Then he had to survive after art, very much like a painter today. A utopia literally stands nowhere, as critics of American pragmatism have argued, and nowhere is just where he had to go. The crash landing First Rodchenko's wild, rigorous eye moved on to posters, collage, design, and photography with a command of cutting-edge art at home and in Europe. Some posters fall flat, in more ways than one, but perhaps that reflects his mixed feelings about his nowhere. Leading the arts under NEP, Lenin's New Economic Policy, he had to help loosen socialism to compete with a market-driven world abroad.
Mixed feelings suit a mixed economy, just as in art today.
He had made his first compromises. And then, after more compromises and many deaths, Rodchenko faced Stalinism. Now he had something more frightening in store. Still a power in the arts, he no doubt had the Soviet equivalent of grant applications on his desk all the time. They became art's paper promises.