Alexander Rodchenko's Russian revolution coming to the Tate Modern, London
It's a bold statement, but one of the curators at the Pushkin Gallery in Moscow is not afraid to say it. "Alexander Rodchenko and Lyubov Popova were the first designers," she says. And looking round at the room dedicated to the man and woman who are considered two of Russia's most important avant-garde artists, you know what she means.
Wooden mobiles in circles and squares hang from the ceiling, paintings and photographs line the walls, and furniture and ceramics make up the rest of the space. In the Soviet Union of the 1910s and 1920s, the pair stirred up a maelstrom of creativity, putting themselves at the forefront of the Constructivist movement, which eschewed the idea of art for art's sake. And while history has afforded Rodchenko more fame for his part in this movement than Popova, it is unjustified: both artists were equally revolutionary, dragging their art beyond the picture frame and into the "real" world.
They and their group were responsible for taking art in Soviet Russia out of the galleries and into the world of tables and chairs and buildings, theatre, graphic design, photography and fashion. And to demonstrate the breadth of their capabilities, next month Tate Modern in London will show a major retrospective devoted to the pair's work...
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
Wooden mobiles in circles and squares hang from the ceiling, paintings and photographs line the walls, and furniture and ceramics make up the rest of the space. In the Soviet Union of the 1910s and 1920s, the pair stirred up a maelstrom of creativity, putting themselves at the forefront of the Constructivist movement, which eschewed the idea of art for art's sake. And while history has afforded Rodchenko more fame for his part in this movement than Popova, it is unjustified: both artists were equally revolutionary, dragging their art beyond the picture frame and into the "real" world.
They and their group were responsible for taking art in Soviet Russia out of the galleries and into the world of tables and chairs and buildings, theatre, graphic design, photography and fashion. And to demonstrate the breadth of their capabilities, next month Tate Modern in London will show a major retrospective devoted to the pair's work...