Exhibition Display Unit 1928

Elena Semenova made this rendering for an exhibition display unit with pencil and watercolour in 1924. The palette feels industrial—stark reds, blues, and yellows broken up with creams and browns. It's not about blending or softening. It's about each color doing its own thing. I love how the colours declare themselves. Nothing is muddy or overworked. It's direct. The forms remind me of cubist paintings trying to be useful, grounded in the real world. Look at that confident red block near the top. It holds its space, doesn't apologize. It's a statement, like Semenova's saying, "Here, this is what it is." I feel a kinship with that directness. Semenova’s Exhibition Display Unit resonates with the visual language pioneered by constructivist artists like El Lissitzky, who also explored the fusion of art, architecture, and design. But unlike Lissitzky’s dynamic compositions, Semenova’s work has a more static, architectural feel. It’s like she’s saying, “Let’s build something solid, something that works.” And that, to me, is beautiful.