Last week, I received a copy of Aleksandr Rodchenko:Experiments For The Future It a series of Rodchenko's diaries, essays, letters and other writings. It is fabulous! I have not put it down since the FedEx guy buzzed my door. For some reason, I started in the back and I am working my way towards the front of the book. I do this with magazines too. I find that I get annoyed with myself when I do this, but I can’t stop. He had a closer relationship with Mayakovsky than I realized. His death was a huge shock to Rodchenko and even questions if he could have prevented it.

He wrote on April 14, 1930

I went to the planetarium in the morning, where I was putting on an antireligion exhibition; Varvara had me summoned to the phone, and said:

“Volodya (Mayakovsky) shot himself.”
What, completely?
Yes. To Death.
Things became strange and bizarre; could we, too, really be to blame for this?
Perhaps we too were partly to blame.
But he’s so strong.
And he collapsed immediately, as if from a bolt of lightning.
But, how can this be?
All the way home I thought of VAPP with hatred.
And I cursed Averbakh and the likes of him
I dropped by home, loaded the Leica, and went to Taganka.
I kept Thinking that maybe, perhaps, not completely......Maybe there’s still some hope.....
But when I entered the dining room and saw the people and the faces,
and that strange quiet......

Hey!
Gentlemen!
Lovers of
sacrilege,
crime,
carnage -
have you seen
the most chilling thing -
my face,
when
I am
absolutely serene?

With this said, they found RIck Tharps body a week ago and have just identified him. Today, the design community mourns the death of one of our best. His work shall live on,like that of Mayakovsky.