Alexander Rodchenko. From the Collection of the Still Art Foundation
18th March— 22th May, 2022
The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography and Yeltsin Center presents an exhibition of photographs by the outstanding Russian avant-garde artist Alexander Rodchenko from the collection of the Still Art Foundation.
The exhibition includes Rodchenko’s works of different years: from the first photographic experiments of the 1920s to the end of the 1930s. The exhibition features portraits of Rodchenko’s friends — artists, architects, poets, writers, filmmakers, employees of the magazines LEF and Novyi LEF. It includes the popular portrait of Lilya Brik, which was used in the advertising poster for the Leningrad Department of Gosizdat (State Publishing House). Moreover, the exhibition shows several photographs of Vladimir Mayakovsky from the first photoshoot in Rodchenko’s studio on Myasnitskaya Street (1924), and the famous photograph of Osip Brik, where one of the lenses in his spectacles is replaced by the LEF logo. The exhibition also includes family portraits: Rodchenko’s mother, his wife, Varvara Stepanova, and daughter, Varvara Rodchenko. There are legendary photos of architecture and photo reports: Balconies (1925), Fire Escape (1925), Stairs (1929), as well as Pioneer with a Trumpet (1930) and Pioneer Girl (1930).
Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891–1956) is one of the leaders of the Russian avant-garde, an innovator in the field of painting and sculpture. Moreover, he worked as a designer for books, posters, films and theaters. He began taking photographs in 1924. His experimental approach to photography changed the trajectory of photographic art. He influenced his contemporaries and determined the development of photography for decades ahead. Osip Brik, the theorist of avant-garde art, wrote that Rodchenko strove to turn a familiar thing into “a construction that you have never seen before”. He sought to change an ordinary perspective on the world, and to expand the boundaries of the way we see. He used such techniques as shooting from an unusual angle (extreme viewpoints from above or below), which immediately became known as “rodchenkovsky”; diagonal construction of compositions that define the dynamics and rhythm of the photograph; detail and close-up shots. He used double exposure and delicate work with black and white contrasts.
The exhibition features 58 gelatin silver prints from two albums, issued in an edition of 35 copies in 1994–1997. It was collected under the direction of Varvara Rodchenko, Alexander Lavrentiev and gallery owner Howard Schickler. Alexander Lavrentiev and Yuri Plaksin printed photos from the original negatives of the author in Rodchenko’s darkroom . It was provided by the Stella Art Foundation.
18th March — 22th May, 2022
Art Gallery Yeltsin Center
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