%C2%A9 Estate Alexander Rodchenko %2F Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C NY
Conversatons with the Tax Collector about Poetry, 1926
Photolithographs, letterpress; bound volumeexpand_more
Gift of the Print and Drawing Councilexpand_more 2000.130.3
Not on Viewexpand_more
Alexander Rodchenko's design for the back cover of Conversations is a classic example of his genius for photomontage, a technique by which a composite photographic image is formed by combining images from separate photographic sources such as newspapers and magazines. The medium was employed commonly in the 1920s and 1930s for Soviet political propaganda.
Rodchenko adapted the author Vladimir Mayakovsky's line from the book-"All poetry is a journey into the unknown" to represent the author's head, in photographic form, as a world in itself, circled by airplanes.
A more conventional portrait of Mayakovsky adorns the front cover. The "tax inspector" seated at the table is probably the Constructivist poet Aleksei Nikolaevich Chicherin (1889-1960) best known for his book of poetry Change of All (1927).
Details
- Title
- Conversatons with the Tax Collector about Poetry
- Artist Life
- 1891 - 1956
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2000.130.3
- Provenance
- (Swann Auction Galleries, New York); sold to MIA, 2000.
- Catalogue Raisonne
- Compton 90 Hellyer 341 Tarasenkhov 249
- Curator Approved
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© Estate Alexander Rodchenko / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY