Alexander Rodchenko and the Russian Constructivism

After the World War I, the Russian avant-garde created many art movements that became very famous in the whole country. Constructivism was one of the most important movements and one of the turn points of art in history. This movement was born and developed from Italian futurism, Russian suprematism, the Bauhaus school of Germany and Cubism ("Art History: Constructivism",2009). The use of the basic shapes, the geometric style, the non-emotional and the experimental themes gave the movement a high degree of abstraction, modernity and simplicity that can be used internationally. That’s why it was widely used for commercial advertising to political propaganda reasons. Constructivism rejected the idea of "art for art's sake" and believed that art should have a practical reason that would serve the social purposes of the communist party in the Russian Revolution in 1917 ("Constructivism (art)", 2010). And that is how constructivism and suprematism- that serves the idea of "art for art's sake"- differs although both have the same basic geometrical forms with vertical, horizontal and diagonal arrangements.

Alexander Rodchenko (fig.0) was one of the most famous and successful pioneers and founders of constructivism. He, his wife Varvara Stepanova, Karl Ioganson, Konstantin Medunetskii, Aleksei Gan and the two brothers Stenberg established a group, and announced themselves as “The Working Group of Constructivists” in 1921. (Gough, 2005, 2)

Fig.0 Photographer: Mikhail Kaufman, Alexander Rodchenko 1922, URL

He worked in many fields like paintings, sculpture, drawing, photomontage, collage, photography, architectural projects and graphics in book and magazine covers, posters, advertising and even fashion (Frankel, 1998, 19). Rodchenko's works is a very good example of the total work of art "Gesamtkunstwerk" because he applied constructivism in many fields of art. His wife Varvara Stepanova, Vladimir Tatlin, Vladimir Mayakovsky and El Lissitzky were also leaders of constructivism.

In his paintings, the experimental spirit is dominant and noticeable. It began simple with simple shapes and primary colors, then the paintings started to get complicated with the use of different shapes and a lot of color combinations (fig.1 and fig.2) and it was surely constructive (Karginov, 1979, 28).

Fig.1 Non-Objective Composition 1917-1918, URL

Fig.2 Dance, an Objectless Composition 1915, URL

His interests began to increase; his paintings, drawings, and even sketches -with his use of the ruler and compass- show that the architectural designs and line structures were influencing him (fig. 3). All of that, with his passion of abstraction, built a bridge to establish the linearism which was an innovative way of combining painting, sculpture and architecture to create a three dimensional artworks. Linearism was a gate that led through constructivism art (Karginov, 1979, 61-62).

Fig.3 Line composition 1919, URL

Those three dimensional constructions were based on linear composition. Rodchenko didn’t only consider constructing unique structures with colored planes, but also had in mind the dynamic and the static balance of the construction. The spatial constructions didn’t depict any mechanical or architectural forms; the meaning of these structures remained hidden and symbolic but the active and the experimental spirit that represented the ideas of constructivism appealed the most (Karginov, 1979, 64-85). He did a three series of spatial constructions; one was in 1918 which was in the Non-Objective exhibition (fig.4), the second series was in "OBMOKhU" exhibition in 1921 which he called “ on the Principal of Equal Forms” (fig.5), the last series was in 1920-1921 and he described it as “real constructions” (fig.6) (Gmurzynska, 2002, 19-25).

Fig.4 Construction 1918, URL

Fig.5 Hanging Construction 1920, URL

Fig.6 Spatial Constuction 1920, URL

He also worked in productivism art with other constructivists, which links art to productive works. They created this art with the intention to serves the social, technical and cultural developments in everyday life (Karginov, 1979, 87). He worked for the futuristic Café Pittoresque in Moscow to design lamps (fig.7) (Gmurzynska, 2002, 18). He also designed tea sets (fig.8) (Frankel, 1998, 64).

Fig.7 Lamp for the Cafe Pittoresque 1917, URL

Fig.8 Tea Cups, Platter, Teapot Design 1922, URL

Farther more, Rodchenko applied this movement in fashion and textile design. The use of geometric shapes was dominant. He designed many costumes for some plays and as we see in (fig.9) the costume design is based on the geometric shapes. His textile designs are very accurate and also based on the geometric forms (fig.10).

Fig.9 Costume design for play "The Princess Padua" 1914, URL

Fig. 10 Textile Design 1924, URL

Since the beginning of the 1920s, Rodchenko began to take a huge interest in photography. He believed that thing will get more interesting if one looked at it from many points of view and with different perspectives (Frankel, 1998, 101) like we can see in (fig.11). He took this photograph from a very unexpected angel of the stairs so we could see the amusing perspective. Another example that I personally like is the photographs of the Free-style Diver (fig.12 &13) and we can see at what unfamiliar perspective and moment he took these shots.

Fig.11 On the Fire-escape 1927, URL

(Left) Fig.12 Free-Style Diver 1936, URL

(Right) Fig.13 Free-Style Diver 1936, URL

The photomontage of the constructivists was very different from the Dadaists’ who created this technique. The constructivists applied their style of the vertical, horizontal and diagonal arrangements in the photomontage technique. In the photomontage work of Hannah Hoch (fig.14) the Dadaist, we can see the elements are not arranged in a specific way with no empty space and with the use of different typography, unlike the arrangement of the diagonal elements and the use of the empty space in Rodchenko’s work (fig.15 & 16) which we can call it “ less destructive” than the Dadaists horror style (Eskilson, 2007, 209). Rodchenko worked with the poet and the constructivist Vladimir Mayakovsky on visualizing his poems with the technique of photomontage to publish his book Pro Eto “About this” (fig.15 & 16) (Eskilson, 2007, 209). These artworks are some of the illustrations of the poem in Mayakovsky’s book.

Fig.14 Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the

First Epoch of the Weimar Beer-Belly Culture, 1919, URL

Fig.15 & 16 Photomontage For "About This" by Vladimir Mayakovsky 1923, URL

Through the photomontage and photography, he began to design film posters and magazine and book covers. He designed the covers for the magazine New Left "Novyi Lef" (fig.17). He worked with Mayakovsky to design his books' covers (fig.18). About the film posters, he collaborated with the filmmaker Dziga Vertov who created the Film Eye "Kino Glanz" and created poster for his film (fig.19) (Eskilson, 2007, 209). We can see easily the constructive style of the geometric arrangements of the elements and the wide space.

Fig.17 Front and back covers of the magazine Novyi Lef (New Left), no. 9. 1928. URL

Fig.18 Back Cover of the book Razgovor c fininspektorom o poesii "Conversation with

the Finance Inspector About Poetry" by Mayakovsky 1926, URL

Fig.19 Kino Glanz "Film Eye" 1924, URL

Watch a video about Kino Glanz.

Rodchenko also Worked on commercial and propaganda posters as a "social agent" in order to support the Soviet state (Frankel, 1998, 65). He worked with Mayakovsky's rythems to create nearly fifty posters that contained very attractive simple illustrations with basic colors and clear letters in addition to let the illiterate audience understand the published information, as we can see in (fig.20) which is a good example of his simple and clear style with the use of large and clear letters (Karginov, 1979, 119-120). He abandoned the use of the floral ornamentations and only used the basic and geometric design elements with simple colors in every of his works. Another way to attract the viewer's attention is to use arrows, diagonal arrangements and big exclamation and question marks (fig.21 & 22).

Fig.20 Better Treats for Dummies 1932, URL

Fig.21 Trade Union Poster 1925, URL

Fig.22 Lengiz books in all branches of knowledge 1925, URL

Rodchenko also designed advertising posters, insignias, bookmarks, candy wrappers for several companies such as the state Airline Drobrolet (fig.23), Krasnyi Oktiba (Red October) Factory, The State Grocery that concerns Mossel'prom (Moscow Agricultural Industry), The Department Store GUM (State Universal Store) and The Publishing Company Novost' (News) (Frankel, 1998, 186-201). Of course, is constructive style was dominant.

Fig.23 Advertising poster for the state airline Dobrolet 1923, URL

Fig.24 Wrapper for Nasha Industriia (Our Industry), caramels from the Krasnyi Oktiabr' (Red October) factory 1923, URL

Fig.25 Advertisement for table oil 1923, URL

Fig.26 Bookmarks for the Publishing Company Novost' (News) 1923, URL

Finally, Rodchenko was one of the Russian artists who was a very creative, talented and a hard worker. His art has a great impact at that time and it is affecting the artists and designers even until today. We can quote his own words about Vladimir Tatlin, the father of constructivism, to describe him "created for years without any recognition, and worked until death, with great zeal and simple, pure taste, for an unknown future." (Karginov, 1979, 251)

Bibliography:

• Karginov, G. (1979). Rodchenko. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Gmurzynska, G. (2002). Rodchenko Spatial Constructions. Germany: Hatje Cantz.
• Gough, M. (2005). The Artist as Producer: Russian Constructivism in Revolution. London: University of California Press.
• Frankel, D. (1998). Aleksander Rodchenko. New York: Harry N. Abrams. 
  
• Eskilson, S. J. (2007). Graphic Design: A New History. North America: Yale University Press.
• Subliminalspooky. (June 27, 2009). Kino-Glaz/Kino-Pravda Trailer
  [Video File]. Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRLewvfJxOs
• Constructivism (art). (2010). Retrieved February 23, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(art)
• Art History: Constructivism: (1913 - 1930). (2009). Retrieved February 23, 2010, from World Wide Art Resources: http://wwar.com/masters/movements/constructivism.html