The unique exhibitions will start on September 15 in two exhibition areas. Both expositions represent photos by Alexander Rodchenko from the collection owned by the Multimedia Art Museum (MMAM, Moscow)

The Magnezit museum will open the photo exhibition “Industrial World with the Eyes of Alexander Rodchenko”.

Alexander Rodchenko is a famous photographer, artist, and illustrator. He was among the constructivism pioneers and creators of the first Soviet advertisement. His original features in artistic photography are still studied and used.

“The Multimedia Art Museum launch an exhibition created by one of the greatest representatives in actual art of the last century — a pioneer in Soviet photography, who became its gold standard already in his lifetime — Alexander Rodchenko,” remarks a fine art expert, arts historian, photo exhibition curator, and a grandson of the famous photographer Alexander Lavrentyev in his texts about the exhibitions. “At present, he is the most popular Russian photographer, in demand in the West, whose pieces of art are successfully exhibited and bought by the largest first-rate museums — MoMa (New-York, USA), the Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland), the Museum of History in Vienna (Austria), the Russian Museum (Russia) and many others. A photo art movement created by Alexander Rodchenko enriched the Russian photography with a number of famous photographers in the 1930-s, such as Arkady Shaikhet, Boris Ignatovich, Mark Alpert.

- He believed that the future belonged to the industrial world,” writes Alexander Lavrentyev. - In the end of the 1920-s, along with printing arts, design, theater, and cinema, Alexander M. Rodchenko (1891-1956) devoted much time to photography. He published his experimental aspect view photos in “Sovetskoye Kino” and “Noviy LEF” magazines, made his first photo reports as assigned by the editors from “30 Dney”, “Radioslushatel”, and “Dayosh!” magazines; “Ogonyok” magazine and “Vechernyaya Moskva” newspaper issued him the photo reporter’s cards. He showed his readers the special world of the new Moscow, buildings created by architects Alexander Vesnin, Moisei Ginzburg, and Konstantin Melnikov. He showed automobile assembly at the Automobile Moscow Association Plant, generators at the power station (the building of the Moscow Association of State-Owned Electric Power Stations was designed by the architect Ivan Zholtovskiy), production of electric lamps. Even a Soviet “kitchen-factory” turned out to be a real plant with its own workshops and technologies in his photos.

The exposition will not only invite the visitors to the industrial world, as it was seen by the famous artisan, but also tell a story — lively, detailed, in the author’s unique manner. “Making a photo report, Rodchenko tried to show all technological operations from point to point. A production process, operation of a radio center or, for example, a newspaper publication process can be reconstructed with his photos,” says Alexander Lavrentyev.

The second photo exhibition — “Moscow in Photos by Rodchenko” — will open its doors in Magnezit Cultural Center.

“The Moscow series by Rodchenko is an endless and intriguing row of city life episodes. Moscow has many faces. Rodchenko saw a historic city with its sightseeing, and new buildings, and ordinary life,” noted Alexander Lavrentyev. - He showed us his own Moscow, where such things as “kitchen-factory”, phone booth or an electric station, a sport parade, a mail van, street trading or a garage of the architect Melnikov were important for him. As an artist, designer, and photographer, he noticed, understood and appreciated these facts first and foremost. This is his city, which is always changing.

The exhibitions will be open till November 1. Admission is free.

OUR INFO:

The Multimedia Art Museum is the largest Russian museum of photography and multimedia arts. Every year it presents more than a hundred of exhibition projects in Russia and abroad.

Cooperation with MMAM continues within the ArtSatka project implemented by Sobranie Fund over several years. In Satka, the Fund organizes events and creative projects, which contribute to gaining knowledge in culture and arts. Let us remind you that the Multimedia Art Museum has previously presented two large projects in Satka in cooperation with Sobranie Fund and the Moscow Artistic and Industrial Academy Named After S.G. Stroganov: the exhibition of photos and cinema posters “Russian Avantgarde” and the photo exhibition “A Photo Hand-Off. From Rodchenko to Our Time”. 

Source: Magnezitovets. Photos by Alexander Rodchenko.