- Venue
- Tate Modern
- Location
- London
The working populous uniting in outrage at the greed of the ruling few, who are exploiting the system to maximise their own gain. Does this all sound a bit familiar?
Tate Modern’s show Rodchenko and Popova: Defining Constructivism resonates in some surprising ways.
Liubov Popova (1889-1924) and Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891-1956) were two of the key artists at the time of the Russian Revolution. Driven by the same ideals that were reshaping their world, they redefined the role that art played in their society. Constructivists viewed the artist as similar to an engineer; using their talents and ideas to produce everyday products such as material for clothes, theatre sets or posters.
Malevich’s abstract paintings had already broken away from the aims followed by artists since the Renaissance, of creating an illusionary representation of something real. Popova and Rodchenko responded to these ideas, taking them further. Rodchenko explored different textures of paint and colour, resulting in his triptych exhibited in the 1921 exhibition 5 x 5 = 25, Pure Red Colour, Pure Yellow Colour and Pure Blue Colour. Popova’s early paintings played with offset angular shapes which anticipated the move of the artists into three dimensional projects: working with spacial constructions, architecture and graphic design.
Indeed, following 5 x 5 = 25, the two artists signed an agreement rejecting easel painting altogether, dedicating efforts solely into art with a clear practical purpose. This raises questions about the extent to which these artists were driven by the same unifying revolutionary drive as the Bolsheviks, or whether perhaps some of the direction their work took was a conscious development to fit in with the prevailing views of the time. Despite any efforts in this regard, Rodchenko and his contemporaries fell out of favour in 1930s, as social realist art was adopted as the state-approved style. Popova died of scarlet fever in 1924.
Setting aside these doubts and the shackles of hindsight, this exhibition perfectly captures the moment. Nearly a century later, the vibrancy of the stark lines, bold colours and confrontational geometric shapes still hum with modernity and with the excitement of a new world, there for the taking.
In a country where turnout at the coming local elections is anticipated to be at a record low, and where only 2% of people surveyed the recent Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagment feel the present system of governing Britain is working well with no need for improvement, it is invigorating to be reminded that new ideas do emerge and society does unite and evolve as a reaction to what has gone before.
