Alexander Rodchenko: life and work

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Alexander Mikhalovich Rodchenko, a constructivist and designer, spent his entire adult life in creative pursuits. He did not always find understanding with the state, and then stagnation set in in work, and longing in his soul. This was especially marked by the last years of life.

Childhood and youth

In 1891, the son Alexander was born in the family of a theatrical props and laundress. Eleven years later they moved to Kazan. There Rodchenko graduated from the primary parish school in 1905. Parents dreamed that their son would learn and become a dental technician - the speci alty of a we althy person, and the teenager wants to draw. From the age of 20 until the start of the First World War, he studied for four years in Kazan, at an art school, where he met Varya Stepanova, who later became a friend and colleague for life.

But in 1914 he was drafted into the army and sent to the Moscow Zemstvo, where he was in charge of the hospital train.

Moscow

Since 1916, Alexander Rodchenko began to experiment with painting and participate in V. Tatlin's exhibitions, where he exhibits his avant-garde paintings. You can treat the avant-garde in different ways. In these works one will finddeep meaning in the invented new forms, because the artist was thinking about something when creating paintings. Alexander Rodchenko viewed his creative pursuits as a research method.

After all, he wrote programs in which he fixed his beliefs. And in the paintings, composed of geometric shapes, he tried to reveal the depth of space and the shape of the elements.

Organization activities in Moscow

In 1917, artists form a trade union. Alexander Rodchenko is a fully formed person, he is 26 years old, he is full of energy and, being the secretary of the trade union, takes on the organization of the life of young artists. In addition, he participates in the design of the Pittoresk cafe, and also serves in the People's Commissariat for Education.

Creativity

In 1923, Mayakovsky's book "About it" was published. Rodchenko created brilliant illustrations for it. Photo collages included portraits of the creator himself and his beloved Lily Brik. The book was ambiguously perceived by contemporaries. The setting enhanced the frankness of the drama. For example, Lunacharsky was delighted with the poem, but he was skeptical about its design, Rodchenko's work was too innovative. This book was a continuation of their joint design work on posters. In the 1920s, the language of the poster changed dramatically - it became extremely catchy, concise, and informative. It differed sharply from Western European in its innovative forms. Mayakovsky and Rodchenko in tandem created political propaganda posters in the framework of constructivism in 1923-25.

During this short period, several appeals were created to contact Mosselprom, among which the most striking are "Cheap bread" and "Nowhere but …", as well as Rezinotrest sausages, GUM advertising. In addition to catchy texts, they are distinguished by visual methods of influence: simple contrasting bright colors, strange angles. And also used oblique, vertical and horizontal lines, fonts of different sizes. All together, it could not fail to attract attention and convince.

A new art form

The next facet of the talent of this extraordinary person was accidentally revealed - photography. Alexander Rodchenko was faced with the need to photograph his theatrical work. What is amazing, ideas just gush in the 20s. The question arises: when did he manage to implement them all? Did you work 24 hours a day? Having discovered a new kind of art for himself, he devoted himself to it with all his ardor. He captured moments of life everywhere and created masterpieces.

He photographed people and objects from unusual points, took angles, photographed from above and below, created portraits. These were pavilion shootings, and on the streets of the city, and in nature.

In the 1930s, Rodchenko was accused of being bourgeois for filming a pioneer blowing a trumpet. But he continued to work, not adjusting to the requirements of the authorities. The case ended with the fact that in 51 he was expelled from the Union of Artists. It was a dark period in his life and in the life of his wife Varvara Stepanova. But everything settled down after Stalin's death, and in 1954 Rodchenko wasreinstated in the ranks of artists. Two years later, in 1956, Rodchenko passed away. He was 64 years old.

But he has done so much that his archives should continue to be explored and photo exhibitions of his work should be made, as they reflect the times and have not lost their artistic expression.