Rodchenko presented three canvases of a single colour (red, yellow and blue). He saw that his formal research into Constructivism had reached completion at this point, and claimed that he had demonstrated the "end of painting".[1] The exhibition has been considered an anti-painting manifesto.[2][3]
Lyubov Popova showed canvases almost bare, puzzling viewers and provoking hail from the critics. Her "flight from painting" influenced Wassily Kandinsky, Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt.[3] Popova herself did not regard her works as "the end"; on the contrary, she wrote, "all pieces presented here should be regarded as merely preparations for concrete construction".[4]
Alexander Vesnin presented five[5] abstract cubist canvases that appear pure abstractions but were, in fact, ultimate decomposition of human figures.[5] Vesnin's catalogue cover, in particular, is typical of his book and advertising art of the period: numbers in two "lines" (5x5 and 25) are offset against the baseline, but this irregularity is "disguised" by angled lines dissecting the space.[6]
Catalogues of the exhibition were hand-drawn by the artists and contained original artwork that has never been displayed publicly. At least ten unique albums survive in Russia to date.[5] The 1921 show was reconstructed in 2009 in London's Tate Gallery. Modern critics remain divided over the question of whether "death of painting" was a genuine statement of modern art or it was a dead end with no future.[3]
