Rodtchenko et le groupe Octobre
Alexandre Lavrentiev
As a painter, he accompanied the suprematists until the manifesto that declared easel painting out. As a pioneer in photomontage, he then left his imprint on Russian photography in the twenties. This is the era the book focuses on: therefore there is no mention of his paintings, but many reproductions of Lef or Dayosh, the magazines in which he published his revolutionnary views. Compositions in diagonal, countre-plunges that make one dizzy, symetrical games based on the repetition of motifs (staircases, wooden structures, balconies), which he explored with the October group in which other brilliant creators preached, such as Boris Ignatovitch, and to whom the book offers a generous space. Rodtchenko died after Staline (in 1956)but his career was ended before that. In the eyes of Soviet realism, his experiments were simple petit-bourgeois pranks. Even though he dealt with the mechanisation of the countryside, litteracy, the successes of the five-year plan or the asphalt on the roads. • Rodtchenko et le groupe Octobre by Alexandre Lavrentiev, éditions Hazan, 2006, ISBN : 2-7541-0138-1, 352 p., 45 €. |
Review published in the newsletter #27 - from 14 December 2006 to 20 December 2006