For Critical Studies I decided to look at Constructivism in response to the 2nd question "Choosing a particular period between 1800 to the present, in what ways has graphic design or design practice responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period? Focus on two specific examples".

I've had an interest in this artistic movement for a while now, so I'm happy to write an essay on it. As I was reading through Grafik magazine last week I saw an advertisement for the new Aleksandr Rodchenko exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. Luckily its on until April so I'll be able to visit in the Easter holidays.

"Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) was one of the great figures of early 20th-century avant-garde art, and also one of its most versatile practitioners. After gaining an international reputation as a painter, sculptor and graphic artist, Rodchenko turned to photography in the early 1920s, convinced that it would become the artistic medium of his era. Whether making individual portraits, studies of modern architecture and industry, or pictures of mass demonstrations and entertainments, Rodchenko infused his images with a startlingly dynamic point of view that influenced the growth of an experimental aesthetic in European photography of the late 1920s and 1930s.

Featuring approximately 200 original prints and photomontages, this exhibition traces the development of Rodchenko's photography over a period of two decades. Pioneering a new vocabulary of bold and unusual camera positions, severe foreshortenings of perspective, and close-up views of surprising details, Rodchenko's photography balanced formal concerns with an interest in the social and political life of the Soviet Union."

Can't wait!

----------------
Now playing: Queens Of The Stone Age - Everybody Knows That You Are Insane
via FoxyTunes

Labels: aleksandr rodchenko, constructivism, critical studies, exhibitions

1 comments