Rodchenko Family

Alexander Rodchenko (Russian, 1891-1956)
Varvara Stepanova (Russian 1894-1956)
Varvara Rodchenko (Russian 1925 -)
Nicholai Lavrentiev (Russian 1921 -)
Alexander Lavrentiev (Russian 1954 -)

Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova attended the Kazan School of Art from 1910-1914. Master teacher Nicolai Fechin taught the discipline of drawing with architectural tools and encouraged the mixture of mediums for the first generation of Russian modernists. The artists moved to Moscow where they worked with the avant-garde, continued experimentation and theory including photography, beginning at the Stroganov School, and taught at VKHUTEMAS (Higher State Art-Technical Studios), which predated the German Bauhaus. The photographic innovations continue in a diversity of media with four generations of this unique artistic family into the twenty-first century.

Lavrentiev, Alexander. Rodchenko Photography 1924-1954. Edison, New Jersey: Knickerbocker Press, 1995.

The Family. New York: Sander Gallery, 1993; limited edition of 125.

Yates, Steve. "Early Modern Photography: The Innovations of Rodchenko, Stepanova, and Family." Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico, El Palacio (May 2002): 16-21.

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