Amazon.com Review
This is the most complete volume published outside of Russia to capture the photographic work of Alexander Rodchenko, one of the former Soviet Union's greatest artists. In it, Alexander Lavrentiev, grandson of the photographer, includes more than 400 pictures reproduced under a broad categorical structure that allows the reader to gain insight into Rodchenko's work. What comes across most clearly from the content and form of these photos is the artist's desire to depict an image of purposeful individuality and an idealized relationship between humankind and the built world under construction in the Soviet Union. Individual portraits generally contain a device, such as a reflection, or capture some movement that obliterates the standard style of Western portraiture. Buildings, even trees, are photographed to draw attention to the space they hold rather than to depict scenic landscapes. The photos are stunningly original.
From Publishers Weekly
Russian constructivist artist Rodchenko (1891-1956), known for his avant-garde paintings, collages, graphics, sculpture and stage designs, took up photography in 1924 and proceeded to transform the medium with his dynamic compositions, inventive use of photomontage and radical experiments with foreshortened perspective. In this comprehensive monograph, art historian Lavrentiev, the artist's grandson, presents more than 400 of Rodchenko's photographs, most of them in black and white, and discusses the artist's life, aesthetics and working methods. His text?in English, German and French?is lucid and perceptive. This is an impressive volume. There are brutally honest portraits of the artist's wife, friends and fellow artists, and bleak scenes of life in the former Soviet Union, with its gloomy streets, ugly industrial buildings, official sports events and somber military parades. The powerful photographs, distinguished by the artist's use of extreme angles that often distort the figures to the point of grotesqueness, are telling statements about the world in which Rodchenko lived.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
