"A Yankee in Petrograd" Vol. 7 Black Hand by Jim Dollar (Marietta Saginyan)
Aleksandr Rodchenko
Russian, 1891–1956
1924
A 1924 gravure book cover by Aleksandr Rodchenko for Jim Dollar’s Black Hand that uses fractured photomontage, jagged typography, and a spare two‑color palette to turn a detective tale into a machine‑age visual shock intended to seize a mass audience.
You’re hit by a starburst of teal and black shards framing dislocated photographic faces and wide, staring eyes, with bold Cyrillic type slicing across the image so the whole page feels fractured, urgent, and cinematic.
A key example of Rodchenko’s shift into constructivist design, this work helped codify the photomontage-plus-typography approach that remade Soviet visual culture and became foundational for modern graphic design and mass communication.
Medium
Gravure
Dimensions
7 x 5" (17.9 x 12.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Kenneth Walker Fund
Accession
407.1991.7
Palette
Exhibitions
