BEYOND THE HORIZON:

COHERENT GEOMETRIC SYSTEMS IN RODCHENKO'S PAINTING

PATRICIA RAILING and CAROLINE WALLIS

PATRICIA RAILING is an art historian who has published
widely on early tv^/entieth-century art and on the Russian
avant-garde in particular. She is Director of ArtistS'Bookworks
in Sussex, England, remarkable for its facsimile reprints of
artists' books and v^/ritings,
CAROLINE WALLIS is a biologist and cosmologist
specializing in bio-meteorology. She has developed new
techniques for long-range weather forecasting and is a
consultant to a number of international businesses.
An exhibition "Aleksandr Rodchenko" was held at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1998 and
in the catalogue the artist's grandson, Aleksandr
Lavrentiev, describes his grandfather's interest in
science. In his article "On Priorities and Patents,"
Lavrentiev writes that

Rodchenko. in his most intensive period of

experiment with abstract geometric forms, was
trying to determine the iaws of construction
governing the physicai worid. The categories
of space and time interested him iess as
phiiosophicai concepts than as attributes of various
astronomic, geometric, and psychoiogicai modeis
of the wor!d. !t is no coincidence that his iibrary of
1917-20 included such works as C. H. Hinton's
The Fourth Dimension and A New Era of Thought,
Moritz Wiikomm's Die Wunder des Mikroskops
(The Miracle of the Microscope), Camiiie
Fiammarion's L'Atmosphre (The Atmosphere),
C. A. Young's The Sun, and the speeches and
papers of the German physioiogy professor Max
Verworn. Compieteiy in the spirit of Rodchenko's
concept of anaiytic research was the titie of
a book by the German physicist Arthur Zart:
Bausteine des Weltalls (The Building Blocks
of World Creation). Aii of these books (which
remain in Rodchenko's iibrary today) contain
information on the physica!, bioiogicai, and
conceptuai building biocks of the worid, the
prima materia of its construction.'
The most fundamental components of this prima
materia of the construction of the world, the building
blocks, are the atom, a physical body, and geometry,
that which organizes this physical body and
determines how forces shape its creation and
govern its motion in space. What Rodchenko
learned in these scientific studies about the cell
(where the microscope had been used), the sun and

66

the stars (where the telescope had been used), and

the atmosphere (where both instruments had been
used as well as the photographic camera) was that
there are certain constants in geometry according
to which all physical phenomena are organized. It
was these constants that seemed to fascinate
Rodchenko and this is what he was exploring in a
variety of ways in his paintings between 1917 and
1920, "the most intensive period of experiment with
abstract geometric forms," as Lavrentiev says.
A GEOMETRICAL CONSTANTTHE HEXAGON
One of the most fundamental geometrical constants
found in Nature is the hexagon. It is what organizes
the honeycomb and the snowflake, among a myriad
of other phenomena. The hexagon is perfectly
demonstrated in Eig. 1-Section of a hailstone,
reproduced in the 1874 The Atmosphere by Camille
Flammarion, a French meteorologist working at the
Paris Observatory in the mid-nineteenth century.
Flammarion also reproduced a plate showing ninetysix snowflakes, a smail number compared to those
recorded by several nineteenth-century scientists
(including the American farmer Wilson Bently, who in
1885 was the first to photograph a snow crystal and
recorded over 5,000 before his death in 1931, all of
which are unique).
As Flammarion writes:
The construction of snow-fiakes has iong aftracted
the attention of observers ... but it is oniy since
the iaws of crystaiiization in gnerai have been
ascertained that it has been possibie to throw
any iight upon this subject.
in a cirde. of aii the poiygons which can be
inscribed, there is but one whose sides are
equai to its radius; that is, the reguiar hexagon,
or figure with six sides,,..
The examination of the figures of snow leads to
impressions not iess marked as to the existence
of geometry. Number and Beauty, in the works of
nature, it is not mereiy a few ice-fiowers, such as
the above, which have been remarked and
designed in the siender snow-fiakes, but there
are many hundred different kinds, aii constructed
upon the same fundamentai angie of 60. ^

Fig. 1. C. FLAMMARION, THE ATMOSPHERE.

SECTION OF A HAILSTONE. ENLARGED.

The same is true of the hexagon-order of the

hailstone, illustrated above, each hexagon
inscribed in the matrix being made up of six
equilateral triangles "constructed on the same
fundamental angle of 60"."
TWO PAINTINGS BY RODCHENKO
Several paintings by Rodchenko have been
analyzed in order to understand the geometries he
was using and how he was using them to organize a
pictorial construction. What has oome to light is that
the hexagon has been found in a number of works
where it is the basic structural element and may
determine relationships among the parts. Inscribed
into a oircle, the circle is then used to create a matrix
which extends throughout the surfaoe of the
oomposition, its purpose being to unify pictorial
space and create points of structural reference.
Both modular hexagon and matrix of circles are the
basic constructive devices found in Rodchenko's
1918 Composition No. 68 (Still Life) (Regional Art
Museum in Perm, Russia) (Fig. 3).
Although a hexagon can be inscribed in any circle,
that it is an authentic module in this painting can
be seen in the diagram (Fig. 4).
The yellow circle contains an equilateral triangle
of 60, sharing one of its sides with one of the
equilateral triangles of the hexagon inscribed in the
large black circle.
(This diagram and the subsequent geometrical
diagrams of Rodchenko's paintings [Figs. 5, 6, 9, 14,
and 15] are by Caroline Wallis. It was she who
analyzed Rodchenko's paintings with the aim of
discovering the internal geometrical orders that the
artist was using to organize his paintings. Relying on
clues that the artist himself gives in the paintings,
some of which are discussed below, and knowing that
Rodchenko's aims were "to determine the laws of
construction governing the physical world," as

Fig. 2, C, FLAMMARION, THE ATMOSPHERE. SNOW CRYSTALS.

Lavrentiev writes, Caroline Wallis found that the

module, the matrix, and geometries of progression
are what determine the regular structural orders in
the paintings. She then verified these orders by
comparison to Rodchenko's drawings and partioularly
the series of linocuts of 1921. Here she found
confirmation that the artist's own structural systems
did indeed turn on the module, the matrix, and certain
geometries of progression. The purpose of this article
is to reveal Rodchenko's systems and the ideas within
them as they are found in the paintings discussed.)
Now, when two lines are drawn (Fig. 5) from the
center of the large black circle extending on either
side of the yellow circle, an equilateral triangle
would be formed if two congruent circles were
added in. The equilateral triangle of 60, one-sixth
of a hexagon, is thus implied and is a fundamental
structural principle in this painting.
Again taking the clue from the yellow circle,
Rodchenko has constructed a matrix from it. It
originates from the center of the large black circle
(Fig. 6).
When, from the yellow circle, a circle of the same
size is drawn whose circumference passes through
its center, it also passes through the center of the
black circle. Subsequent circles can be drawn, the
circumference of eaoh passing through the oenter
of the previous circle, creating a succession of

67

Fig. 3. A. RODCHENKO. COMPOSITION NO. 68

Fig. 4. DIAGRAM OF COMPOSITION NO.68 (STILL LIFE). 1918.

(STILL LIFE), 1918, OIL ON CANVAS.

SHOWING HEXAGON.

REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, PERM, RUSSIA.

interlooking circles. Another row of interlocking

circles can likewise be drawn in, the circumferences
passing through the centers of the previous circles.
Rodohenko has constructed a matrix, one that can
be extended canvas-wide.
Now the red circle at the bottom of the composition,
which is congruent to the yellow circle, is found to
be displaoed in this matrix. Suoh a deviation from
the regular matrix is a common device for setting up
a sensation of "differenoe," henoe of dynamism. By
making them the same size, Rodohenko has shown
that they are related. By giving them different colors
and by shifting the position of one of them within the
matrix, Rodchenko has set up contrast.
Such matrices have been found to be typioal of
Rodchenko's paintings of 1918. Indeed, he did a
linocut in 1921 (Fig. 7) (when he was teaching at
the Moscow Vkhutemas, the Higher State Artistic
and Technical Workshops, so it was perhaps used
as a teaching tool) which demonstrates this
elementary structural principle. From it, an infinite
variety of unique constructions can emerge.
What is important about the matrix is that it is first of
all a stable structure on which to "hang" the
arrangement of geometrical elements, as it were. The
matrix provides a unified and regular field from which
a coherence in the relationships of the parts to each

68

Fig. 5. DIAGRAM OF COMPOSITION NO. 68

(STILL LIFE). 1918, SHOWING BEGINNING
OF ANOTHER HEXAGON AND ITS MATRIX.

other and to the whole can be established. The

structure of the hailstone (Fig. 1) is characterized by
a matrix determined by the hexagon, and the
illustration shows that the prinoiple of the matrix
is both structural, holding a body together, and
dynamic, due to its potential for infinite and variable
extension in space. These two ideas are inherent to
Rodohenko's paintings.
A matrix like that of Composition No. 68 (Still Life)
is also the basic structural principle used in a very
beautiful painting of c. 1920, Untitled {F\Q, 8),
The key to discovering this matrix is found in the
part-circle on the far right that is bisected by a red
bar. These two elements (part-circle and red bar)
are placed just outside of the main composition
the diagonally oriented arrangement of circles and
rectangles tipped to the leftand they set up a
counterpoint dynamic.
In doing geometrical analyses of some of Rodchenko's
paintings, a oonsistent feature has been discovered:
whenever there is an element or a group of elements
situated outside of, or in oontrast or counterpoint to, the
main composition, Rodohenko has introduoed a new
phenomenon, a dynamic, or an idea. It may also be
the key to unraveling the mystery of the entire painting.
In the case of Untitled, Rodchenko made the black
and white part-circle different from the blue, white.

Fig 6 COMPOSITION NO 68 (STILL UFE).

Fig. 7 A, RODCHENKO, CONSTRUCTION, 1921. LINOCUT.

Fig. 8. A. RODCHENKO, UNTITLED. c. 1920,

1918, SHOWING MATRIX OF CIRCLES.

PRIVATE COLLECTION.

OIL ON CANVAS. PRIVATE COLLECTION.

and black circle-spheres by modeling it in two

colors, and by giving it a sectional aspect and an
open structure. This part-circle provides a starting
point for a geometrical analysis (Fig. 9).
When the part-circle is inscribed in a fully drawn
circle and a second circle is drawn whose position
is determined by the inner section of the part-circle,
a series of interlocking circles, the circumferences
passing through the centers of adjacent circles,
appears along a tipped horizontal. This construction
of circles is extended upward to the top of the
composition and downward to the bottom of the
composition, creating a matrix. Within this matrix
Rodchenko has determined some of the extents of
circles and bars. This is why the composition appears
stable, even though the overall orientation is on a
tipped vertical axis with all the elements depicted as
if floating in space above the large black circle at
the bottom of the canvas.
Now it can be seen that the part-circle is displaced in
relation to the regular matrix, and so has the same
function as the displaced circle in Composition No. 68
(Still Life): to introduce a shift which suggests change
of direction or kind of movement. Indeed, the red bar
bisecting the part-circle is set on a tipped vertical axis
in another direction to the main body of the
composition. This produces a contrasting movement,
hence a dynamic sensation in the painting.

Again the hexagon is the basic element inscribed

within this part-circle, and is what determines the
position of several elements. This is revealed when
a red and a blue line are drawn in. The red line is
established by the vertically tipped red bar. The
blue line is established by connecting the center of
the part-circle with the centers of the matrix of
circles tipped along the horizontal. The red and
blue lines cross at the center of the part-circle and
form a 60 segment of an equilateral triangle, onesixth of the hexagon which is found within.
Reading this painting with the awareness of its regular
matrix, animated by a displaced element, makes it
easier to understand why thisand all of Rodchenko's
paintings in this groupproduces such an experience
of expansion into pictorial space accompanied by a
sense of dynamism. The nature of the matrix is infinite
extension in the four planar directions on the canvas^
above and below, to the right and to the left. To this
can be added extension forward into the spectator's
space and backward into the depth of the pictorial
plane. Now we have six directions in space, this sixfold
spatial order coincident with the sixfold hexagonal
modular arrangement of the parts. To extension in the
plane is integrated extension in the perpendicular
directions of space.
Such spatial structure is a coherent order. It is also
integral to the idea of Rodchenko's paintings where

69

Fig. 9. DIAGRAM UNTITLED c. 1920

Fig. 10. A. RODCHENKO, COMPOSITION NO. 60

SHOWING MATRIX OF CIRCLES.

(CONCENTRATION OF COLOURS). 1918. OIL ON CANVAS.

Fig. 13. A. RODCHENKO, UNTITLED

(COMPOSITION). 1918. OIL ON PLYWOOD.

RODCHENKO FAMILY ARCHIVE. MOSOOW.

PRIVATE COLLECTION.

perspective along Farth's surface from the eye of an

observer has been abandoned in favor of extension
in the six directions of spaoe simultaneously. The
subjeot matter of this Unfitted painting reveals why
this spatial organization is necessary. For Rodchenko
has constructed a composition in outer space where
there are no fixed direotions until elements are
introduced to suggest them. The elements in the
paintingwhite sphere, blue sphere, blue conical
section, green-black rectangleappear to be rising
up over the large black circle-sphere at the bottom of
the oanvas, weightless in a spaoe without gravity.
Fig. 11. C. YOUNG. THE SUN. SPECTROHELIOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPH OF THE
ENTIRE CHROMOSPHERE.

There is also movement, a kind of counterpoint rhythm

in the contrasts of direction in the way the red bar
directs the eye toward the right, to be pulled baok to
the left due to the orientation of the arrangement of the
prominent blue and green elements over a red
luminious flare.
Being able to decipher the geometrical organization
makes it possible to understand and so explain
what is seen, and this adds to the way the painting
is experienoed by the observer. Without knowledge
of the geometry, the reasons for the experienoe of
different sensations would remain a mystery.

Fig. 12. C. YOUNG, THE SUN. VENUS TOUCHING THE LIMB

OF THE SUN IN THE 1874 TRANSIT OF VENUS.

COSMIC LIGHT PHENOMENA

This Untitled painting transmits a magnificent
display of light. The background glows with reds

70

Fig, 14, GEOMETRICAL DIAGRAM

Fig, 15, DIAGRAM WiTHIN A, RODCHENKO,

Fig, 16, A, RODCHENKO, CONSTRUCTION

ON A, RODCHENKO. UNTITLED

UNTITLED (COMPOSITION). 1918,

NO, 60. 1921. LINOCUT PRIVATE COLLECTION,

(COMPOSITION). 1918,

and yellow-oranges, and the ring of luminous red

around the large black circle at the bottom of the
canvas, of which only a part can be seen, indicates
that this painting is inspired by solar phenomena of
eclipses, Rodchenko did a number of paintings
between 1918 and 1920 which are inspired by
such phenomena, as well as by the flight of comets
through space. Here, the Untitied painting reveals
the fantastic luminosity of the sun, our view
obscured by the moon eclipsing it. Although in a
solar eclipse the sky itself becomes dark when
seen from Earth, that Rodchenko should depict a
luminous sky and a darkened sun now places us in
outer space from where we observe magnificent
solar lights.
Rodchenko's knowledge of the sun, its corona, and
solar and lunar eclipses would have come, at least
in part, from Charles Augustus Young's The Sun.
First published in 1881 by the Princeton University
Professor of Astronomy, The Sun saw a sixth and
completely revised American edition in 1895, while
several editions had also appeared, one after the
other, in Russian translation, also from the 1890s. At
the time it was the most thorough and authoritative
treatise on the sun worldwide.
Several paintings of 1918, 1919, and 1920 depict the
visual effects of solar lights and of eclipses. The
subject, even, was topical since a total solar eclipse

had occurred in 1918 and received great coverage in

the press. The next year an equally famous eclipse
was much talked about. It took place on 29 May 1919
and was viewed by teams of scientists around the
world, including in Russia, for the aim was to verify
Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. The eclipse was
visible and Einstein's theory was vindicated.
Rodchenko even makes direct reference to his
interest in light in his entries to the 1919 catalogue of
the "Xth State Exhibition of IZO Narkompros, NonObjective Creation and Suprematism," held in
Moscow. There he describes several of his paintings
of the "second half of 1918" as "Luminescence of
colour" and "Light-colours [Svet-tsveta]." He later
wrote about these works, saying that in them he had
"achieved extreme innovations (the light of colour,
the tone of light) in painting." So they are all about
light and, indeed, about cosmic light.-'
Composition No, 60 (Concentration of Colours) of
1918 (Fig. 10) is a fine example of pure light radiance
which Rodchenko captures in the perfect relationship
of two luminous bodies (here in an eightfold
arrangement). The corona of the eclipsed sun (the
small circle) is similar to photographs taken over the
United States of the total eclipse of the sun of 8 June
1918, which would have been published in
newspapers around the world.

71

Very similar to these photographs is one reproduced

in Charles Young's The Sun, showing a total solar
eclipse (Fig. 11).
In Composition No. 60, the aura of shimmering
yellow light emitted around the outside of the
smaller body, the sun blackened by the eclipsing
moon, is contrasted to a ring of radiant blue light.
Rodchenko has used a pair of complementary
colors, orange-yellow and blue, turning colors into
light effeots in the eye of the observer.
The oomposition itself also may have been inspired by
a particularly significant celestial event, the transit of
Venus over the sun, to which Young devotes an entire
chapter in The Sun. These transits occur in pairs
about every 130 years and the then most recent ones
had been in 1874 and 1882, so the information they
had provided was timely for Young's book. Opening
the chapter. Young explains their significance;
The probiem of finding the distance of the
sun is one of the most important and difficuit
presented by astronomy. Its importance lies in
this, that this distancefhe radius of the earth's
orbitis the base-iine by means of which we
measure every other ceiestiai distance, excepting
only that of the moon: so that error in this base
propagates itself in ail directions through all
space, affecting with a corresponding proportion
of faisehood every measured linethe distance
of every star, the radius of every orbit, fhe
diameter of every pianet '
And that was only the beginning of the story for
the astronomer.
There is a black and white illustration (Fig. 12) in The
Sun ("Venus touohing the limb of the sun in the 1874
transit of Venus") whioh depicts the moment when
the edge of the planet Venus meets the edge (these
"edges" oalled the "limb") of the sun during the 1874
transit of Venus. At this moment is observed what
looks like a feathery aotivity which is due
partiy upon fhe essentiai nature of light, leading
to what is known as diffraction, and partiy upon
the action of the pianet's atmosphere. The two
first-named causes [opticai instruments and
the human eye, and diffraction] produce what
is caiied irradiation, and operate to make the
apparent diameter of the pianet, as seen on the
solar disk, smaller than it really issmaller, too,
by an amount which varies with the size of the
telescope, the perfection of its ienses, and the
tint and brightness of the sun's image. The edge
of the pianet's image is also rendered slightly
hazy and indisfincf.

72

The pianet's atmosphere also causes its disk

to be surrounded by a narrow ring of light,
which becomes visibie long before the planet
touches the sun, and at the moment of internal
contact produces an appearance of which the
accompanying figure is intended to give an
idea, though on an exaggerated scale.''
Young's illustration could be related not only to
Composition No. 60, suggesting that the painting may
have been inspired by such a drawing and such an
event, but also to another Composition by Rodchenko,
whose number in his house list is not known (Fig. 13).
This painting is clearly inspired by a planetary transit,
Rodohenko depicting the transit itself to which he has
added further stages of planetary movement in the
upper circles on a curved trajectory. Significantly, the
artist gave order to the transiting planet (the ochre
circle) over the sun (the large white sphere) by using
the fundamental hexagon (Fig. 14).
Rodchenko established the hexagon at the points
where the trajeotory of the ochre circle touches the
circumference of the sun at the bottom (in the
diagram) and at the uppermost point where it
meets the circumference of the red torus.
Now the white circle in the center of the torus is
congruent with the ochre oircle, indicating the
passage of the transiting planet to a subsequent
stage of progression.
The geometry of this progression is demonstrated
in Fig. 15, and it is the same geometry of
progression that Rodchenko described in another
linocut of 1921, Construction No. 60 (Fig. 16).
Although this geometry is not visible in the
finished painting, we sense an internal order and
coherent relationship among the parts, as well as
have a sensation of movement.
All of Rodchenko's geometrioally struotured
paintings are complex and only some of the
arrangements are discussed here. However much
he may have introduced shifts into the relationships,
the basic structural principles do not change. They
remain the module and the matrix.
MODULE AND MATRIX
Rodchenko had been noticed by Vladimir Tatlin for
his very sophisticated geometrical line drawings,
Tatlin then inviting him to exhibit for the first time as
a member of the Russian Avant-garde in the 1916
Moscow show "The Store."

Geometrioian by nature, Rodchenko moved

methodically through the exploration of these
rational systems in order to discover and then
describe how forms exist in space, forms that are
created by the laws of force, of dynamism. This
was necessarily a rational, coherent space, one
made visible by rational, coherent geometries.
To reveal space and the laws of form creation,
Rodohenko aligned his method with the laws of natural
creation which he discovered in his scientific reading.
There he found "the laws of construction governing the
physical world," as Lavrentiev writes in his Museum of
Modern Art catalogue article. Rodchenko selected
Nature's elementary forms, the modules or building
blooks, and he discovered the laws of generation in
space, the laws of orderly expansion in space
according to the module of the matrix. In this way,
Rodchenko also created a unified spatial field.
Knowledge of Rodchenko's methods not only
contributes to ease of entering into his paintings,
but also makes one realize that this "ease" is
dependent upon being able to open up, open out,
the mind. We have to move around in the spaces
he creates, and to do this we have to forget the old
habit of one-point perspective.
Now we see many perspectives, different points of
view, numerous positions in space, a space that is
without dimension and oertainly not bound to Earth.
We are in a multidimensional space, an all-over
space, even a "pure" space. Rodchenko's paintings
teaoh us to expand our experience of space.
They also reveal order to our mind's eye.
And they inspire awe and wonder. That, we believe,
was the artist's true intention in all his paintings,
those discussed in this essay being but the gateway
to Rodohenko's realm beyond the horizon.
NOTES
1. Aleksandr Lavrentiev, "On Priorities and Patents," in exh.
cat. for "Aleksandr Rodchenko," Museum of Modern Art,
New York, 1998,55.
2. Camille Flammarion, The Atmosphere (New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1874), 230.
3. Aleksandr Rodchenko, diary entry of 2 January 1919 in
Experiments for the FutureDiaries, Essays. Letters, and
Other Writings, ed. Alexander N. Lavrentiev, trans. Jamey
Gambrell, introduction by John E. Bowit (New York: The
Museum of Modern Art, 2005), 89.
4. Charles Augustus Young, The Sun (Akron, OH: The Werner
Company, 1895), 10.
5.

Ibid., 23-4.

DDD
A TRIBUTE
For fifty years. THE STRUCTURIST has been committed
to publishing on art trends of the twentieth century
whose inspirations arise out of the recognition of,
and deepest respect for, the ways in whioh the
human being. Nature, and the cosmos make up an
integrated dynamio whole.
To be aware of the world and of the life it generates
as an integrated whole demands a consciousness
that is itself holistio.
Artists of the Russian Avant-garde were among
those at the origins of this worldview, together with
early twentieth-century scientists epitomized in the
personality and beliefs of the genius of Albert
Einstein. Indeed, Russian Avant-garde art was
imagined with an awareness of the holistio as it
was being revealed by this new science, and it
was creating with its laws.
In this context, the Russian artists were able to
make claims for a new oonsoiousness, for a
holistic consciousness, and their art revealed their
beliefs. That is why they oould assert that art can
change the world, make it a better place by raising
the consciousness of all those who take the time to
oontemplate it.
When we live in the awareness that "all is one," a
motto that reverberates in every value and attitude,
that appeals to respeot for all that lives and where it
liveson the Earth that is revolving in our cosmic
universewe are living in harmony with the laws that
govern these great systems. We are the microcosms
of the macrocosms, we are part of these systems,
and that is what Russian Avant-garde artists
reoognized. Painting, architecture, the graphic arts,
the theater, are the means of revealing these laws
and reminding us of them.
May we just be able to remember this and
aot aocordingly.
Finally, it is with thanks to THE STRUCTURIST and to
its editor, Eli Bornstein, that this worldview has
been perpetuated among so many over these
years. Let it reverberate in ever greater pulsations
through all of us, and throughout society.

73

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