Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism.

[Rodchenko, Aleksandr] Tupitsyn, Margarita.

ISBN 10: 1854377965 / ISBN 13: 9781854377968

Published by London, Tate Publishing., 2009

About this Item

23,5 cm x 28 cm. Frontispiece, 190 pages with illustrations throughout. Original Softcover. Excellent condition with only minor signs of wear. Includes for example: Being-in-Production: The Constructivist Code / Plates / His and Her Constructivism / Commentary on Drawings / The Line etc. Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (5 December [O.S. 23 November] 1891 December 3, 1956) was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova. Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles usually high above or down below to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again." (Wikipedia) Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (April 24, 1889 May 25, 1924) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist and Constructivist), painter and designer. Popova was born in Ivanovskoe, near Moscow, to the wealthy family of Sergei Maximovich Popov, a very successful textile merchant and vigorous patron of the arts, and Lyubov Vasilievna Zubova, who came from a highly cultured family. Lyubov Sergeyevna had two brothers and a sister: Sergei was the eldest, then Lyubov, Pavel and Olga. Pavel became a philosopher and the guardian of his sister's artistic legacy. She grew up with a strong interest in art, especially Italian Renaissance painting. At eleven years old she began formal art lessons at home; she was first enrolled in Yaltinskaia's Women's Gymnasium, then in Arseneva's Gymnasium in Moscow. By the age of 18 she was studying with Stanislav Zhukovsky, and in 1908 entered the private studios of Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin. In 1912 to 1913, she began attending the studios of the Cubist painters Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger. As early as 1917 in parallel with her Suprematist work, she had made fabric designs and worked on Agitprop books and posters, In the Tenth State Exhibition: Non Objective Creativity and Suprematism, 1918, she contributed the architectonic series of paintings. She continued painting advanced abstract works until 1921. In the 5 x 5 Exhibition of 1921, Popova and her four fellow Constructivists declared that easel painting was to be abandoned and all creative work was to be for the people and the making of the new society. Popova worked in a broad range of mediums and disciplines, including painting, relief, works on paper, and designs for the theater, textiles, and typography. Popova did not join the Working Group of Constructivists when it was set up in Moscow in March 1921, but joined by the end of 1921. In 1923 she began creating designs for fabric to be manufactured by the First State Textile Printing Works in Moscow. From 1921 to 1924 Popova became entirely involved in Constructivist projects, sometimes in collaboration with Varvara Stepanova, the architect Alexander Vesnin and Alexander Rodchenko. She produced stage designs: Vsevolod Meyerhold's production of Fernand Crommelynck's The Magnanimous Cuckold, 1922; her Spatial Force Constructions were used as the basis of her art teaching theory at Vkhutemas. She designed typography of books, production art and textiles, and contributed designs for dresses to LEF. She worked briefly in the Cotton Printing Factory in Moscow with Varvara Stepanova. (Wikipedia) Sprache: english.

Seller Inventory # 110049AB

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism.
• Publisher: London, Tate Publishing.
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1854377965
• ISBN 13: 9781854377968
• Binding: Soft cover
• Weight: 1200 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Varia

About this title

Synopsis

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) and Lyubov Popova (1889-1924) were involved in the Russian avant-garde during its most exciting period following the Russian Revolution, as they and other artists took part in the attempt to create a new world. As leading lights in the Constructivist movement they were responsible for an astonishing array of iconic works. This groundbreaking book, the first to give the female and male artist equal status, will throw new light on their achievements and the extent of their influence, still felt today. The book will be in four main sections, each examining the artists' production during a particular time period. Section 1 spans the years from the Revolution in 1917 to 1921, when both artists believed that abstract art had the potential to transform everyday life. Popova was perhaps the leading painter of the Constructivist movement; Rodchenko moved into the field of three-dimensional constructions, under the influence of his friend Tatlin. Section 2 will focus on the legendary 5x5=25 exhibitions and will include works by other participating artists. The third section will cover 1921 to 1924, the year Popova's life was tragically cut short by scarlet fever. This was the period when both artists came to believe that art for art's sake was parasitical and plunged into the practical realms of artistic production. Illustrations of their projects will demonstrate the extent of their influence on twentieth-century graphic design, fashion, media, theatre and cinema. Section 4 follows Rodchenko's move into photography, the medium for which he is perhaps best remembered, and explores his involvement with film. An examination of the lives and work of these two artists along with their extensive network of colleagues and collaborators provides a key to the whole Constructivist project. For the first time the issue of gender is explored; is there a difference between the approach of a female Constructivist and a male one? The authors' surprising conclusions and the wealth of new scholarship and previously unpublished works it includes make this book indispensable to all those wishing to learn more about the art of this fascinating period.

About the Author

Margarita Tupitsyn is a leading expert on and curator of Russian avant-garde art and photography and is the author of Malevich and Film. Christina Kiaer is Associate Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Illinois, and specialises in Russian and Soviet art, the politics of the avant-garde and feminist theory and art.