle photographs began - the artist went down in history with photographs taken at an unusual angle, from an unusual and often unique point, in a perspective that distorts and “revitalizes” ordinary objects. For example, the photographs taken by Rodchenko from the roofs (top angle) are so dynamic that it seems as if the figures of people are about to begin to move, and the camera will float over the city, revealing a breathtaking panorama - it is not surprising that the first angle photographs of buildings (the series “House on Myasnitskaya”, 1925 and “House of Mosselprom”, 1926) were published in the magazine “Soviet Cinema”. 
Mosselprom House 1932
Around the same time, Rodchenko’s debut as a photography theorist dates back to: from 1927, in the magazine “New LEF”, of which he was a member of the editorial board, the artist began publishing not only photographs, but also articles (“On the photo in this issue”, “ Paths modern photography", etc.) However, for the beginning of the 30s, some of his experiments seemed too bold: in 1932, the opinion was expressed that the famous “Pioneer Trumpeter” Rodchenko, shot from the lowest point, looked like a “well-fed bourgeois”, and the artist himself did not want restructure in accordance with the tasks of proletarian photography. Filming the construction of the White Sea Canal in 1933 really forced Rodchenko to rethink in many ways the relationship between art and reality, which seemed less and less inspiring to the artist. It was at this time that in Rodchenko’s photographs, the unprecedented construction sites of socialism and the new Soviet reality began to give way to the special world of sports and the magical reality of the circus. Rodchenko dedicated to the latter a whole series unique series - the photographs were to be included in a special issue of the magazine “USSR at Construction”. Unfortunately, the issue was signed for publication five days before the start of the Great Patriotic War and never saw the light of day. IN post-war years Rodchenko worked a lot as a designer and returned to painting, although he still often turned to his favorite genre of photo reporting. His “non-standard” creativity still raised certain doubts in official circles - the disagreements between the artist and the authorities ended in 1951 with the exclusion of Rodchenko from the Union of Artists. However, just three years later, in 1954, the artist was reinstated in this organization. On December 3, 1956, Alexander Rodchenko died in Moscow from a stroke and was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery.
Actress Yulia Solntseva 1930
Varvara Stepanova 1924
Architect Melnikov on the balcony of his house 1929
Architect, painter, decorator Alexander Vesnin 1924
For worms Boys in a boat. Karelia 1933
Starry sky projection apparatus 1929
Jump into the water 1932
Poet Nikolay Aseev 1927
Red Army maneuvers 1924
Writer and critic Osip Brik, one of the founders of LEF magazine
Sukharev Tower 1928
Pioneer 1930
Discus thrower 1937
Monument to Pushkin 1930
Nikolai Aseev in Rodchenko's workshop 1924
Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924
Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924
Actress Yulia Solntseva 1930
Railway Bridge 1926
Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924
Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1924
Football 1937
Newsstand 1929
Glass from the series Glass and Light 1928
Worker 1929 = AMO plant
Planetarium 1932
Radio listener. Reportage. 1929
Jump into the water 1932
Renault Mayakovsky 1929
Nurse 1930
Airplane Maxim Gorky over Red Square 1935
Director Alexander Dovzhenko 1930
Gathering for demonstration 1928
Gathering for demonstration 1928
Essay about the newspaper. Aunt Polya the courier (V. Stepanova) 1928
Stereotypes. From the series Essay on the newspaper 1928
Pedestrians 1928
Film director Lev Kuleshov 1927
Balconies. From the series House on Myasnitskaya 1925
Make way for the woman 1934
Architect Melnikov at the exit of the Bakhmetyevsky bus depot built according to his design in 1929
And Alexander Rodchenko was one of the founders of constructivism and the creators of the first Soviet advertising. He worked on propaganda posters, painted abstracts, illustrated books, and invented artistic photography techniques that are still used today.
“I was committed.” Meet the avant-garde
Alexander Rodchenko was born on December 5, 1891 in St. Petersburg, in the family of Mikhail and Olga Rodchenko. His mother worked as a laundress, his father as a theater props maker. They lived in a small apartment directly above the theater; to go outside, you had to walk straight through the stage every time. That's why early childhood boy took place in a “backstage” environment. Mikhail Rodchenko did not want his son to follow in his footsteps and insisted on getting a “real profession.” Immediately after finishing four classes at the parochial school, the boy went to study to become a dental technician and even worked as a prosthetist for some time. However, in 1911, he entered an art school in Kazan as a volunteer, where the Rodchenko family had moved by that time. Varvara Stepanova, who later became Rodchenko’s wife and comrade-in-arms, studied at the same school. famous artist and designer.
In 1914, during an all-Russian tour, futurists came to Kazan - Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasily Kamensky and David Burliuk. Their evening made a strong impression on Alexander Rodchenko: he realized that he wanted to engage in futuristic art.
At the end of 1915, Alexander and his wife moved from Kazan to Moscow. There, through mutual friends, he met the artist Vladimir Tatlin, one of the founders of the avant-garde movement. Tatlin invited Rodchenko to take part in the futuristic art exhibition"Shop". Instead of an entry fee, Alexander Rodchenko helped organize the event: he sold tickets and told guests about the works presented.
“I learned everything from him [Tatlin]: attitude towards the profession, towards things, towards material, towards food and throughout life, and this left a mark for the rest of my life... Of all contemporary artists I have never met anyone equal to him.”
Alexander Rodchenko
Kazimir Malevich. White on white. 1918. New York Museum contemporary art, New York
Alexander Rodchenko. Black on black. 1918. Vyatsky art museum named after V.M. and A.M. Vasnetsov, Kirov
During these years, Rodchenko finally decided on the direction of his own creativity. Inspired by Malevich’s painting “White on White” (“White Square on a White Background”), he created a series of works “Black on Black”. However, if Malevich’s painting is built on geometric shapes and a play of shades, then the main means of expression for Rodchenko was texture - it was she who made the composition three-dimensional.
Illustrator, decorator, avant-garde poster master
Alexander Rodchenko became one of the founders of constructivism - his works were distinguished by their laconicism and geometricism. The artist illustrated books, worked on decorations for theatrical productions and filming, but his advertising posters became the most famous. In addition to the traditional means of painting and graphics, Rodchenko used photomontage techniques, creating laconic and informative collages.
The artist released a whole series of advertising posters together with Vladimir Mayakovsky: the poet was responsible for short, memorable slogans. Constructivist posters fully fit into the revolutionary ideology of the young Soviet state. They were called upon to educate, inform, and agitate.
Using the technique of photomontage, Rodchenko created not only posters, but also illustrations for books and magazines. In particular, to Mayakovsky’s poem “About This”.
Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Mayakovsky. “Nowhere except in Mosselprom.” 1925. Image: n-europe.eu
Photo experiments by Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko began taking photographs in 1924. By that time, he was not only an accomplished artist, but also a teacher - he taught at the Moscow Art and Technical Institute. At first, Rodchenko photographed only to collect new materials for collages, but later his innovative works became very popular. Rodchenko used unusual angles, thanks to which his works acquired special dynamics and realism. The most impressive images for those years were those with a diagonal composition, when shooting was done from top to bottom or bottom to top. Such methods contradicted the strict canons of photography at that time. But Alexander Rodchenko’s techniques quickly became popular among his colleagues, and many of them are used in professional photography to this day. However, some of his experiments were criticized. For example, the work “Pioneer Trumpeter”: in it a boy with a bugle is shot from a lower angle. They said about the photo that the boy looked more like a “well-fed bourgeois” than a Soviet pioneer.
Since the late 1930s, Alexander Rodchenko stopped experimenting with themes and genres. He practically did not photograph or draw, he only designed books with his wife.
After the Great Patriotic War, the artist became interested in pictorialism. This direction of photography made the pictures look like paintings. Photographers achieved a similar effect through special light and shutter speed settings. During this period, Alexander Rodchenko was interested in the circus and theater and often photographed artists in the style of pictorialism.
The artist died on December 3, 1956. He did not live long enough to see the opening of his first photo exhibition, which was organized by his wife. Today, Rodchenko’s name is borne by the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, where his grandson, Alexander Lavrentiev, teaches.
Rodchenko Alexander Mikhailovich
(11/23) 12/5/1891, St. Petersburg - 12/3/1956, Moscow
Painter, graphic artist, photographer, designer, teacher, member of the constructivist group of INHUK (Institute artistic culture), member of the "October" group, member of the Union of Artists in the graphics section
In 1911-1914 he studied at Kazan art school, in 1916 he moved to Moscow. He exhibited as a painter since 1916, one of the organizers of the professional union of painters in 1917. From 1918 to 1922 he worked in the department of the Iso Narkompros (department fine arts People's Commissariat of Education) as head of the museum bureau and as a member of the art board.
At the same time, he developed a series of graphic, pictorial and spatial abstract-geometric minimalist works. Since 1916 he participated in the most important exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde, in architectural competitions and the work of the Zhivsculptarch commission (commission for pictorial, sculptural and architectural synthesis). In the manifesto texts “Everything is Experience” and “Line” he recorded his creative credo. He treated art as the invention of new forms and possibilities, viewed his work as a huge experiment in which each work represents a minimal pictorial element in form and is limited in scope. expressive means. In 1917-18 he worked with the plane, in 1919 he wrote “Black on Black”, works based only on texture, in 1919-1920 he introduced lines and dots as independent pictorial forms, in 1921 he showed at the exhibition “5x5=25” (Moscow) triptych of three monochrome colors (yellow, red, blue).
Simultaneously with painting and graphics, he was engaged in spatial structures. The first cycle - “Folding and collapsing” (1918) - made of flat cardboard elements, the second - “Planes reflecting light” (1920-1921) - free-hanging mobiles made of concentric shapes cut out of plywood (circle, square, ellipse, triangle and hexagon ), the third - “According to the principle of identical forms” (1920-21) - spatial structures from standard wooden blocks, connected according to the combinatorial principle. In 1921 he summed up his artistic searches and announced a transition to “production art.”
In 1920 he became a professor at the painting faculty, in 1922 - 1930 - a professor at the metalworking faculty of VKHUTEMAS-VKHUTEIN (Higher Art and Technical Workshops - Higher Art and Technical Institute). Taught students how to design multifunctional items for everyday life And public buildings, achieving expressiveness of form not through decoration, but through revealing the design of objects, ingenious inventions of transforming structures. In 1920-1924 he was a member of INHUK.
Since 1923 he worked as a universal profile designer. He was engaged in printing, photomontage and advertising graphics (together with V. Mayakovsky), was a member of the LEF (Left Front) group, and later was a member of the editorial board of the New LEF magazine.
In 1925 he was sent to Paris to formalize the Soviet partition International exhibition decorative arts and art industry, carried out his interior design project for the “Workers’ Club”.
From 1924 he was engaged in photography. Known for his poignant documentaries psychological portraits loved ones (“Portrait of a Mother”, 1924), friends and acquaintances from LEF (portraits of Mayakovsky, L. and O. Brik, Aseev, Tretyakov), artists and architects (Vesnin, Gan, Popova). In 1926, he published his first perspective photographs of buildings (the series “House on Myasnitskaya”, 1925 and “House of Mosselprom”, 1926) in the magazine “Soviet Cinema”. In the articles “The Ways of Modern Photography”, “Against the Summarized Portrait for a Snapshot” and “Major Illiteracy or Minor Nasty”, he promoted a new, dynamic, documentary-accurate view of the world, and defended the need to master the upper and lower points of view in photography. Participated in the exhibition " Soviet photography in 10 years" (1928, Moscow).
In the late 20s and early 30s he was a photojournalist for the newspaper “Evening Moscow”, magazines “30 days”, “Daesh”, “Pioneer”, “Ogonyok” and “Radio Listener”. At the same time he worked in cinema (designer of the films “Moscow in October”, 1927, “Journalist”, 1927-28, “Doll with Millions” and “Albidum”, 1928) and theater (productions “Inga” and “Bedbug”, 1929), designing original furniture, costumes and scenery.
One of the organizers and leaders of the “October” photo group. In 1931, at the exhibition of the “October” group in Moscow at the House of Press, he exhibited a number of controversial photographs - taken from the bottom point of “Pioneer Girl” and “Pioneer Trumpeter”, 1930; a series of dynamic shots “Vakhtan Sawmill”, 1931 - which served as a target for devastating criticism and accusations of formalism and unwillingness to rebuild in accordance with the tasks of “proletarian photography”.
In 1932 he left Oktyabr and became a photojournalist in Moscow for the Izogiz publishing house. Since 1933 he worked as a graphic designer for the magazine “USSR in Construction”, photo albums “10 Years of Uzbekistan”, “First Cavalry”, “Red Army”, “Soviet Aviation” and others (together with his wife V. Stepanova). He continued painting in 30s and 40s. He was a jury member and designer of many photo exhibitions, was a member of the presidium of the photo section of the professional union of film photographers, and was a member of the Moscow Union of Artists of the USSR since 1932. In 1936 he participated in the Exhibition of Soviet Masters. photographic art." Since 1928, he regularly sent his works to photographic salons in the USA, France, Spain, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia and other countries.
Literature:
Chan-Magomedov S.O. Rodchenko. The complete work. London, 1986
A.M.Rodchenko and V.F.Stepanova. (From the Masters of Art book series). M., 1989
Alexandr M. Rodchenko, Varvara F. Stepanova: The Future Is Our Only Goal. Munich, 1991
A.N. Lavrentyev. Rodchenko's angles. M., 1992
Alexander Lavrentiev. Alexander Rodchenko. Photography. 1924-1954. Koln, 1995
Alexander Rodchenko. Experiments for the future. M., 1996
Alexandr Rodchenko. (Published in conjunction with the exhibition Alexandr Rodchenko at the Museum of Modern Art). New York, 1998
As they say, a talented person is talented in everything.
Legendary Soviet photographer, artist, sculptor. The founder of constructivism, design and advertising in the USSR. Today we will tell you about Alexandra Rodchenko (1891 - 1956).
Most people will immediately name their favorite artist and their favorite writer, too, but they will most likely think about the answer to the question about their favorite photographer. Few people know Alexander Rodchenko by name, but there is not a person who has not seen his photographs.
In his works he was ahead of his time, for which he was often criticized. Thus, one of his most famous photographs, “Pioneer Trumpeter,” was at one time called politically incorrect. The boy in the photo turned out to be too plump, and this did not correspond to Soviet propaganda.
Alexander Rodchenko did not adhere to the rules and created his own own style. His most famous shots, shot in defiance of all the canons of photography of that time, are the documentary work “Portrait of a Mother,” which became a classic of close-up photography, and a series of portraits of Vladimir Mayakovsky, which violated all the rules of pavilion photography.
“You hang around an object, a building or a person and think, how to remove it: this way, this way or that way?... Everything is old... That’s how we were taught, raising us for millennia different paintings, see everything according to the rules of grandma’s composition. But we need to revolutionize people, to see from all points and under all lighting.”
A. Rodchenko. Notebook LEFa. 1927
No less famous is the master’s work “Girl with a Watering Can.” It shows his student Evgenia Lemberg. Photo received global recognition, and in 1994 was sold at Christie's for £115,000.
The photographer became seriously interested in the genre of sports photography, in which he achieved great success. Shooting unusual angles became his calling card, and in shots taken in sports arenas, he was able to make full use of this technique. Even the most ordinary stories became memorable and vivid.
Alexander Rodchenko is a multifaceted person who achieved success in everything he undertook. He worked on the design of the Pittoresk cafe in Moscow, creating a series of graphic, pictorial and spatial abstract geometric minimalist works. He also took part in exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde, for example, in the “Shop” exhibition organized by , and architectural competitions.
In 1918, Alexander Rodchenko wrote painting“Black on black”, based only on texture. Later, lines and dots appeared in his paintings, which became independent pictorial forms. He was an innovator in art, and viewed his work as a global experiment.
Alexander Rodchenko became one of the founders Soviet constructivism. He proved himself not only in painting, but also in many other areas of art. The artist created geometric sculptures from various materials.
Rodchenko also made a name for himself as a designer of furniture and clothing, and was the author of scenery for cinema and theater.
A noticeable mark on his work was left by his collaboration with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: he illustrated some of his books and magazines “LEF” and “New LEF”, and made a series of advertising posters with him.
Ideology Soviet art was transformed after I.V. Stalin came to power. Free spirits The state actively suppressed avant-garde artists. At this time, Alexander Rodchenko left painting and began to engage only in photojournalism. His photographs personified the highest achievements of the Stalinist era, ceremonial parades, public construction projects, huge industrial enterprises, life of Soviet collective farms.
These were pictures of victories and achievements, and ordinary life the country of that time remained behind the scenes, since photojournalists were strictly forbidden to depict anything that cast the slightest shadow on the government and its practices.
In the 1920s, Alexander Rodchenko made a huge contribution to the development of European photography and photomontage. He left a great creative legacy that influenced many artists and photographers.
In our time, his work is continued by Alexander Nikolaevich Lavrentyev, the artist’s grandson. He teaches at the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia named after A. Rodchenko and the Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Sciences, and is also an editor and consultant scientific works about your famous ancestor.