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October 14, 2005
Rodchenko
In spite of my good intentions, I couldn't help but be more interested in the pictures of Rodchenko's work than in the information written about him. This is just as well anyway, because the pictures really tell the story just fine. I love this period in twentieth century art, where the artist becomes scientist and starts to look at the fundamental physics behind his work. He really, for the first time, asks the question "what is beauty?". After centuries of learning the techniques for recreating the physical aspects of beauty - lighting, framing, position, etc. - we start to wonder why we find certain combinations appealing, what makes them beautiful. And, like most things, the answers can be found in nature. This in turn, poses the question, "all this time, has the artist really been trying to recreate relationships that occur naturally?" There is something reassuring in the fact that Rodchenko took so much effort in not just mimicing these natural occurrences that inetrested him, but in mathematically replicating them. It's comforting to the side of my brain that always wants to know if an apparrently straight line is really a straight line. It's beautiful not only to look at his work for the aesthetic appeal, but also for the calming effect it can have on the mind. Of course, looking at all art mathematically in this way, it would be rather depressing to think that all this time, the artist's elevated roll has been not just a mimicry of our biologically hardwired ideals of beauty, but an imperfection in the eyes of nature. Fortunately, there is a nother side to my brain which things this is okay. This also is beautiful, and that human imperfection must, in some way, also be part of the equation.
Posted by Roman, Christin at October 14, 2005 01:02 PM