Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (December 5, 1891- December 3, 1956) was one of the world's most versatile artists, dabbling in the fields of graphic design, painting, sculpting, furniture design, book covers, movie posters, billboards, and photography. His photography was innovative and original. He is famous for shooting his subjects from odd angles to shock the viewer, and for employing the use of lines in his photography. He once said "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."He studied at the Kazan School of Art under Nikolai Feshin and Georgii Medvedev between 1910 and 1914. He was later appointed Director of the Museum Bureau and Purchasing Fund by the Bolshevik Government in 1920, and taught from 1920 to 1930 at the Higher Technical-Artistic Studios. He soon abandoned painting in order to concentrate on graphic design for posters, books, and films. He was greatly influenced by the filmmaker Dziga Vertov, with whom he worked intensivly in 1922.
Throughout the 1920s Rodchenko's work was increasingly abstract, and his art was concentrated on photomontages, which he used on book covers and posters. He exclusively used unoriginal photographs in his photomontages until 1924, when it became increasingly difficult for him to find suitable photographs. He soon turned all of his concentration on photography, shooting ordinary objects at unusual perspectives. Many of his photographs incorporated the use of lines and other geometric shapes and patterns, including stairs, grids, city streets, and overhead wires. He returned to painting in the late 1930's, stopped photographing in 1942, and produced abstract expressionist works in the 1940's.
Throughout the 1920s Rodchenko's work was increasingly abstract, and his art was concentrated on photomontages, which he used on book covers and posters. He exclusively used unoriginal photographs in his photomontages until 1924, when it became increasingly difficult for him to find suitable photographs. He soon turned all of his concentration on photography, shooting ordinary objects at unusual perspectives. Many of his photographs incorporated the use of lines and other geometric shapes and patterns, including stairs, grids, city streets, and overhead wires. He returned to painting in the late 1930's, stopped photographing in 1942, and produced abstract expressionist works in the 1940's.
Rodchenko had been a supporter of the Soviet revolution, and his photography was intended to support and encourage social change. However, from around 1928 on, with the rise of Stalinism, his work was heavily criticized and was the subject of many political attacks for its 'bourgeois formalism', mainly because of his use of tilted camera angles. Rodchenko was lucky to avoid imprisonment or death, but the last twenty years of his life were spent in poverty and obscurity.
Much of 20th century graphic design was influenced by the work of Alexsander Rodchenko. His graphic design is so influential that to pick out particular designers he has influenced would be pointless.
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