Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilNuméros55I. Les artistes et le noir“…the most thankless color”: Alek...

I. Les artistes et le noir

“…the most thankless color”: Aleksandr Rodchenko’s black-on-black paintings

« … la couleur la plus ingrate » : les peintures noir-sur-noir d’Alexandre Rodtchenko
Maria Kokkori et Ken Sutherland
p. 26-35

Résumés

Le présent article offre un aperçu des contextes historiques et culturels qui ont influencé l’utilisation du noir par Alexandre Rodtchenko en abordant les réflexions de l’artiste en la matière. Il évoque le dialogue de Rodchenko avec les matériaux, y compris ses choix non conventionnels comme l’utilisation du bitume et met également en évidence l’exploitation par l’artiste des propriétés des matériaux auxquels il a eu recours et de leurs caractéristiques visuelles uniques. L’article envisage en outre les relations qu’entretiennent la technique et l’art, et la façon dont elles s’intègrent dans l’utilisation singulière de la peinture noire par Rodtchenko dans l’ensemble de son œuvre.

Haut de page

Texte intégral

Introduction

  • 1 The paintings Rodchenko exhibited included Composition no. 76, ca. 1918, oil on canvas, 88.5 x 70.5 (...)
  • 2 See Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki…, 1919. Participants included Aleksandr Vesnin – colo (...)
  • 3 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 126.

1In the Tenth State Exhibition “Nonobjective Creation and Suprematism” in Moscow, in 1919, Aleksandr Rodchenko exhibited nine black-on-black canvases1, contrasting Kazimir Malevich’s five white-on-white works. Even though there were nine artists participating in the exhibition, with 220 works in total, it was dominated by the contest between Malevich and Rodchenko2. Malevich used a reduced palette of whites to suggest floating forms in infinite space; Rodchenko largely eliminated color to highlight the material texture of his paintings. In the exhibition catalogue, Rodchenko listed his series under the title “Abstraction of Color and Decolorization (without object, color and light)” and, in his writings, described them as “Black on black. Elaboration of one color by means of different surface conditions. Destruction of color for the same material treatment of monotonality3”.

  • 4 Diary entry, December 15, 1918, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 88.
  • 5 Kokkori, Burnstock et al., 2017.

2Rodchenko produced his black-on-black series between mid-1918 and the beginning of 1919, a period of violent social and political ruptures in modern Russian history following from World War I, the February and October Revolutions in 1917, and the outbreak of the Russian Civil War. He expressed excitement about being able to acquire “a few tubes of marvelous Winsor & Newton oil paints, including black4” during a historical period in which material shortages often resulted in unconventional choices of black materials, including asphalt5.

  • 6 Diary entry, April 10, 1919, in Stepanova, 1994, p. 88.
  • 7 Diary entry, August 31, 1919, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 92.

3Rodchenko experimented with the “most thankless6” color, black, in which, as he stated, “color died […] and now it plays no role. Let the brushstroke die out, too. I am bringing composition to light7”. By eliminating color and incorporating in his composition forms of ovals, circles, and ellipses, Rodchenko focused on the material and textural qualities of the painting’s surface. Rodchenko regarded the works from his “black” period as the creation of new forms in space where there is weightiness but of different quality. He noted however that it was challenging to fully comprehend the nature of space and how forms exist in it.

4This essay examines the technological and historical contexts that influenced the use of black paint in Rodchenko’s works. Tracing the development of art materials and techniques, it aims to give an understanding of Rodchenko’s artistic process and the cultural background that impacted his choices. The essay also analyzes the interplay between technology and art and how they combined in the distinctive application of black paint in Rodchenko’s œuvre.

On black and white

  • 8 Lodder, 1999, p. 83-93.

5Rodchenko was a prominent figure in the Russian avant-garde, and particularly in the constructivist movement. His work was diverse, spanning mediums such as painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, graphics, photomontage, design for everyday objects, and photography. The revolutionary period of 1917 fostered radical experimentation with its focus on technological organization, dialectical examination of artistic and historical processes, and efforts to shift artists from traditional roles to collective revolutionary ones. In 1918, Rodchenko was a key participant in the establishment of Inkhuk (Institut Khudozhestvennoi Kultury – Institute of Artistic Culture) and was one of its most active practitioners and theorists. Alongside Wassily Kandinsky, Liubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Boris Arvatov, and Varvara Stepanova, he played a vital role in shaping the organization’s principles and served as one of its directors, offering his ideas on the standards of new art and on the most appropriate forms of expression and working methods8. However, internal conflicts within Inkhuk in 1920 led to the formation of the General Working Group of Objective Analysis, which aimed to adopt a material-based approach, focused on the object and on technical experimentation. The following year, further division resulted in the formation of the First Working Group of Constructivists, whose program emphasized two directions: theoretical analysis of color, texture, material, and construction; and “laboratory work” on the practical applications of theoretical discoveries.

  • 9 Maund, Sosa (ed.), 1995.
  • 10 Malevich, 1920, Suprematizm: 34 risunka [Suprematism: 34 Drawings], in Shatskikh, 1995, p. 187; Eng (...)
  • 11 Malevich [ca. 1924], “1/42. Non-Objectivity”, ms; English translation in Andersen (ed.), 1976, p. 9 (...)
  • 12 Malevich, 1923, “Formula Suprematizma” [The Formula of Suprematism], ms; English translation in Bow (...)
  • 13 Malevich, 1920, p. 187.
  • 14 Bouras, 2018.
  • 15 Malevich, 1919, “Suprematizm” [Suprematism], Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki… [Catalogue (...)

6The concept of color – including its abstract and physical properties – and the notion of facture in art production, played a central role in shaping modernism in Russia. Artists attempted to redefine color and its relationship to light and energy. The notion of “color” as a visual quality and its relation to its corresponding materiality is complex. There are opposing approaches to the science and philosophy of color, contrasting “color-as-in-physical-objects” with “color-as-in-experience9”. The contradictions between scientific definitions, objectivity, subjectivity, and illusion, make it difficult to fully address color in its complete existence. In his writings, Malevich, aligning with contemporary physics, posited that white and black were not colors. Instead, he suggested that they were ideas coming from the future, not yet materialized10, defined only by their energy: “color is light, light is light depending on the circumstances11.” Regarding the immateriality of matter, Malevich elaborated: “if the world is matter, then that does not mean that it is material. Material arises when an idea appears12.” Malevich delved into the concept of immateriality in Suprematism, envisioning a future “epoch of new materials, devoid of color and tone13”. With his white-on-white paintings, Malevich aimed to depict pure, self-sufficient creativity using white as a symbol of dematerialization14. He combined color and space to evoke “internal peace and silence”. Malevich emphasized the importance of white in Suprematism, stating: “I have overcome the lining of the colored sky, torn it down and put colors into the resulting bag and tied it up with a knot. Swim! The white free abyss and infinity are before you15.”

  • 16 Diary entry, December 25, 1918, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 88.
  • 17 Diary entry, Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 83.
  • 18 Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki…

7By the end of 1918, Rodchenko had definitely known about Malevich’s white paintings. He wrote: “Malevich paints without form and color. The ultimate abstracted painting. This is forcing everyone to think long and hard. It’s difficult to surpass Malevich16.” Rodchenko’s statement affirms his recognition of Malevich as a highly accomplished artist, whom he viewed as a challenging rival in creative exploration and experimentation. As a result, Rodchenko, in his black-on-black paintings, focused on the materiality of black instead of its symbolic meaning. In his monochromatic compositions, he treated black as color-as-such and explored its qualities including depth, intensity, density, and weight. He employed various techniques to achieve this, such as thinly and thickly applied brushstrokes, dappling and washes, and pressing and rubbing paints onto the surface. He also applied other colors selectively in some of his works to create depth and emphasize the intersection of planes17. In the Tenth State Exhibition catalogue, Rodchenko contributed a brief statement titled “Rodchenko’s System” in which he pronounced: “To the sound of the funeral bells of color painting, the last ‘-ism’ is accompanied on its way to eternal peace […]The motive power is not synthesis but invention (analysis). Painting is the body, creativity is the spirit. My job is to create something new from painting, so examine what I practice practically. Literature and philosophy are for specialists in these areas, but I am the inventor of new discoveries in painting. Christopher Colombus was neither a writer nor a philosopher; he was merely the discoverer of new countries18.” The text includes epigraphs from Max Stirner’s Die Einzige und sein Eigenthum (The Ego and His Own), Otto Weinenger’s Über die letzten Dinge (On the Latest Things), Aleksei Kruchenykh’s play Gly-Gly, and Walter Whitman’s extracts from Leaves of Grass (Part Four of “Song of the Broad-Axe” and “Gliding O’er All” from “By the Roadside”). We can suggest that the theoretical basis of Rodchenko’s nonobjectivism draws its theoretical foundation from a combination of the artist’s anarchist aspirations; Whitman’s notion of materiality, self and universe; as well as theories of creativity and invention.

  • 19 Diary entry, April 10, 1919, in Stepanova, 1994, p. 89.
  • 20 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.
  • 21 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.
  • 22 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.

8The distinct intellectual contrast between Malevich and Rodchenko’s approaches to art manifested in a material contrast in the two artists’ works. Stepanova praised Rodchenko’s achievements, stating that he “achieved in the ‘blacks’ what the West had only dreamt of, a true easel painting brought to its ultimate form […] we can now talk about a new painterly realism19”. In response to contemporary criticism that Russian modernists simply imitated Western art, Rodchenko defended himself by stating: “I don’t work like a European, using the finest paints and having polished nails […] Here, like a savage, one must work with whatever is at hand20.” The key to his success was the textures he created on the surfaces, as he mapped out the variations within a single color, making it “shining, matt, faded, rough, smooth21”. As will be discussed, this “triumphed22” texture was achieved by the artist using a variety of paints and pigments including carbon black, bone black, mixtures of black paints with varnishes, and asphalt (fig. 1 and 2).

Fig. 1. Rodchenko’s works, on the left side of the image, installed with the text of his essay Everything is Experiment at the 19th State Exhibition, Moscow, 1920

Fig. 1. Rodchenko’s works, on the left side of the image, installed with the text of his essay Everything is Experiment at the 19th State Exhibition, Moscow, 1920

Some of these works were first exhibited at the 10th State Exhibition in 1919.

© Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow.

Fig. 2. The six remaining black-on-black works by Rodchenko from the group included in the Tenth State Exhibition, Moscow, 1919 (Composition no. 76, ca. 1918; Composition no. 78, ca. 1918; Nonobjective Painting no. 80, 1918; Composition no. 81, 1918; Composition no. 82, 1918; Composition no. 84, 1918; the whereabouts of the other paintings are unknown)

Fig. 2. The six remaining black-on-black works by Rodchenko from the group included in the Tenth State Exhibition, Moscow, 1919 (Composition no. 76, ca. 1918; Composition no. 78, ca. 1918; Nonobjective Painting no. 80, 1918; Composition no. 81, 1918; Composition no. 82, 1918; Composition no. 84, 1918; the whereabouts of the other paintings are unknown)

© Adagp, Paris, 2023.

Facture

  • 23 For further discussions of faktura, see Markov, 1914; Hanse-Löve, 1995; Buchloh, 1984; Gough, 1999; (...)

9The Russian concepts of faktura (facture) encompass more than the related term texture, referring to the manner in which an artwork was created and the characteristics of its materials. It conveyed the unique style of the artist’s manipulation of the medium, including the materials used, the energy of brushstrokes, the solubility and opacity, and other properties. The notion of facture was central to many prominent Suprematist and Constructivist artists and played a significant role in Rodchenko’s work23.

  • 24 Stepanova, 1994, p. 88.

10Stepanova compared Malevich and Rodchenko’s works in her review of the Tenth State Exhibition, focusing on facture. By introducing a black-and-white dialectic, she criticized Malevich’s white paintings as being “simply colored” and not true paintings. She wrote: “Finally our exhibition of ‘Nonobjectivists and Suprematists’ is ready […] Malevich exhibited five white paintings, Rodchenko black ones. Of course, Malevich did not discover anything. He painted а white square on а white background, it is not even painted, it is simply colored (zakrashen)24

  • 25 Stepanova, 1994, p. 89.

11Stepanova here criticized Malevich’s technique of painting as resulting in simple, smooth surfaces lacking textural qualities. In contrast, she praised Rodchenko’s black paintings as a “destruction of the square” that advanced painting with new textures achieved in black. Stepanova affirmed Rodchenko’s success by citing the reactions of other painters upon first encountering the black-on-black works: “[Nadezhda] Udaltsova was so impressed that she even touched the work with her finger... and she asked me to take one off the wall to feel it; I think there was another secret intention here – to find out if the works were hanging undried on the wall… 25

  • 26 Tarabukin, 1972, p. 104. The original text was written in 1916 and published in 1923.

12The debate on whether a work of art is shaped by the material used or the artist’s intention and technique was a topic of discussion among artists, art critics, and theorists. Nikolai Tatabukin, for instance, argued that the material, not the artist’s intention or technique, defined the form of the work of art: “In painting, and in art in general, the problem of materials must be considered separately, in that the painter must acquire a developed sense of materials, he must feel the inherent characteristics of each material which of themselves condition the construction of the object. The material dictates the forms and not the opposite. Wood, metal, glass, asphalt, etc., impose different constructions. Consequently, the constructivist organization of an object depends on the materials used: the study of diverse materials constitutes an important and autonomous consideration26.”

  • 27 Kokkori, Burnstock et al., 2017, p. 281-282.

13Rodchenko saw paint as a texture or fabric that generated form. In Nonobjective Painting nо. 80, he used bone black and asphalt to create contrasting textures such as glossy and matte, coarse and smooth surfaces (fig. 3 a-b). Bituminous material was confirmed using pyrolysis GC-MS. The examined samples also contained mono- and diterpenes, possibly corresponding to resinous additives or modifiers indicative of а particular supplier or part of the artist’s formulation. In additional samples, FTIR microspectroscopy suggested the presence of shellac27.

Fig. 3 a-b. Details of Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Nonobjective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black), 1918

Fig. 3 a-b. Details of Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Nonobjective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black), 1918

Courtesy of Maria Kokkori. © Adagp, Paris, 2023.

Asphalt

  • 28 Alekseev-Aliurvi, 2000a, p. 49-50; Carlyle, 2001, p. 479-484. The term asphalt was often used ambig (...)

14Asphaltic materials were widely known by artists in Russia and other European countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, used in painting to add depth and translucency to dark passages and shadows, as well as for glazes and toning layers28. In 1883, Fedor Petrushevskii, a Russian color expert, gave public lectures in St. Petersburg on light, colors, and their role in painting, attracting interest from physicists, chemists, and artists. This led to his comprehensive monograph, Kraski i Zhivopis (Paints and Painting), which examined the impact of artificial lighting on colors, color light scattering, and complementary color optical experiments. In his work, Petrushevskii thoroughly discussed the visual characteristics, hues, and tonalities of various black materials, including asphalt, and their interaction with light.

  • 29 Vinner, 1950, p. 354-356.
  • 30 Sigarip, 1912, p. 75.
  • 31 Alekseev-Aliurvi, 2000b, p. 63-65.
  • 32 Carlyle, 2001, p. 101-106, 157-160, 209-210, 391-409, 479-484; Bothe, 1999, p. 41-46; Kiplik, 1948, (...)
  • 33 Lavrov, 1869.
  • 34 Languri et al., 2002, and p. 64, 123-124; Languri, 2004.
  • 35 Slanskii, 1962, p. 57.

15Asphalt was described in technical literature as either a deep black solid material29 or a warm, beautiful, and highly transparent material30, depending on how it was processed. In some manuals, it was recommended to mix it with drying oils31. In other cases, various preparatory measures were suggested including heating and the addition of solvents, wax and/or resins such as shellac and Venetian turpentine, to ensure that the asphaltic particles were dissolved completely32. Other authors recommended that the asphalt had to be roasted and ground before use, according to Mérimée’s recipes33, as it could not be dissolved in oil directly34. According to some sources, when Syrian asphalt was melted and mixed with boiling linseed oil and wax, it provided a viscous material suitable for painting. Technical manuals recommended to apply asphalt in one layer and avoid mixtures with other colors. If a mixture was necessary, it was recommended to combine with dark colors such as Prussian blue or lakes instead of light colors35.

  • 36 Kokkori, Sutherland et al., 2017; Kokkori et al., 2014; Sutherland et al., 2012.

16In contrast to these established uses of asphalt as an artist’s pigment, it was valued by Rodchenko more specifically for its unconventional and industrial associations. A common and prosaic material, asphalt symbolized urban modernism in Russia, and its use in architecture and construction aimed to revolutionize cityscapes (fig. 4 to 6). Unlike traditional or precious materials such as marble, wood and stone, asphalt was not regarded as suitable for art purposes. However, due to the limited availability of painting materials and a focus on textural explorations, constructivists included it in their palettes. Artists, writers, and poets who responded to the call to “materially shape the flux” of art and life saw asphalt as a symbol of modernity and innovation. This era of experimentation also embraced an array of industrial materials, such as plastics, housepaints, and metallic pigments, among others36.

Fig. 4. 19th-century road laying. Illustration of men using an asphalt (bitumen) boiler while laying a road surface

Fig. 4. 19th-century road laying. Illustration of men using an asphalt (bitumen) boiler while laying a road surface

© Science Photo Library.

Fig. 5. Aleksandr Rodchenko, Street paving, Constructing pavement on the Leningrad Highway, 1929, gelatin silver print (24.5 x 17.8 cm), Moscow

Fig. 5. Aleksandr Rodchenko, Street paving, Constructing pavement on the Leningrad Highway, 1929, gelatin silver print (24.5 x 17.8 cm), Moscow

© Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow.

Fig. 6. Varka asfalta (Boiling asphalt), 1920s (in Aleksei Sidorov, 1928, Moskva/Moskau, Albertus Verlag, Berlin, p. 127)

Fig. 6. Varka asfalta (Boiling asphalt), 1920s (in Aleksei Sidorov, 1928, Moskva/Moskau, Albertus Verlag, Berlin, p. 127)
  • 37 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 125, 131.

17Rodchenko, like other constructivist artists, appreciated the sheer, velvety, deep black appearance of asphalt, and the transparent, glaze-like appearance of paints containing asphalt when applied thinly. He claimed to be the “inventor of new discoveries in painting”. As he explained: “For the first time, several colors are introduced on one plane in different treatments, which causes the plane to be broken, balancing only the weight or lightness of the surface’s treatment... I develop in texture the principle of ‘black-on-black’ in painting...37

Conclusion

  • 38 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 93, 99.

18Rodchenko asserted in 1920 that “Nonobjective painting has left the museums, it is – the street, the square, the city, and the entire world… In the future, painting may be ‘barbaric’ but nonetheless rendered with the last word in painterly technology”38. The idea of nonobjective creation without limitations was expressed in the black-on-black series where Rodchenko used different black paints including asphalt to explore and create new textures, emphasizing the materiality of color. These new textures conveyed the toughness of industry and mechanical paint application, redefining the concept of facture as a reflection of the artist’s personal touch.

Haut de page

Bibliographie

Alekseev-Aliurvi N. V., 2000a, Kraski starykh masterov: ot antichnosti do kontsa XIX veka, Moskva.

Alekseev-Aliurvi N. V., 2000b, Krasochnoe syr’iu i kraski ispol’zuemye v zhivopisi, Moskva.

Andersen Tr. (ed.), 1968, K. S. Malevich, Essays on Art 1915-1933 (trans. in English X. Glowacki-Prus, A. McMillin), Borgens Forlag, Copenhagen.

Andersen Tr. (ed.), 1976, The World as Non-Objectivity: Unpublished writings 1922-1925 (trans. in English X. Glowacki-Prus), Borgens Forlag, Copenhagen.

Bothe C. I., 1999, Der grösste Kehricht aller Farben?: über Asphalt und seine Verwendung in der Malerei, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein.

Bouras A., 2018, “The Path of empirical criticism in Russia or ‘The Milky Way of Inventors’”, in Lodder C. (ed.), Celebrating Suprematism, Brill Academic Press, Leiden/Boston, p. 81-104.

Bowlt J. E., Konecny M. (ed.), 2002, A Legacy Regained: Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Russian Avant-Garde, Palace Editions, Saint Petersburg.

Buchloh B. H. D., 1984, “From Faktura to Factography”, October, 30, p. 82-119.

Carlyle L. A., 2001, The Artist’s assistant. Oil painting instruction manuals and handbooks in Britain 1800-1900 with reference to selected eighteenth-century sources, Archetype Publications, London.

Gough M., 1999, “Faktura: The making of the Russian Avant-Garde”, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 36, p. 32-59.

Hanse-Löve A., 1995, “Faktura, Fakturnost”, Russian Literature, XVII: 1, p. 29-38.

Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki. Bespredmetnoe tvorchestvo i Suprematizm [Catalogue of the 10th State Exhibition. Nonobjective Creation and Suprematism, Moscow, 1919], 1919, IZO Narkompros, Moskva.

Kiplik D. I., 1948, Tekhnika zhivopisi, Moskva.

Kokkori M., Bouras A., 2014, “Charting modernism: Malevich’s research tables”, in Borchardt-Hume A. (ed.), Kazimir Malevich, Tate Publishing, London, p. 164-195.

Kokkori M., Bouras A., 2017, “Metallic factures: László Moholy-Nagy and Kazimir Malevich”, Leonardo, 3, p. 287-291.

Kokkori M., Burnstock A., Boon J. J., Glinchey C., Mandt P., 2017, “From the streets to the canvas: on the use of bituminous asphalt in early Soviet constructivist paintings”, in Wallert A. (ed.), Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, p. 280-287.

Kokkori M., Casadio F., Sutherland K., Vermeulen M., 2014, “Charting the development of oil-based enamel paints through the correlation of historical paint technology manuals with scientific analysis”, in Van den Berg K. J. et al. (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint, Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 117-125 [DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-10100-2_7].

Kokkori M., Sutherland K., Salvant J., Casadio F., Barten J., Stringari C., 2017, “‘More than a pure technical sensation’: Twentieth-century metallic paints, their formulations, and use in paintings”, ICOM-CC 18th Triennial Conference Preprints (Copenhagen, 4-8 September 2017), Bridgland J. (ed.), art. 0102, International Council of Museums, Paris.

Languri G. M., 2004, Molecular studies of asphalt, Mummy and Kassel earth pigments: their characterisation, identification and effect on the drying of traditional oil paint, PhD dissertation (MolArt report no. 9), University van Amsterdam, FOM-AMOLF, Amsterdam, /Archetype Publications, London.

Languri G. M., van der Horst J., Boon J. J., 2002, “Characterisation of a ‘unique’ asphalt sample from the early 19th century Hafkenscheid painting materials collection by analytical pyrolysis MS and GC/MS”, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 63, p. 171-196.

Lavrentiev A. (ed.), 2005, Aleksandr Rodchenko: Experiments for the future, diaries, essays, letters, and other writings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Lavrov N. I., 1869, Opisanie krasok, upotrebliaemykh i predlozhennykh dlia upotreblenaia na zhidkostaikh v kartinnoi i dekoratsiohhoi zhivopisi i pri okraske zdanii, Saint Petersburg.

Lodder C., 1999, Russian Constructivism, Yale University Press, New Haven/London.

Malevich K., 1920, Suprematizm: 34 risunka [Suprematism: 34 Drawings], Unovis, Vitebsk.

Markov V., 1914, Printsipy tvorchestva v plasticheskikh iskusstvakh. Faktura, Izdanie obshchestva khudozhnikov ‘Soiuz Molodezhi’, Saint Petersburg.

Maund J., Sosa E. (ed.), 1995, Colours: Their nature and representation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/New York.

Sigarip L., 1912, Zhivopis’ maslianymi kraskami, akvarel’iu i pastel’iu, Sukhov, Saint Petersburg.

Shatskikh A., 1995, Malevich, Sobranie sochinenii v piati tomakh (trans. in English Tr. Andersen), vol. I, Gilea, Moskva.

Slanskii B., 1962, Tekhnika zhivopisi. Zhivopisnye materialy, Izdatelstvo akademii khudozhestv, Moskva.

Stepanova V., 1994, Chelovek ne mozhet zhit’ bez chuda: pis’ma, poeticheskie opyty, zapiski khudozhnitsy, Sfera, Moscow.

Sutherland K., Schwarzinger C., Price B. A., 2012, “The application of pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry for the identification of degraded early plastics in a sculpture by Naum Gabo”, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 94, p. 202-208.

Tarabukin N., 1972, Le Dernier Tableau, Éditions Champ Libre, Paris.

Vinner A. V., 1950, Materialy maslianoi zhivopisi, Moskva.

Haut de page

Notes

1 The paintings Rodchenko exhibited included Composition no. 76, ca. 1918, oil on canvas, 88.5 x 70.5 cm, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Composition no. 78, ca. 1918, oil and bitumen on canvas, Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Nonobjective Painting no. 80, 1918, oil and bitumen on canvas, 81.9 x 79.4 cm, MoMA; Composition no. 81, 1918, oil on canvas, 84 x 66.5 cm, State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg; Composition no. 82, 1918, oil and bitumen on canvas, 62 x 53 cm, Viatsksii Khudozhstvenyi Muzei im. Vasnetsovykh; Composition no. 84, 1918, oil on canvas, 75 x 75 cm, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; the whereabouts of the other paintings are unknown.

2 See Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki…, 1919. Participants included Aleksandr Vesnin – color compositions; Natalia Davidova – Suprematism; Ivan Kliun – Suprematism, color compositions, and nonobjective sculpture; Malevich – Suprematism; Mikhail Menkov – Suprematism and combination of light and color; Liubov Popova – painterly architectonics from 1918 and prints from 1917; Rodchenko – Abstraction of Color, Decoloration. In total, the catalogue lists 220 works.

3 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 126.

4 Diary entry, December 15, 1918, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 88.

5 Kokkori, Burnstock et al., 2017.

6 Diary entry, April 10, 1919, in Stepanova, 1994, p. 88.

7 Diary entry, August 31, 1919, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 92.

8 Lodder, 1999, p. 83-93.

9 Maund, Sosa (ed.), 1995.

10 Malevich, 1920, Suprematizm: 34 risunka [Suprematism: 34 Drawings], in Shatskikh, 1995, p. 187; English translation in Andersen (ed.), 1968, p. 125.

11 Malevich [ca. 1924], “1/42. Non-Objectivity”, ms; English translation in Andersen (ed.), 1976, p. 90-91.

12 Malevich, 1923, “Formula Suprematizma” [The Formula of Suprematism], ms; English translation in Bowlt, Konecny (ed.), 2002, p. 231.

13 Malevich, 1920, p. 187.

14 Bouras, 2018.

15 Malevich, 1919, “Suprematizm” [Suprematism], Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki… [Catalogue of the 10th State Exhibition. Nonobjective Creation and Suprematism], Moscow, in Shatskikh, 1995, p. 151.

16 Diary entry, December 25, 1918, in Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 88.

17 Diary entry, Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 83.

18 Katalog desiatoi Gosudarstvennoi vystavki…

19 Diary entry, April 10, 1919, in Stepanova, 1994, p. 89.

20 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.

21 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.

22 Stepanova, 1994, p. 82.

23 For further discussions of faktura, see Markov, 1914; Hanse-Löve, 1995; Buchloh, 1984; Gough, 1999; Kokkori, Bouras, 2014; Kokkori, Bouras, 2017.

24 Stepanova, 1994, p. 88.

25 Stepanova, 1994, p. 89.

26 Tarabukin, 1972, p. 104. The original text was written in 1916 and published in 1923.

27 Kokkori, Burnstock et al., 2017, p. 281-282.

28 Alekseev-Aliurvi, 2000a, p. 49-50; Carlyle, 2001, p. 479-484. The term asphalt was often used ambiguously in the 18th and 19th centuries, sometimes referring to artificial products such as coal tar distillates or pyrolysis products of plant oils and resins with similar properties to the naturally occurring material; in this paper, it is used specifically to describe the naturally sourced material.

29 Vinner, 1950, p. 354-356.

30 Sigarip, 1912, p. 75.

31 Alekseev-Aliurvi, 2000b, p. 63-65.

32 Carlyle, 2001, p. 101-106, 157-160, 209-210, 391-409, 479-484; Bothe, 1999, p. 41-46; Kiplik, 1948, p. 128-129.

33 Lavrov, 1869.

34 Languri et al., 2002, and p. 64, 123-124; Languri, 2004.

35 Slanskii, 1962, p. 57.

36 Kokkori, Sutherland et al., 2017; Kokkori et al., 2014; Sutherland et al., 2012.

37 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 125, 131.

38 Lavrentiev (ed.), 2005, p. 93, 99.

Haut de page

Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1. Rodchenko’s works, on the left side of the image, installed with the text of his essay Everything is Experiment at the 19th State Exhibition, Moscow, 1920
Légende Some of these works were first exhibited at the 10th State Exhibition in 1919.
Crédits © Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 428k
Titre Fig. 2. The six remaining black-on-black works by Rodchenko from the group included in the Tenth State Exhibition, Moscow, 1919 (Composition no. 76, ca. 1918; Composition no. 78, ca. 1918; Nonobjective Painting no. 80, 1918; Composition no. 81, 1918; Composition no. 82, 1918; Composition no. 84, 1918; the whereabouts of the other paintings are unknown)
Crédits © Adagp, Paris, 2023.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 660k
Titre Fig. 3 a-b. Details of Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Nonobjective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black), 1918
Crédits Courtesy of Maria Kokkori. © Adagp, Paris, 2023.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 780k
Titre Fig. 4. 19th-century road laying. Illustration of men using an asphalt (bitumen) boiler while laying a road surface
Crédits © Science Photo Library.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 600k
Titre Fig. 5. Aleksandr Rodchenko, Street paving, Constructing pavement on the Leningrad Highway, 1929, gelatin silver print (24.5 x 17.8 cm), Moscow
Crédits © Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 880k
Titre Fig. 6. Varka asfalta (Boiling asphalt), 1920s (in Aleksei Sidorov, 1928, Moskva/Moskau, Albertus Verlag, Berlin, p. 127)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/techne/docannexe/image/17088/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 749k
Haut de page

Pour citer cet article

Référence papier

Maria Kokkori et Ken Sutherland, « “…the most thankless color”: Aleksandr Rodchenko’s black-on-black paintings »Technè, 55 | 2023, 26-35.

Référence électronique

Maria Kokkori et Ken Sutherland, « “…the most thankless color”: Aleksandr Rodchenko’s black-on-black paintings »Technè [En ligne], 55 | 2023, mis en ligne le 16 novembre 2024, consulté le 16 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/techne/17088 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/techne.17088

Haut de page

Auteurs

Maria Kokkori

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (mkokkori[at]artic.edu).

Ken Sutherland

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (ksutherland[at]artic.edu).

Haut de page

Droits d’auteur

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

Haut de page
Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search