Riverside Art Museum, CA
Exhibition: January 7 – March 25, 2014
Guest Curator: Olga Severina

Forged in the molten crater of the vanishing Russian empire scorched by the revolution, the Russian avant-garde was driven by a burgeoning need for political endorsements and nourished by a previously unfamiliar and yet overwhelming sensation of living in a new, liberated society that encouraged ingenuity, enthused imaginations, and incited all forms of artistic expression. Together with the rise of social propaganda, it turned conventional artists like Alexander Rodchenko, El Lizzitsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Vasyl Yermylov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and many others into forefathers of commercial advertising and forbearers of what we now recognize as modern graphic design, identity creation, and branding.
The exhibit will feature selected works from recent international poster projects, including the Rodchenko 120and Mayakovsky 120 poster campaigns curated by Sergey Serov (Russia) and the Design Sphere poster exhibit curated by Vladimir Lesnyak (Ukraine), which celebrates the greatest writers, scientists, and artists of the Russian avant-garde.

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Year 2012 was the year of the 120th anniversary of the great avant-garde artist Alexander Rodchenko.
To celebrate this event Russian Academy of Graphic Design together with Moscow biennale of Graphic Design “Golden bee” (member of Icograda) launched a commemorative action “Rodchenko 120”. This landmark undertaking was conducted in a form of poster exhibitions with an aim of exploring the influence of Russian avant-garde on the world of art. The exhibits were held all throughout 2012 in cities and towns all over the globe. Chicago, Mexico, Indianapolis, Paris, Puebla, Taipei, Moscow, Tehran are just to name a few.

Rodchenko 120 Poster Campaign, Moskow

Alexander Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the russian revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. his photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Much of the work of 20th century graphic designers is a direct result of Rodchenko’s earlier work in the field. his influence has been pervasive enough that it would be nearly impossible to single out all of the designers whose work he has influenced. For artists of the Russian revolution, Rodchenko’s radical action was full of utopian possibility. It marked the end of easel painting – perhaps even the end of art – along with the end of bourgeois norms and practices. it cleared the way for the beginning of a new russian life, a new mode of production, a new culture.

Rodchenko 120 exhibit consists of posters created by today’s leading Russian graphic designers, among whom are:
Eric Belousov / Vladimir Chaika / Alexander Faldin / Yuri Gulitov / Igor Gurovich / Eugeny Dobrovinsky / Erken Kagarov / Dmitry Kavko / Elena Kitaeva / Alexander lavrentyev-Rodchenko / Andrey Logvin / Dmitry Rekin / Tagir Safaev / Andrey Shelutto / Yuri Surkov / Protey Temen / Boris Trofimov / Dmitry Zakharov

Idea&Curator: Serge Serov
Curator in the US: Olga Severina

Evgenii Dobrovinskii