Japnese / English

Past Exhibition

Printed Matters

Alexander Rodchenko

Photographs & Book designs from the 1920s

1997.10.6 - 10.24

Checklist

Museum Series Portfolio　Portfolio 1: Classic Images.

Selection: Howard Schickler, Varvara Rodchenko, Alexander Lavrentiev
Printing: Alexander Lavrentiev, Yuri Plaksin
Retouching: Nikolai Lavrentiev
Technical Assistance: Cheryl Finley, Motel Fine Arts, Anne Windhorst Simmons
Design: Steven Schoenfelder, Judy Smilow
Edition Size: 35 plus 5 hors Commerce
Published by: Rodchenko/ Stepanova Archives, Moscow　Schickler Lafaille, Los Angeles/ New York, 1994

1. Portrait of the artist's mother, 1924 240 x 177 mm
2. The Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1924 243 x 174 mm
3. 3. Fire Escape, 1925 240 x 168 mm
4. 4. Balconies, 1925 238 x 124 mm
5. House of Mosselprom, 1925 240 x 174 mm
6. Columns of the Museum of Revolution, 1926 245 x 164 mm
7. Samozveri (Auto-Animals), 1926 241 x 185 mm
8. Boats on the Moscow River, 1926 170 x 223 mm
9. Pine Trees, Pushkino, 1927 242 x 168 mm
10. Briansk Railway Station, 1927 238 x 175 mm
11. Cigaretto Girl, Pushkinskaya Square, 1927 169 x 223 mm
12. Courier Girl, 1928 239 x 167 mm
13. Glass and Light, 1928 241 x 174 mm
14. Courtyard, 1928 242 x 177 mm
15. Gathering for a Demonstration, 1928 182 x 242 mm
16. Street, 1929 240 x 165 mm
17. Guard, Shukov Tower, 1929 160 x 224 mm
18. Gears, 1929 238 x 165 mm
19. Stairs, 1929 137 x 220 mm
20. Pioneer with a Trumpet, 1930 238 x 179 mm
21. Turn of the Street Car Line, 1932 157 x 220 mm
22. Orchestra, White Sea Canal, 1933 151 x 222 mm
23. Ships in the Lock, 1933 239 x 160 mm
24. Girl with Leica, 1934 240 x 170 mm
25. Diver, 1934 242 x 182 mm
26. Athletes, 1934 240 x 171 mm
27. Horse Race, 1935 148 x 221 mm
28. 'Dinamo' Sports Club, 1935 162 x 219 mm
29. Gymnastics, 1936 151 x 222 mm
30. Male Pyramid, 1936 237 x 124 mm

Museum Series Portfolio　Portfolio 2: Portraits: Rodchenko and His Circle.

Photographs
Selection: Howard Schickler, Varvara Rodchenko, Alexander Lavrentiev
Printing: Alexander Lavrentiev, Yuri Plaksin

The Portfolio
Technical Assistance: Peter Kruty Editions
Portfolio construction: Portfolio Box, Inc.
Papaer: Twinrocker
Design Construction: Spring Harvey Design
Endpaper Printing: Katarzyna Gruda
Endpaper Illustrations: Portrait of Alexander Rodchenko by Eliezar Langman, 1929 and signature of Alexander Rodchenko

Publication Date: 1997
Edition Size: 30 plus 5 hors Commerce
Distribution by: Howard Schickler Fine Art, New York

1. The Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1924 241 x 175 mm
2. Lily Brik, 1924 178 x 220 mm
3. The Painter Alexander Shevchenko, 1924 244 x 183 mm
4. Artist and Architect Alexander Vesnin, 1924 241 x 185 mm
5. Artist, Producer, and Publisher Alexei Gan, 1924 243 x 185 mm
6. Artist and Designer Liubov Popova, 1924 240 x 161 mm
7. The Critic Osip Brik, 1924 240 x 178 mm
8. Actor and Producer Vitaly Zhemchuzhny, 1924 243 x 183 mm
9. Yevgenia Zhemchuzhnaya, 1924 244 x 178 mm
10. The Sculptor Anton Lavinsky, 1924 180 x 224 mm
11. The Writer Elsa Triolet (Sister of Lily Brik), 1924 243 x 173 mm
12. Documentary Film-maker Esther Schub, 1924 240 x 169 mm
13. The Worker's Faculty Student, 1924 242 x 181 mm
14. Varvara Stepanova, 1925 243 x 175 mm
15. In the Workshop of Rodchenko and Stepanova, 1925 160 x 223 mm
16. The Film~maker Lev Kuleshov, 1927 243 x 178 mm
17. The Poet Nikolai Aseev, 1927 154 x 225 mm
18. Vkhutemas Student Ivan Morozov, 1927 242 x 177 mm
19. Varvara Stepanova, 1928 242 x 179 mm
20. The Artist's Mother at the Table, 1928 165 x 224 mm
21. Poet and Writer Sergei Tretyakov, 1928 244 x 184 mm
22. Driver, 1929 163 x 223 mm
23. Pioneer Girl, 1930 241 x 179 mm
24. Actress Julia Solntseva, Producer Alexander Dovzhenko, and Futurist-poet Alexei Kruchenykh, 1930 165 x 225 mm
25. Professor Boris Schvetsov, 1931 242 x 165 mm
26. Photo~reporter Vadim Kovrigin at the Moscow-Volga Canal, 1934 240 x 176 mm
27. Photojournalist Georgy Petrusov, 1932-34 170 x 222 mm
28. Field Flowers, 1937 242 x 175 mm

Vintage photographs

1. Photomontage for Maiakovskii "About This", 1923. 20.3 x 12.7 cm, stamped on verso.
2. Photomontage for Maiakovskii "About This", 1923. 12.3 x 8.9 cm, stamped on verso.
3. Samozveri, 1926. 15.2 x 12.2 cm
4. The Courtyard in summer, 1928. 22.1 x 16.4 cm, stamped on verso.
5. Equestrian, 1934. 16.5 x 11.1 cm, stamped on verso.

Books

1. Aseev, Nikolai Nikolaevich Izbran' stikhi 1912-1922 (Selected verse 1912-1922).
2. Dybenko, P.E. Miatezhniki (Mutinees).
3. Otkrytye pis'ma gosudarstvennogo izdatel'stva. Katalog (Open Letters of Gosizdat. Catalogue).
4. Dzhim (Jim) Dollar (psedudonyum of Marietta Sergeevna Shaginian). Mess Mend ili lanki v Petrograd: roman (Mess Mend or the Yankee in Petrograd: a novel).
5. L'Art Decoratif et Industriel de L'U.R.S.S. Moscow-Paris.
6. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Parizh (Paris).
7. Roginskii, N.O. Sovremennye metody ograzhdeniia Bezopasnosti Sledovaniia poezdov (Contemporary methods of ensuring the safty of the movement of trains). with V. Stepanova.
8. Uinslou, Teilor Frederik. Nauchnaia organizatsiia truda (Scientifically planned labour).
9. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Ispaniia, Okean, Gavana, Meksika, Amerika (Spain, Ocean, Havanna, Mexico, America).
10. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. No.S.: novye stikhi (No.S.: new verse).
11. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Sifilis (Syphilis).
12. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Razgovor s fininspektorom o poezii (Conversation with a tax inspector about poetry).
13. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Sergeiu Eseninu (To Sergei Essenin).
14. Kino-Literatura (Cinema-Literature). with Stepanova.
15. Mikhailov, I.K. Chetvert' veka podpol'shchika (Agent's quarter of a century).
16. Maiakovskii, Vladimir Vladomirovich. Klop: feericheskaia komediia, deviat'kartin (Bed bug: a fairytale comedy, ten scenes).
17. edited by K. Zelinskii and I. Selvinskii. Biznes: sbornik Literaturnogo tsentra konstruktivistov (Business: a collection of the Literary Centre of Constructivist).
18. Aseev, Nikolai Nikolaevich. Sobranie stikhotvorenii v 4-kh tamakh (Collected Poems in 4 volumes). with Stepanova.

Periodicals

1. Lef: Zhurnal levogo fronta iskusstv (Lef: journal of Left Front of the Arts). no.2,3,4, 1923.
2. Kniga o Knigakh (A Book about books). no.7/8, 1927.
3. Sovestskoe Foto (Soviet Photo). no.8, 1929. no.14,15,1930.
4. Novyi Lef (New Left Front of the Arts). no.2,3,5,7, 1927. Radio slushatel' (Radio Listner). continued as: Govorit Moskva (Moskoe Speaking). no.10,21,29,1930, no. 3, 1921.v

I. Rodchenko



Alexander Rodchenko was a Russian artist founding and establishing Constructivist art. In 1915, he started to passionately utilized rulers and compasses only for his designs. One could even say Rodchenko himself was Constructivism.

Unlike Lissitzky who pursued painting throughout his life, Rodchenko worked in various areas such as typography, poster design, and book illustration, rather than oil painting, which he used to create in the early years of the revolution only.
He has contributed in flourishing Constructivism by enthusiastically applying photography into graphic works.


Although Rodchenko is considered a unique photographer nowadays, creating photomontage was the primal reason for starting photography.

For the Constructivists, who welcomed the positive aspects of the modern industrial society, photomontage was most effective in expressing their approach to art for its process of cutting out reality and recombining it to establish new relations through dynamic layout and effective typography.

At first, Rodchenko was creating photomontage using photographs taken by others. After he had obtained his own Leica, he started taking photographs on his own, being fascinated by the technical possibilities of photography. He eventually devoted himself mainly to photography, more than to any other field of art. 



II. Photography and Book Design



Recently, the significance of printed matters and archives relating to avant-garde art such as Constructivism, Surrealism, Bauhaus, and DeStijl is on the rise.

However, there is no artistic movement other than Constructivism that summarizes better the fundamental quality of printed matters through its graphic designs in poetry books and catalogues. Because in Constructivism, graphic materials do not remain additional information for understanding oil paintings or sculptures, but are given the significance to express the artists' essence in the most appropriate style. Avant-garde artists used photography for graphic designs. Therefore, photography became a part of figurative arts.

There had been a tendency to discuss Rodchenko's photography only in terms of subject and composition.

Throughout this exhibition, we presented the close relation of photography and printed matters in avant-garde art, by displaying Rodchenko's photographic works, books and magazines at the same time/occasion.