Alexander Rodchenko

The exhibition "Alexander Rodchenko" is a joint project of the Platonov Arts Festival and the Voronezh Regional Art Museum named after I.N. Kramskoy, created as part of the regional programme of the Lumiere Gallery and the Still Art Foundation. The exposition includes 58 gelatin silver prints from two portfolios of the museum series, issued in an edition of 35 copies in 1994-1997, collected under the guidance of the artist's daughter Varvara Rodchenko, Alexander Lavrentiev – Rodchenko's grandson and the leading researcher of his work, as well as a gallery owner Howard Shikler. The photographs included in the portfolio and provided by the Still Art Foundation were printed by Alexander Lavrentiev and Yuri Plaksin in the artist's photo lab from the original negatives. The exhibition will present Rodchenko's works of different years, from the first photographic experiments of the 1920s to the end of the 1930s.

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is one of the leaders of the Russian avant-garde, an innovator in the field of painting, sculpture, book/ poster/ film and theatre design. He began photographing in 1924. His experimental approach to photography forever changed the history of this art form and not only influenced his contemporaries, but also determined the development of photography for decades to come. Using such techniques as shooting from an unusual angle (top down and bottom up), which immediately began to be called "Rodchenkov's"; diagonal construction of the composition, which sets the dynamics and rhythm of the frame; shooting details and close-ups; the use of double exposition and subtle work with light and shade contrasts, Rodchenko strived to turn a familiar thing into a "seemingly never seen construction", to change a person’s habitual view of the environment, to expand the possibilities of "seeing things," as Osip Brik noted.