Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

In 1920 and 1921, Rodchenko created a series of hanging “spatial constructions.” Each explored the aesthetic possibilities offered by geometric shapes such as ovals, circles, and squares. These innovative sculptures combined two-dimensional and three-dimensional properties. Oval in Oval can be folded inward to create a flat plane or opened and expanded to reveal a volumetric mobile form. Because most of these ephemeral works were later destroyed, the artist’s estate authorized a replica edition in 1973. Nevertheless, there are some differences between the originals and the replicas. The original Oval in Oval was constructed from a single sheet of plywood, cut in concentric bands, whereas this 1973 editioned replica is made of aluminum.