And Rodchenko’s work. “Experiments for the future”: exhibition of Alexander Rodchenko in Mamm

Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (November 23 (December 5) 1891, St. Petersburg - December 3, 1956, Moscow) - Soviet painter, graphic artist, sculptor, photographer, theater and film artist. One of the founders of constructivism, the founder of design and advertising in the USSR.

Biography of Alexander Rodchenko

Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg in 1891. Father - Mikhail Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1852-1907), theatrical props maker. Mother - Olga Evdokimovna Rodchenko (1865-1933), laundress. In 1902, the family moved to Kazan, where in 1905 he graduated from the Kazan parish primary school.

In 1911-1914 he studied at Kazan art school at N.I. Feshin, where in 1914 he met Varvara Stepanova. Since 1916, Rodchenko and Stepanova began life together in Moscow. In the same year he was drafted into the army and until the beginning of 1917 he served as the head of the department of the Moscow Zemstvo Sanitary Train.

In 1917, immediately after February Revolution A trade union of painters is created in Moscow. Rodchenko becomes the secretary of his Young Federation, and is mainly engaged in organizing normal living and working conditions for young artists.

Simultaneously with his work at the People's Commissariat, he developed a series of graphic, pictorial and spatial abstract geometric minimalist works.

Since 1916, he began to participate in the most important exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde (at the “Shop” exhibition, organized by Vladimir Tatlin) and in architectural competitions.

Rodchenko's creativity

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 1917-1918 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 at the exhibition “5 × 5 = 25” (Moscow ) showed a triptych of three monochrome colors (yellow, red, blue).

In addition to 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” (1920-1921) - 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”

The Fire's Man

Was wonderful artist books: a masterpiece of visual poetics of the absurd in the spirit of Dadaism were his photo collages for Mayakovsky’s book About This (1923, Mayakovsky Museum, Moscow).

An artist of a wide profile, Rodchenko also reformed the style of furniture in a constructivist manner (project of a workers’ club for the International Exhibition decorative arts in Paris, 1924), clothing (his own overalls from 1923, reminiscent of modern denim cut), advertising and industrial graphics (posters, advertising, candy wrappers, labels for Mosselprom, Rezinotrest, GUM and Mospoligraf, 1923–1925), finally, a movie poster.

He also made an outstanding contribution to avant-garde scenography (furniture and costumes for the play The Bedbug at the V. E. Meyerhold Theater, 1929; etc.). In 1926–1928 he worked in cinema as a film director. Your friend L.V. Kuleshova, 1927; Moscow in October B.V. Barnet, 1927; Albidum S.S. Obolensky, 1928; Doll with millions of S.P. Komarova, 1928.

In the 1930s, the master’s work seemed to bifurcate. On the one hand, he is engaged in agitation propaganda firmly integrated into the program of socialist realism (design of collective books White Sea-Baltic Canal named after I.V. Stalin, 1934; Red Army, 1938; Soviet Aviation, 1939; etc.).

On the other hand, he strives to preserve inner freedom, the symbol of which for him since the mid-1930s has been images of the circus (in photo reports, as well as in easel painting, to which he returns during this period). In the 1940s, joining the “unofficial art”, Rodchenko wrote the series “ decorative compositions"in the spirit of abstract expressionism.

Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of a theater prop maker and a laundress. At the insistence of his father, he went to become a doctor.

“When I was about 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...” Rodchenko recalled in his autobiographical notes.

At the age of 20, Rodchenko dropped out of medical school and first entered the Kazan Art School

In 1916, Rodchenko was drafted into the army. He will be in charge of the sanitary train. So his medical background will save him from being sent to the front.

In the early 20s, Rodchenko-Stepanov formed one of the most famous creative duets. Together they developed the so-called “ new life for a new life”, combined many arts and art technician. Rodchenko becomes a professor in the painting department of VKHUTEMAS, at famous exhibition“5x5=25” showcases a triptych of three monochrome colors called “Smooth Color.”

And in 1923 Rodchenko-Stepanov designed new type clothes - overalls designed to glorify labor activity and hide gender differences between people of the future.

In 1925, the first and last “abroad” happened in Rodchenko’s life: he was sent not just anywhere, but to Paris, to design the Soviet section of the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and the Art Industry. Rodchenko will stay in Paris for several months, bringing back from his trip a lot of starched collars, six pairs of stockings for his wife, a lot of equipment for work and the concept of “comrade-thing”.

In the early 30s, Rodchenko created a photo group in the legendary creative association “October”. His " business card” became the so-called “angle shots” taken from an unusual, most often unique, point.

The post-war years turned into one endless nightmare for Rodchenko. The diary contains only black entries:

“October 1947. We are not working on anything for the 800th anniversary. Now the 30th anniversary is coming soon Soviet power, and again nothing. Everything makes life worse and more boring. Everything is expensive, but there is no money, no work. Varva is gloomy from unemployment. I'm bored. There is only one thing left - to pray to God! This is what we've come to. We started to pray... We, left-wing artists..."

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 theater artist and designer, was faced with the need to record 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. Quite soon the young photographer created a reputation for himself as an innovator, completing a number of collages and montages using own photos 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, in which Rodchenko discarded all the traditions of pavilion photography, or “Portrait of a Mother” (1924), which became a classic of close-up photography.

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, Rodchenko’s real “calling card” was his perspective photographs – 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”, “ Ways of modern photography”, etc.) However, for the beginning of the 30s, some of his experiments seemed too bold: in 1932, the opinion was expressed that Rodchenko’s famous “Pioneer Trumpeter”, shot from the lowest point, looked like a “well-fed bourgeois”, and he the artist does not want to restructure himself 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. To the last Rodchenko dedicated a number of 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

For Rodchenko, creativity was one big experiment that opened up possibilities and allowed him to find new forms, facets, and techniques. For this reason it creative activity was very versatile. He exhibited his works at significant avant-garde exhibitions, wrote scientific treatises, created several cycles of spatial designs, was actively involved in photography, designed performances, films, sculpted and created advertising posters.

Not inferior in terms of activity and social activity. Rodchenko was a member of a number of organizations such as Zhivsculptarch, "Ref", LEF, MOSH, was among the organizers of RABIS, the photo group "October", worked as a professor at VKHUTEMAS and other organizations.

Alexander Mikhailovich died in Moscow at the age of 64.

Features of the master's creativity

Painting, graphics and designs

Rodchenko can be considered one of those innovators who were not afraid to experiment and be disliked by society. In terms of painting, he was a supporter of avant-gardeism, who introduced such independent forms of painting as lines and dots, experimented with the plane, was fond of Tatlin’s sculptural painting, and rethought the ideas of the Suprematists and other avant-garde artists of his time.

In painting and graphics, the artist built compositions from lines and geometric shapes, paying great attention their intersections, connections and insertions. In contrast to Malevich’s work “White on White”, Rodchenko created a cycle of paintings “Black on Black”, in which he focused on the texture of the material as new characteristic painting. Another fundamental work in this direction was the triptych “Three Colors. Yellow. Red. Blue". At the same time, the artist began to introduce tools that were far from painting, such as a compass and a ruler.

Of particular importance for art are its spatial structures, which are suspended cardboard, plywood or wooden elements connected according to certain principles. Working with structures, Rodchenko not only used well-known design principles, but also found new ones. He combined all the works into cycles depending on the goals of the experiments. This is how the cycles “Folding and collapsing”, “Planes that reflect light” and “Based on the principle of identical shapes” appeared.

Advertising posters and photographs

Rodchenko was one of the ideologists of constructivism, who assembled a work like a designer. He was also one of the first to realize the importance of photomontage for propaganda, which brought him fame throughout Soviet Union. The advertising posters he created together with the poet V. Mayakovsky were particularly successful.

His experiments in photography had no less influence on art. Rodchenko discovered such important techniques as perspective and diagonal, created many original photographs, widely known not only in the USSR, but also beyond its borders.

Auction records, cost of paintings by Rodchenko

To understand how much Rodchenko's paintings are worth today, let's turn to auction sales and start by looking at the four largest sales of his works.

The lowest price of the four was “Advertising of cookies from the Red October factory.” This is a gouache collage created by the artist in 1923 for Mosselprom. The work is good example that period of Rodchenko’s work, when he, together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, created advertising posters. Two talented person managed to actually move away from the traditions in advertising of those times and develop an original style. Their style is characterized by unexpected angles, a catchy slogan and the most bizarre arrangement of text. In 1925, similar works by Rodchenko were awarded a silver medal at an exhibition in Paris.

In the year of their creation, these posters were hung all over Moscow, after which the slogan “Nowhere but in Mosselprom” became catchphrase. Further this work has been repeatedly exhibited at exhibitions around the world: in the USA, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany and other countries.

At the auction, the work was bought for 201 thousand pounds (314 thousand dollars) with an estimate of 170-200 thousand pounds.

The second major departure of Rodchenko’s works includes the painting “Clown. Circus scene." It is of particular interest because it is one of the first that the artist created after a fourteen-year break from painting. Having come to the conclusion that the Soviet country needed not only rules and achievements, but also clowns, magicians, fireworks with their ability to move away from everything ordinary, Rodchenko subsequently worked on this topic for several years.

Painting “Clown. Scene in the Circus" was previously exhibited in the famous "Garage" by collectors from Moscow, the Molchanovs. It was first sold at Sotheby's auction in 1988, and in 2006 it was exhibited at the same auction house with an estimate of 180-220 thousand dollars. The canvas sold for $508,000, exceeding the previous sale price many times over.

In 2015, another work by the author was presented at Sotheby’s, typical of another area of ​​his activity. This is an avant-garde painting “Circular and Linear Composition” created in 1917. Note that the artist began participating in the most significant exhibitions of Russian avant-garde artists in 1916. The canvas was repeatedly presented at exhibitions in the most different cities: in Cologne, New York, London, Stockholm, Dublin and others.

Owning this work, the artist’s daughter in 1962 gave it to a major Soviet collector of Russian avant-garde, George Costakis, who kept the painting for 28 years. In 1990, it was sold at Sotheby's to Adolph Alfred Taubman, an American investor and businessman. After his death, at auction in 2015, the painting went for 646 thousand dollars with an estimate of 300-500 thousand dollars.

But the largest sale is considered to be the sale of the painting “Construction 95” at Sotheby’s. When the work arrived at the auction house, experts said that this was the most significant work by Rodchenko that had ever been put up for auction. This is primarily due to the fact that the composition dates back to the most significant period of the artist’s work, when he painted a series of paintings called “Linism.” Each of the canvases in this series had its own numbers. More than a dozen of them, including “Construction 95,” were presented by the artist at the nineteenth exhibition of the All-Russian Central Exhibition Center of the Art Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. In addition, in subsequent years it was shown in Cologne, London and Vienna.

Photographs from Rodchenko’s studio, on the walls of which this painting hung, have survived to this day. After his death, the work was in the collection of his wife Varvara Stepanova, and then until 1996 it was kept in Galerie Gmurzynska in Cologne. This year it was bought by a private collector and put up for auction again in 2016. The painting was originally announced with a high estimate of 2.5-3.5 million pounds sterling and went for 3.6 million pounds ($4.5 million).

To fully answer the question of how much Rodchenko’s paintings cost, let’s look at examples of smaller losses. His illustrations for books, posters, portraits, photographs and paintings in the avant-garde style are in demand at auctions. For example, the following works were sold: “Composition” (Christie`s, 1999, 123 thousand dollars), “To the Living Ilyich” (Bonhams, 2013, 9 thousand dollars), “Red Square” (Sotheby` s, 2001, 3 thousand pounds) and others.

Examination and sale of paintings by Rodchenko

Where and how to evaluate Rodchenko’s painting

When evaluating an artist’s works, it is better to use the experience of professionals, since a specific work may cost big money. During the examination of Rodchenko’s painting, experts will examine it for authenticity, author’s techniques, safety and value to society. Based on a number of studies conducted in laboratory conditions and in literary sources, they will be able to name an adequate cost of the work.

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 the Kazan Art School, and 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 visual 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 Zhivskulptarch 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, and considered his work as a huge experiment in which each work represents a minimal pictorial element in form and is limited in 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 editorial board magazine "New LEF".

In 1925, he was sent to Paris to design the Soviet section of the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Art Industry, and carried out his interior design project for the “Workers’ Club”.

From 1924 he was engaged in photography. Known for his acutely documentary psychological portraits of 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 for 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, was a member of the Moscow Union of Artists of the USSR (Moscow organization of the 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

“The Great Experimenter”, as defined by the collector G.D. Kostaki. Continuing his search in the field of cubo-futurist and non-objective painting, highly appreciating K.S. Malevich and V.E. Tatlin (in his youth he considered him his teacher), from 1917 to 1921 he created an original radical system abstract art, based on geometric structure and minimal means of expression, became one of the authoritative masters of the 1920s.

He was born in St. Petersburg in the theater building on Nevsky Prospekt, where his father worked as a prop maker. WITH early years dreamed of creating incredible costumes and performances from light, color, and air. After the family moved to Kazan, he studied to become a dental technician, but chose the path of an artist. At the Kazan Art School (1911–1914) he was a volunteer student and worked part-time with lessons and design work for Kazan University. Among teachers, he especially appreciated N.I. Feshin. Favorite artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Aubrey Beardsley. He liked the cleanliness of the lines Japanese print Utamaro and Hokusai. He was interested in literature, wrote poetry, illustrated Wilde's plays for himself, loved the poetry of Baudelaire and Russian poets Silver Age Bryusov and Balmont. In Kazan, he met his future wife, artist V.F. Stepanova.

A.M.Rodchenko. Non-objective composition No. 65.1918. Canvas, oil. 90×62. PGKG

A.M.Rodchenko. Composition. 1919. Oil on canvas. 160x125. EMII

A.M.Rodchenko. Lines on a green background No. 92. 1919. Oil on canvas. 73x46. KOHM

A.M.Rodchenko. Composition 66/86. Density and weight. 1918. 122.3×73. Tretyakov Gallery

A.M.Rodchenko. Non-objective composition No. 61. 1918. Oil on canvas. 40.8x36.5. TulMII

He moved to Moscow in 1916, studied at the Central Art Theater School, and began exhibiting as a painter (exhibition “Shop.” 1916). Rodchenko joined the search for artists of the Russian avant-garde in the late 1910s, but did not repeat what had already been discovered, believing that each creator is valuable for his own original creative experience.

He welcomed the social upheavals of 1917 and actively advocated freedom of creativity. Participated in the creation Trade Union artists and painters of Moscow (1918), became secretary of the Young (left) federation (chairman - Tatlin) trade union. He campaigned for a respectful attitude towards innovation; in articles and appeals published in 1918 in the “Creativity” section of the newspaper “Anarchy”, he called on artists to be bold and uncompromising in their search. He worked in the Art Department of the NKP in the subsection of the art industry, and later, in 1919–1921, he headed the Museum Bureau of the NKP. In 1920–1924 he was a member of Inkhuk, participated in discussions of the objective analysis group on design and composition, and in the creation of a group of constructivists. He supported the democratic orientation of constructivism and industrial art. Famous project The “Workers' Club,” which he presented at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1925, is a dream of a conveniently and rationally organized life. His motto of the 1920s: “Life, conscious and organized, able to see and design, is modern art.”

Rodchenko's work, starting with linear-circular graphic compositions of 1915, developed in the spirit of geometric abstraction. In 1916 he worked on a series of cubo-futurist compositions. In 1917–1918, he explored methods of pictorial depiction of interpenetrating planes and space, showing examples of his work at the 5th State Exhibition (1918, Moscow). In 1918 he made a series of compositions from round luminous forms “Color Concentration”. 1919 – the beginning of the use of line as a valuable form in art. He recorded his creative credo in the manifesto texts “Everything is Experience” and “Line” (1920). He treated art as the invention of new forms and possibilities, and considered his work as a huge experiment in which any pictorial thing is limited in its means of expression.

Each of Rodchenko’s works is a compositional experiment that is minimal in the type of material used. He builds a composition on the dominant color, distributing it over the surface of the plane with transitions. He sets himself the task of creating a work where the main formative element is texture - some parts of the picture painted only black paint, filling with varnish, others leaving matte (works “Black on Black”, 1919, based on textured processing, were shown at the 10th state exhibition “Objectless Creativity and Suprematism” (1919. Moscow). A combination of shiny and differently processed surfaces gives rise to a new expressive effect. The border of textures is perceived as the border of form. Rodchenko made compositions from only points and lines, giving these elements philosophical ambiguity, establishing the line as a symbol of construction (19th state exhibition. 1920. Moscow).

Finally, in 1921, Rodchenko completed his painting system with three evenly painted canvases: red, yellow and blue (triptych “Smooth Color”. Exhibition “5x5=25”. 1921. Moscow). In the prospectus for his automonography in 1922, he writes: “I consider the past stage in art important for bringing art onto the path of proactive industry, a path that the new generation will not have to go through.” This was the beginning of the transition to “industrial art”.

Rodchenko’s experience convinced him that there are universal compositional patterns (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, cross-shaped, zigzag, angle, circle, and so on). Emphasizing compositional schemes and identifying the geometric principles of composition will later form the essence of his photographic experiments with perspective.

In addition to painting and graphics, Rodchenko was engaged in spatial structures. He created three cycles of works in which he introduced the principle of structure and regularity. geometric construction. The first cycle - “Folding and collapsing” - is made of flat cardboard elements connected by inserts (1918). The second is “Planes Reflecting Light,” free-hanging mobiles—concentric shapes (circle, square, ellipse, triangle, and hexagon) cut out of plywood (1920–1921). The third - “According to the principle of identical forms” - spatial structures from standard wooden blocks, connected according to the combinatorial principle (1920–1921).

Rodchenko's designs, his structural and geometric linear discoveries influenced the formation of a characteristic constructivist style in book and magazine graphics, posters, object design, and architecture. If Tatlin indicated the direction of constructivism with his Monument III International, then Rodchenko gave a method based on structural-geometric linear shaping and combinatorics.

In 1919–1920 he participated in the work of Zhivsculptarch (the commission of the Art Department of the NKP was created by N.A. Ladovsky, with the participation of architects V.F. Krinsky and G.M. Mapu, sculptor B.D. Korolev, painters Rodchenko and A.V. Shevchenko ), fantasized about new architectural structures and types of buildings - kiosks, public buildings, high-rise buildings. He developed the concept of a “city with an upper facade”, because he believed that in the future, in connection with the development of aeronautics, people will admire the city not from below, not from street level, but from above, flying over the city or being on all kinds of observation platforms. The land must be cleared for traffic and pedestrians, and expressive structures, passages, and hanging blocks of buildings must be designed on the roofs of buildings, which will make up this new “upper façade of the city.”

In 1920 - professor of the painting faculty, from 1922 to 1930 - professor of the metalworking faculty of Vkhutemas-Vkhutein, where he actually founded one of the first domestic design schools. He taught students to design multifunctional objects for public buildings and everyday life, achieving expressiveness of form through identifying designs and ingenious inventions of transforming structures.

Rodchenko collaborated with figures of the left-wing avant-garde cinema: A.M. Gan, Dziga Vertov (credits for Kinopravda, 1922), S.M. Eisenstein (posters for the film Battleship Potemkin, 1925), L.V. Kuleshov (work set decorator and production designer in the film “Your Friend”, 1927). Cinematography attracted Rodchenko as a new technical art.

The first photomontages and collages of 1922 were published in the Kino-phot magazine. It was published by Gan - director and architect, constructivist theorist, author of the first book about the goals of constructivism, the cover for which was made by Rodchenko. Gan attracted Rodchenko and Stepanova from the very first issue. He wrote about Rodchenko's credits for Vertov's Kinopravda (a series of chronicle films), published Rodchenko's experimental spatial designs and his architectural designs for the city of the future, and Stepanova's cartoons of Charlie Chaplin. The visual culture of the avant-garde in cinema, photography, architecture and design was unified. I. G. Ehrenburg’s book about cinema, designed by Rodchenko in 1927, was called “The Materialization of Fantasy.” These words can be considered the motto of the artist himself.

With his photographs, photomontages and graphic compositions, Rodchenko influenced directors and cameramen, created memorable film posters for documentaries Vertov, Eisenstein’s film epic, advertising for feature films directed by D.N. Bassalygo on revolutionary themes.

Rodchenko was the main artist of the literary and artistic group Lef, designed books by B.I. Arvatov, V.V. Mayakovsky, N.N. Aseev, S.M. Tretyakov, covers of “Lef” (1923–1925) and “New Lef” (1927–1928). Together with Stepanova and Gan, he became involved in the design of technical and popular science literature. IN book graphics, designing advertising posters, leaflets, packaging adhered to several principles: subordination compositional solution graphic diagram and structural field (module), use of chopped font, maximum filling of the sheet space with forms, use of graphic accents (arrows and exclamation marks). He introduced photomontage into the design of books (the first edition of the poem “About This,” 1923), magazines and posters.

Together with Mayakovsky (text) he created more than a hundred advertising leaflets, posters, signs for state enterprises, trusts, joint-stock companies: “Dobrolyot”, “Rezinotrest”, Gosizdat, GUM, having developed for each of the organizations a unique program that determined its graphic uniqueness. The brightness, posterity, and some brutality of advertising in the first half of the 1920s are characteristic of early constructivism.

In 1925 Rodchenko went to Paris to International exhibition decorative arts and art industry, where his interior design project for the “Workers’ Club” is presented in the Soviet section. The space of the club was designed comprehensively, with separate functional areas (tribune and screen, library, reading room, entrance and information corner, Lenin corner, area for playing chess with a specially designed chess table), in a single color scheme(red, white, gray, black, K.S. Melnikov’s pavilion was also painted in the same colors at Rodchenko’s suggestion).

Rodchenko has been involved in photography since 1924. He is famous psychological portraits loved ones (“Portrait of a Mother”, 1924), friends and acquaintances from Lef (portraits of Mayakovsky, L.Yu. and O.M. Brik, Aseev, Tretyakov), artists and architects (A.A. Vesnina, Gana, L.S. .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 for 10 Years” (1928. Moscow).

He ran the “Photo in Cinema” page in the magazine “Soviet Cinema” and published articles about modern photography in the magazine “New Lef”. Based on the photo section creative association“October” in 1930 created a photo group of the same name, which brought together the most avant-garde masters of Soviet photography: B.V. Ignatovich, E.M. Langman, V.T. Gruntal, M.A. Kaufman. In 1932 he joined the Moscow Union of Artists as a book artist. But at the same time he worked on the presidium of the Union of Photographic and Film Workers, and was a member of the jury of photo exhibitions sent to Europe, America, and Asia in the 1930s by VOKS.

In the late 1920s - early 1930s - photojournalist for the newspaper "Evening Moscow", magazines "30 days", "Give!", "Pioneer", "Ogonyok" and "Radio Listener". At the same time he worked in cinema (designer of the films “Moscow in October”, 1927, “Your Friend”, 1927, “Doll with Millions” and “Albidum”, 1928) and theater (productions “Inga” and “Bedbug”, 1929). His scenography was distinguished by laconicism and purity. Furniture and costumes in the spirit of late constructivism can be considered as rational models for production. Dynamics and transformation were present even in clothing models.

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 lowest point, “Pioneer Woman” and “Pioneer Trumpeter”, 1930; a series of dynamic shots “Vakhtan Sawmill”, 1931, which became the object of devastating criticism and accusations of Rodchenko’s formalism and unwillingness to restructure in accordance with the tasks of proletarian photography.

In 1932 he left Oktyabr and began working as a photojournalist in Moscow for Izogiza. In 1933 - designer of the magazine “USSR on Construction”, photo albums “10 Years of Uzbekistan”, “First Cavalry”, “Red Army”, “Soviet Aviation” and others (together with Stepanova). He was a jury member and graphic designer for many photo exhibitions, and was a member of the presidium of the photo section of the Union of Film Photographers. In 1941, together with his family, he was evacuated to the Urals (Ocher, Perm). In 1944 he worked as the chief artist of the House of Technology. In the late 1940s, together with Stepanova, he designed photo albums: “Cinema Art of Our Motherland”, “Kazakhstan”, “Moscow”, “Moscow Metro”, “300th Anniversary of the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia”. In 1952 he was expelled from the Moscow Union of Artists and restored in 1955.

He died of a stroke and was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Rodchenko’s works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the MLK Pushkin Museum, the State Museum of Fine Arts, the Moscow House of Photography, MoMA, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and other collections.