Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Alexander Rodchenko [Historical Artist]

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) was a Russian artist who helped found contructivism. This is a movement that started in Russia in 1919 and pushed the idea of art having a social agenda. Rodchenko worked in many mediums including painting, graphic design and photography. In order to make a statement with his art, Rodchenko his subjects from all different angles to surprise the viewer.






I am inspired by Rodchanko's use of light and angles. The lighting in the first picture has such a big effect on the picture. It adds lines to create visual interest. Combined with the unusual angle, the picture has a mysterious quality to it. The next two pictures don't play around with light as much but they certainly use different angles. I like the middle picture because of the various shapes that are formed. It creates an interesting composition. The bottom picture also has a nice use of shapes but I don't think the angle does as much for the picture as the other ones. It look kind of unnatural.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting. Always good to see Rodchenko's work on the internet. His work has inspired me to seek fresh visual possibilities as well understanding the visual "laws" of composition

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  2. That was the point of his photography, for it to be un-natural.
    His idea was "make images in such a way as to obstruct the habits of seeing." In other words he wanted to break away from the aesthetic representation of the world, he wanted "to make strange" the expected appearance of the world.

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