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 the 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 a 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 studied at the same school, who later became Rodchenko’s wife and colleague, a 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 There is no one I have ever met who is 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 expressive means for Rodchenko it was the texture - it was this that 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 laconicism and geometricism. The artist illustrated books, worked on decorations for theatrical productions and filming, but the most famous were his advertising posters. 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 with 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.
It so happened that photography became a branch of art with unknown heroes. It is worth asking any person about his favorite artist, poet or writer, and he will name several famous names. And if you ask to name your favorite photographer, few will be able to do it. But there is a genius in Russian photography that almost everyone knows. Even if not everyone is named, it would be hard to find anyone who has never seen his work. This man is Alexander Rodchenko.
Biography
Alexander Rodchenko was born on December 5, 1891 in St. Petersburg. His father worked as a theater prop maker and was categorically against his son starting a career in the arts. He wanted Alexander to have a “normal” profession. Following his father’s wishes, Rodchenko received a specialized education and even worked for several years in his specialty as a prosthetist. But, having decided to stop practicing, at the age of 20 he entered the Kazan Art School, and after graduation he went on to study further - at the Stroganov School. From 1920 to 1930, Rodchenko held professorships in several artistic educational institutions. In 1930-1931, he was involved in the creation of the October photo association. In 1932-1935 he worked as a correspondent at the Izogiz publishing house. During this period, Rodchenko created his debut series of sports photographs. From 1935 to 1938 he served as a member of the editorial board of the magazine Soviet photo"and began to specialize in filming sporting events. One of the most famous photographs by the author of those years is “Sports Column”.
In 1938-1940, Rodchenko made a project about the Soviet circus, but due to the outbreak of war, the photographs were never published. During the war years he was evacuated, where he worked as the chief artist of the House of Technology. From 1945 to 1955, Rodchenko was involved in the design of a number of albums dedicated to historical events, and also created a series of propaganda posters. In 1951, due to disagreements with the leadership, he was expelled from the Union of Artists, but three years later he was reinstated.
Creation
Alexander Rodchenko was a multifaceted personality. He is not just a photographer, but also a painter, designer and teacher. His greatest popularity came precisely thanks to his photographs, which, in terms of the technique and idea used, were significantly ahead of their time.
The master did not recognize canons and rules; he created his own own style, included in textbooks during the author’s lifetime. The most famous, made in defiance of the dogmas of photographic art of those years, were the acutely documentary work “Portrait of a Mother,” as well as a series of photographs by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lily Brik.
Sometimes Rodchenko's approach turned out to be too progressive for his time, and some of his works were subject to a barrage of criticism. Thus, the famous photo “Pioneer Trumpeter” was considered politically incorrect - according to critics, the boy in the photo looked like a “well-fed bourgeois,” which did not correspond to the spirit of Soviet propaganda.
In the 1930s, the master filmed material about the construction of the White Sea Canal, and this shook his bright faith in the justice of socialism, and with it the desire to engage in propaganda work. That is why he became interested in the genre of sports photography and achieved serious success in it.
In sports photography, Rodchenko was able to make full use of the style that would later become his business card- . This approach made it possible to “revive” and make even the most banal plot interesting.
One of the master’s most popular works was the photograph “Girl with a Watering Can,” which depicts his student Evgenia Lemberg. This masterpiece received global recognition and in 1994 was sold at auction at Christie's for 115 thousand pounds sterling.
The post-war years were marked by a black streak for Rodchenko. There was little work, barely enough money to live on, and the photographer often experienced periods of depression. In 1951, he was expelled from the Union of Artists for “deviating from socialist realism.”
Four years later it was restored, but Alexander Rodchenko did not have time to create new masterpieces - a few months later, on December 3, 1956, the heart of the genius of Russian photography stopped forever.
Influence on the development of photography
It is difficult to overestimate the influence that Alexander Rodchenko had on the development of Russian photography. He was a pioneer of the Russian avant-garde - he destroyed the established rules in photography and set new ones that corresponded to his vision. He became a luminary of Soviet propaganda, although later he suffered from the oppression of the system, despite his outstanding achievements.
Rodchenko wrote that he wanted to create photographs that he had never taken before; those that will surprise and amaze, reflecting life itself in its simplicity and complexity. Without a doubt, he succeeded, and the photographs taken by the master earned the right to be printed in any modern book dedicated to photography.
He experienced radical changes in home country and ended up initiating sweeping changes in his chosen art form. “We are obliged to experiment,” proclaimed Rodchenko, who abandoned “contemplative” photography.
Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg in 1891, saw the end of the Tsarist Empire, met the arrival of Lenin, and witnessed Stalin's repressions. As the son of a turbulent generation, he himself was turbulent. Although his first artwork, which emerged during the 1910s and 1920s, were part of the burgeoning Russian avant-garde, Rodchenko became one of many artists whose creative instincts were curbed by the strict principles of artistic expression in force under Soviet rule. From the 1930s until his death in 1956, his work focused on sporting events, parades and other traditional propaganda themes.
From 7 March to 28 June 2015, Villa Manin, commune of Codroipo in northern Italy, hosts an exhibition featuring one hundred works by the artist. His works demonstrate themes technique and Rodchenko's ingenuity. The collection includes works for magazines, cinema and advertising, as well as beautiful compositions created together with his wife and colleague Varvara Stepanova.
Rodchenko's early works reveal a gifted and courageous artist, pouring into seemingly mundane paintings new life. This exhibition is devoid of the dictates of socialist realism in order to show the bright, thoughtful and memorable images for which Alexander Rodchenko is known.
Portrait of Lilia Brik on the poster “Books”, 1924
Poster sketch for documentary film Dzigi Vertov's "Kino-Eye", 1924
Morning exercises on the roof student dormitory in Lefortovo, 1932
Pioneer trumpeter, 1930
Shukhov Tower, 1929
Portrait of a mother, 1924
Varvara Stepanova, 1928
Radio listener, 1929
Staircase, 1930
Mosselprom building, 1926
Laying asphalt, Leningradskoe highway, 1929
Boats, 1926
Bus, 1932
Lunch in a mechanized canteen, 1932
Mayakovsky's associate in advertising
December 5 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko “Pioneer”, 1930
Painting
In 1916, Rodchenko moved to Moscow, met his wife and colleague Varvara Stepanova and actively began to participate in avant-garde exhibitions together with Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, and El Lissitzky. At first, his activity as a non-objective artist was limited to easel painting with a compass and ruler, largely derived from the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich.
Alexander Rodchenko
2. Alexander Rodchenko “Red. Yellow. Blue", 1921
He experiments with plane and texture, shape and color, consistently turning his works into a geometric drawing - even more strict than Malevich's.
3. Artist, photographer Alexander Rodchenko, director Vsevolod Meyerhold, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, composer Dmitry Shostakovich (from left to right)
4. Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Mayakovsky “There have never been better nipples,” 1923
5. Alexander Rodchenko “Kinoglaz”, 1924
Because of such rationalization, Nikolai Khardzhiev, a writer, historian and one of the largest researchers of the Russian avant-garde, certified Rodchenko as follows: “He appeared in 1916, when everything had already taken place, even Suprematism... He came with everything ready-made and understood nothing.” .
Nevertheless, in 1921, at the exhibition “5 × 5 = 25”, he showed the triptych “Smooth Color” of three monochrome canvases (yellow, red, blue) and, thus, broke with non-objective painting, divorced from reality, in order to move on to “industrial art”, which was supposed to organically merge into the collective life of the new society.
9. Alexander Rodchenko “Workers’ Club”, 1925
Constructivism
The “Constructivist Group” arose in February 1921 on the initiative of the artist and art theorist Alexei Gan, as well as Rodchenko and Stepanova. A year earlier, Rodchenko began giving lectures at VKHUTEMAS (Higher State Art and Technical Workshops) and supervising student projects - among them, for example, a bus station and universal exhibition equipment.
10. Alexander Rodchenko. By the phone. 1928
11. Alexander Rodchenko. Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1924
12. Alexander Rodchenko. Pedestrians. 1928
For him, this was a turn to design, interior sketches, printing works and samples of completely new furniture, which were conceived by constructivists as a way to overcome the individualism of bourgeois art and subordinate their art to the interests of a socialist society.
13. Alexander Rodchenko “He is not a citizen of the USSR who is not a shareholder of Dobrolyota”, 1923
Advertising posters and photomontage
One of Rodchenko’s first works on the topic of the day, which were called upon to “rebuild” consciousness Soviet man, there was a poster: “He is not a citizen of the USSR who is not a shareholder of Dobrolyota.” Since 1923, in tandem with Vladimir Mayakovsky, he has signed advertising posters: “Advertising designer Mayakovsky - Rodchenko.” Among them joint work- Mosselprom emblem, advertising for the Molodaya Gvardiya magazine, GUM and Rubber Trust.
14. Alexander Rodchenko. Portrait of a mother. 1924
15. Alexander Rodchenko. "Wildflowers" 1937
16. Alexander Rodchenko. Sukharevsky Boulevard. 1928
Thanks to unexpected angles, catchy images and slogans and voluminous text, a fundamentally new language mass communication, combining Rodchenko’s graphics with Mayakovsky’s poetic texts.
17. Alexander Rodchenko “Composition”. 1917
18. Alexander Rodchenko “Dance”. 1915
At the same time, in 1923, Rodchenko began to use photomontage to illustrate books. One of the most expressive images of this practice was the first edition of Mayakovsky’s poem “About This,” for which Rodchenko composed collages of photographs and newspaper headlines, while playing with layout and font.
19. Alexander Rodchenko “Pioneer”, 1930
Photo
Today, Rodchenko’s photographs are associated with laconic forms, clear lines and clear images. They are sold at auctions and exhibited in museums. However, Rodchenko took his first photographs in 1924 to gather material for photomontages.
20. Alexander Rodchenko " White circle" 1918
21. Alexander Rodchenko
Since 1926, he begins to experiment with angles, distorting the image and emphasizing unusual details, writes articles about design thinking and a documentary-accurate view of the world (“Ways of Modern Photography”, “Against the Summarized Portrait for a Snapshot” and “Major Illiteracy or Minor Nasty” ). His photo reports are published in “Evening Moscow”, magazines “30 days”, “Ogonyok” and “Radio Listener”. Shooting a person in action, angle shots, psychological portraits became the calling card of Rodchenko the photographer.
On the 125th anniversary of his birthAlexandra Rodchenko(1891-1956) - constructivist, photographer and one of the first designers in the USSR, whose experiences have now taken shape as cultural archetypes, Gazeta.Ru recalls the main milestones of the artist’s work.
From the life of the first Russian designer and master of photography
the site is starting a large project “50 most important photographers of our time”. We will talk about photographers who had a great influence on the development of photographic art. About the authors who, with their works, formed the concept of “ modern photography" About the great masters of their craft, whose names and works are simply necessary to know.
It’s strange, but most commercial photographers do not think about the roots of their profession, focusing their work only on colleagues or a couple of casually familiar names. But in this sense, our profession differs little from the profession of, say, an artist. Ask a brush artist if he knows anyone famous artists- most likely, in response you will hear a short lecture about painting, in which the interlocutor will talk about his favorite artistic styles, schools, will most likely accompany the story with a lot of dates, names and references to works. Yes, most artists have special education(at least at the art school level), where they learn about all this. But in to a greater extent This, of course, is self-education. Artists need to know the global context, because it is impossible to create works in isolation from the work of great masters, without knowing the basics. So why do photographers think differently?
The first professional on our list is the great Russian artist and photographer Alexander Rodchenko.
Even if you try to describe the activities of Alexander Rodchenko exclusively in #tags, you will end up with several pages of text. The most important participant in the Russian avant-garde, artist, sculptor, graphic artist, photographer... And much more.
Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg, studied at the Kazan art school them. Feshin, where he met his future wife - talented artist Varvara Stepanova. Subsequently, he held a number of important positions, including the post of chairman of the institute artistic culture(in this post he replaced another great artist - Wassily Kandinsky)
“Work for life, not for palaces, temples, cemeteries and museums”
This was his motto, which fully reflected the sentiments of the avant-garde artists of that time. Rejecting “decoration” and going against the aesthetic criteria of art, they endowed their works - from paintings to architectural forms - with many details, each of which had an important, constructive function. Hence the name of one of the main directions of their work - constructivism. “The art of the future,” Rodchenko said, “will not be a cozy decoration for family apartments. It will be equal in necessity to 48-story skyscrapers, grandiose bridges, wireless telegraphy, aeronautics, submarines, etc.”
Rodchenko began his work at a time of great change: outside the window was what would later be called the Leninist Soviet project. Hopes for a bright communist future were inspiring.
Rodchenko and photomontage
Among other things, Rodchenko is famous for his experiments in the field of photomontage - he was actually a pioneer of this art in Russia. A sort of master of Photoshop, but in Soviet times. You need to understand that Rodchenko, as a true communist and supporter of Soviet power, tried to direct his abilities to strengthening new orders of life, so he was happy to engage in propaganda activities. Thus, the most interesting and memorable propaganda posters of that time were designed using the photomontage technique. Masterfully combining text boxes, black and white photographs and color images, Rodchenko was engaged in what would now be called poster design - by the way, he is often called the founder of design and advertising in Russia. It was Rodchenko who Mayakovsky entrusted with the design of his book “About This”.
Rodchenko and photography
Rodchenko, like all Russian avant-garde artists, experimented with forms and technology. So he took up photography, and reportage photography at that. Using unexpected angles (the term "Rodchenko's angle" is often found in art history literature), forcing the viewer to spin prints before his eyes (or his head in front of the prints) and creating images that seem to be about to move, he has established himself as one of the most progressive and pioneering photographers of the time. Although then there were, frankly, fewer of them (photographers) than there are now. Rodchenko plays with visual means photographs, honing them to the limit. Rhythmic patterns, compositionally ideal interweaving of lines - he manages all this masterfully. He was one of the first to use multiple shooting of an object in action - storyboarding. Rodchenko was not afraid to violate the recently established photographic canons - he made portraits from the bottom up or deliberately “filled up the horizon.” With his photographic “eye” he seemed to be trying to capture the whole Soviet Union. Perhaps that is why he took many photographs (especially reportage shots from demonstrations) while standing on stairs, roofs, or being in other non-obvious points.
Rodchenko continued his experiments even after the “death” of the avant-garde project - but under socialist realism and Stalin this was no longer encouraged. In 1951 he was even expelled from the Union of Artists and was rehabilitated only in 1954 - 2 years before his death.
Today the name of Alexander Rodchenko bears the most important educational institution in the area visual arts- “Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia”.
