Rodchenko, Aleksandr, designer.

[CONSTRUCTIVISM – RODCHENKO DESIGN FOR POPOVA CATALOG] Katalog posmertnoi vystavki khudozhnika konstruktora L. S. Popovoi [Catalog of the posthumous exhibition of the artist-constructor L. S. Popova].

Moscow: Izdanie Komissii po uvekovechivaniiu pamiati khudozhnika-konstruktora L. S. Popovoi (Tipografiia "VKhUTEMAS"), 1924. Octavo (17 × 14.7 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers; frontis portrait, 12 pp. of text followed by [12] leaves of full-page halftone reproductions to rectos. A remarkably fine, unread copy. Item #55752

Fine copy of the illustrated catalog for the posthumous VKhUTEMAS exhibition of Liubov Popova (1889–1924), one of the central figures of the Russian avant-garde, with Constructivist wrappers by the fellow avant-garde master Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891–1956). The catalog contains two introductory texts, one of them by Osip Brik, and reproductions of 12 works by Popova, including paintings, stage sets for Meyerhold’s theatre, and fabric designs. The exhibition opened in December 1924 in MZhK (Muzei Zhivopisnoi Kul’tury) [Museum of Visual Culture], an exhibition space of VKhUTEMAS, where Popova taught at the time of her early death from scarlet fever. The catalog also lists all 93 works shown at the exhibition which Popova created between 1915–1924, including posters, book design, linocuts, textiles, and designs she created (along with Constructivist architect Alexandr Vesnin) for the decoration of the Red Square for the Third Congress of the Comintern. The introductory text in the volume points out that Popova took part in all the major avant-garde exhibitions including “Jack of Diamonds” (1914, 1916), the legendary Futurist exhibitions “Tram V” (1915) and “0,10” (1916), as well as the Constructivist exhibition “5 x 5 = 25” (1921). She also taught at Proletkul't and was a member of LEF (Left Front of the Arts) an association of avant-garde artists spearheaded by Brik and Mayakovsky, which published an eponymous journal that became a platform for Constructivism. The last years of her life were devoted to developing so-called agittekstil’ — textile patterns with propagandistic motifs that reflected and celebrated the achievements of Soviet construction and industry — for which Popova is perhaps best remembered.

Rodchenko’s dynamic use of black and red color blocks for the cover of this volume is iconic of this period, and is reminiscent of his contemporaneous design for the cover of the first issue of the 1924 LEF. Rodchenko would incorporate a fragment of Popova’s fabric pattern into his design of the second issue of LEF for 1924, published after her death, with the same issue also containing two tribute articles to the artist (See nos. 123–124 in Dabrowski, et.al. ed. "Aleksandr Rodchenko: Painting, Drawing, Collage, Design, Photography, 1998").

One of 1000 copies.

MoMA 546.

As of May 2026, KVK, OCLC show six copies in North America.

Price: €3,500.00

other currencies