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October 13, 2005
Rodchenko - Universal and Timeless Design
While researching some additional information on the web about Alexander Rodchenko and his work, I came across an interesting fact. It appears that the latest album cover by the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand was inspired by a poster designed by Alexander Rodchenko that features a photograph he took of Lilja Brik, wife of formalist writer and critic Ossip Brik. The spatial constructivist elements that typify Rodchenko's work and aesthetic are very evident in the poster (and the album cover). Lilja has her left hand behind her mouth as she appears to be shouting something out. The shout juts out into angular lines forming a triangle that takes on the resemblance of a megaphone with text spelled out among the lines.
What struck me the most about this work is the seamless way in which the same idea is represented in works that were created nearly a century apart. As Alexander Lavrentev states, in "The Iconography of Space," "Rodchenko demonstrated that the laws of structural organization of material are universal in nature." This allows them to scale to immense proportions, as subsequent artists have attempted. But additionally, I also feel that this has resulted in works that are timeless and universal in their ability to communicate ideas. For myself, as someone who has always been interested in media forms as a method of communicating one's own ideas, I find this to be the most fascinating aspect of his work.
Posted by Fernando Cervantes at October 13, 2005 02:59 PM