Four black and white photos from the series: Students’ hostel in Lefortovo, Moscow

Material

black and white photographs

Dating

1930-1936

About the artist

The Russian artist is considered one of the most important representatives of Russian Constructivism and also one of the most versatile artists of the 20th century. From 1911 to 1914, while he was studying art in Kazan in Russia, Rodchenko met Warwara Stepanowa, with whom he shared an intense love and working relationship until his death. After moving to Moscow in 1915, Rodchenko joined the Russian avant-garde grouped around Kasimir Malevich and Wladimir Tatlin. In the 1920s Rodchenko worked as an artist, but also as an organiser, teacher and theoretician, promoting the avant-gardist unity of art and life.
Besides his painting, Rodchenko dedicated himself to film and theatre décor, photography and typographical design. His works – paintings, collages, photo-montages, photographs, sculptures and commercial design – reflect the dynamic transformation of society in the immediate years after the October revolution. In 1921 Rodtschenko declared Suprematism and easel painting dead and demanded, as one of the cofounders of Constructivism, that artists in a socialist society should be designers and engineers at the same time.