ALEKSANDR RODCHENKO | ON RED SQUARE RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS (NA KRASNOI PLOSHCHADI RITMICHESKAIA GIMNASTI)

Collection of the photographer and his wife, Varvara Stepanova

By descent to the photographer's daughter, Varvara Rodchenko

Private collection, 1960s

Christie's London, 29 October 1992, Sale 4832, Lot 126

Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Zurich

Alexandr Rodčenko, I Grandi Fotografi–serie argento (Milan, 1983), p. 47 (variant)

Alexander Lavrentiev, Alexander Rodchenko, Photography 1924-1954 (Cologne, 1995), p. 268 

The All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (Vsesoiuznoe obshchestvo kul'turnykh sviazei s zagranitsei, or ‘VOKS’) was established in 1925. According to the formal constitution, ‘VOKS’ was intended ‘to cooperate in the establishment and development of scientific and cultural relations between institutions, public organizations and individual scientific and cultural workers in the USSR and those of other countries.’ The group sponsored lectures, tours, concerts, cultural exchanges, and sporting events through a network of so-called ‘friendship societies’ across Europe. Often disparaged in the international press as a Communist organ, VOKS nevertheless was an effective and influential force of cross-cultural communication.

In 1928, VOKS established a photographic arm and Rodchenko sat on the committee through 1935. He participated in several foreign exhibitions each year through 1941 and also is credited (with his wife Varvara Stepanova) with the design for the VOKS-published book Soviet Cinema in 1935. The label on the reverse of the present print’s mount indicates that it was included in a VOKS exhibition and, although the year or exhibition is unknown, it is likely it was between 1936 and 1941.

With his compulsory state-issued permit, Rodchenko began documenting gymnastic and military exercises in Red Square in 1935, utilizing unconventional cropping and vantage points to simultaneously redefine pictorial space and produce effective Socialist propaganda. For the present image, Rodchenko trained his Leica with 50mm Elmar lens on the repeated forms and patterns of young rhythmic gymnasts.