In the 1920s, Alexandr Rodchenko built finely detailed, free-floating, geometric cardboard models and massive sculptures made from squared-timber pieces. His interest lay in spatial investigation rather than completed objects, however, so he destroyed these works immediately after photographing them. Now his grandson, Alexander Lavrentiev, has rebuilt some of these models and is exhibiting them for the first time, along with an extremely varied assortment of hitherto unseen sketches and architectural designs by his grandfather. The work includes free forms, studies for a tea set, cover designs for magazines and books, sketches for a multistory building, a newspaper kiosk, and a lectern at a workers’ club. Particularly striking are The Town, 1912, and Concept for a Terminal, 1919, unusually colorful drawings. This diminutive yet very impressive exhibition in the basement gallery of the MAK makes it clear that, in Rodchenko’s work, space is not a matter of architectural perception but rather a promise of social possibility, a proposition as valuable today as when he first made it.
from Artforum.