Alexander Rodchenko
1936
On Red Square Rhythmic Gymnastics

Gelatin silver print
11 1/2 x 19 ins (29.5 x 48.6 cm)
 
Sotheby's - Paris
9 October 2018, Modernism: Photographs from a Distinguished Private Collection, Lot: 4
 
on print verso, signed, titled in pencil and collection stamp of Rodchenko and Stepanova
on mount, signed, dated 1936 and titled Parad 1 maia 1936, Moskva in pencil
on mount verso, collection stamp of Rodchenko and Stepanova and exhibition label "Société pour les relations culturelles entre l'URSS et l'étranger" annotated in ink Rodtchenko - A la parade de la culture physique.
 
This print is a large exhibition size work which according to the label was exhibited at the Society of Cultural relations between the USSR and abroad. This print comes initially from the collection of Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Varvara Rodchenko according to the collection stamp on the back of the work. It was then given by the artist's daughter Varvara Rodchenko in the 1960s as part of an important collection of Soviet Photography dating from the 1920s-1960s. Using close crops, extreme angles and close-ups , the innovative compositions of Rodchenko were used in the purpose of documenting the rapid changes in the contemporary life. He is considered as one of the most influential and modern photographers of the 1920s Post-Revolutionary Russia.
 
LL/85211