In July, I went to see the Alexander Rodchenko exhibit in Vienna’s Westlicht photo- and camera gallery.
The collection was quite impressive.
Rodchenko (1891 – 1956) was one of the real big ones, an extremely versatile Russian avantgarde sculptor, graphic artist, painter, designer of posters, book covers and more. He created several illustrations for the publications of his poet friend Vladimir Mayakovsy (by the way one of my favorite poets).
Around 1920, Rodchenko became more and more involved with photography, and even gave up painting to devote himself almost entirely to taking photographs from unusual perspectives and angles. He became a pioneer of Constructivism. „In order to educate man to a new longing, everyday familiar objects must be shown to him with totally unexpected perspectives and in unexpected situations. New objects should be depicted from different sides in order to provide a complete impression of the object." (Ways of Contemporary Photography).
Among his most famous photographs are "Stairs", "Girl with a Leica", and the "Portrait of the artist's mother".
On Lumiére Gallery's website you can see some fine examples:
And here's even more.
My personal favorite is the Mayakovsky portrait.
No comments:
Post a Comment