161

ALEXANDER RODCHENKO (Russian, 1891-1956) UNTITLED (for SAMOZVERY) signature, location and title insc

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
ALEXANDER RODCHENKO (Russian, 1891-1956) UNTITLED (for SAMOZVERY) signature, location and title insc
ALEXANDER RODCHENKO (Russian, 1891-1956) UNTITLED (for SAMOZVERY) signature, location and title inscribed in Cyrillic on verso numbered "378" in red wax pencil on verso vintage gelatin silver print with hand carving in emulsion 93/16 x 103/4 in. (23.3 x 27.3 cm) circa 1926-1928 ESTIMATE: $20,000-25,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, BERLIN (acquired before 1930) Private Collection, cologne EXHIBITED STUTTGART, Schlossgarten, FILM UND FOTO, May 18-July 7, 1929 (traveling to 6 other venues) LITERATURE Alexander Lavrentiev, ALEXANDER RODCHENKO, Moscow, 1987, pp. 68-69 (variant cropping illustrated, six others from the series illustrated) Magdalena Dabrowski, Leah Dickerman, and Peter Galassi, ALEKSANDR RODCHENKO, NEW YORK, 1998, p. 232, pls. 186-187 (others in the series illustrated) This image was part of a series created for Sergei Tretyakov's children's book, SAMOZVERY, in which numerous paper characters were photographed in various poses. In the leftist publication, NOVYI LEF (no. 1, 1927), these pieces were described as "3-D cartoons" and the relationship of the cutouts as "spatial photo-multiplication." The latter term most likely emerged from the collaboration of Tretyakov, Rodchenko and his wife, Varvara Stepanova, to make short animated films using these paper cutouts. Greatly influenced by Malevich and Tatlin, artists of the Constructivist movement, Rodchenko's composition is here broken down into completely geometric elements, with the highlights accentuated by carving into the emulsion on the image surface. This piece shows Rodchenko as a pioneer in capturing made-to-be-photographed objects, a method still employed by many contemporary photographers.