Four photographs taken in April 1924 of the Russian poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 -1930).

This group of photo portraits of Vladimir Mayakovsky by Alexander Rodchenko mark the creative friendship and intimacy of two of the most prominent figures of the Russian avant-garde. The portraits were taken in April 1924 by Rodchenko at his studio in Ul. Myasnitskaya, Moscow upon Mayakovsky’s request. 

Impatient with the backwardness of Russia, and in search of a concrete, immediate art, Mayakovsky became the poet of a revolutionary regime. Rodchenko, a fellow revolutionary, evoked his friend's inner conviction in a series of brilliant portraits that match Boris Pasternak's description of his character: "He sat on a chair as on the saddle of a motorcycle... His way of carrying himself suggested something like a decision when it has been executed and its consequences are irrevocable. This decision was his very genius...and he had devoted his whole being to incarnate it without any pity or reserve."