EL
Y K Z T I LISS
EL
E L EL
Key Ideas Famous Works Bibliography
CONTENTS
Biography
OF
TABLE
EL LISSITZKY 5
ART CAN NO LONGER BE MERELY A MIRROR, IT MUST ACT AS THE ORGANIZER OF THE PEOPLE’S CONSCIOUSNESS. NO FORM OF REPRESENTATION IS SO READILY COMPREHENSIBLE TO THE MASSES AS PHOTOGRAPHY.
biography
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GA
RD
E
C H IL D H
EL LISSITZKY was born in the town of Pochinok, a small, heavily Jewish populated community in the western region of the former Russian Empire.
A PRODIGIOUS DRAUGHTSMAN EVEN AT AGE 13, LISSITZKY WAS NOTICED BY THE LOCAL JEWISH ARTIST YEHUDA PEN, WHO TOOK THE BOY UNDER HIS WING TO GUIDE. By the age of fifteen, Lissizky had already begun his teaching career, instructing other aspiring young Jewish artists. In 1909 he was rejected admission to the St. Petersburg Art Academy, due to anti-Semitic laws. Following his rejection, Lissitzky traveled to Germany and enrolled in the Technische Hochschule (University of Technology) in the city of Darmstadt, where he studied architectural engineering. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Lissitzky was forced to return to Russia, as were Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky and other Russian artists living abroad. By 1919, Lissitzky was hired to be an instructor of architecture and graphics. There, Lissitzky encountered Kazimir Malevich, another instructor, who had been developing a wholly abstract artistic style called “Suprematism.” Suprematist works of art were comprised exclusively of squares, triangles and other flat geometric shapes. Malevich dubbed this new visual lexicon of art a “world of non-objectivity.” Lissitzky’s encounter with Malevich’s new style proved to be the biggest turning point in the artist’s own development.
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M TIVIS TRUC M C O NS TIVIS TRUC M ISM S I C O NS TIV EMAT RUC SUPR
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SU
M E PR
E R U T
A M
M S I AT
elf ims h g zky otin dev Lissit en n ile ev egu d b m. Wh d had IS a h V n s y i itzk remat close a p UNO rt was s s i u p a L o n u 20 o S grow tist gr tizky’s its 9 t 1 y l to ad By lso iss ve ma lusi evich h Supre Art), L ist due is art a ts, exc l t H en the Ma New prema lism. lem e l and unded f the o u o mb tura ly S fo c o - o n e n t s s p u r e t i c a l s y rc h i t e c s li a p d r. (Ex ably le of po stinct nto e an ky l e i e y u d s t m g z t u ured ar is ct s ssit uen of h at istin nal, Li t d freq ally fe o that t c own rigi atis typi ntrast his truly o uprem metric e v o gs geo chie he S was in c to a is art ns of t vertly paintin t r o h f fo io and n ef riat that r es o In a asize wn va stract a seri nen” o ky h o b d u p a e s o i sitz c r e em ed h wer produ lled “P ich Lis t h a c e hi cr He he ca of wh ns. e, w styl ositio which eaning p , com is style true m yone. e h h t t o an , in un” ealed t o r “P r rev e nev
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ia, ply uss o ap ve R as t is nati on the h ls w goa ure in heavily 1920s t est o e r e a t rc h i t e c i e d t o o i n t o t h u r e i n t s t ’s g l a t’ tzky actual ving re time - to frac vemen issi a at o un mo re g of L o e e as h mt y th One ematis arded tyle. B t had b ced th ieve m on. r g h s ti ra n Sup h he re opean oveme t emb it to ac trializa r c s ha d u the d l Eu whi ist m ne t ante r in ers of w o sica mat s: o f b clas Supre camp ne that o use t t mem ned e o t i - th eren and with rema e pu b y diff y h als y two an ide als and ilosop enerall mac h o g pi pre u uto rian g milar p sitzky i for d he s ta s as t utili of a s up, Li ivide. e lans d ro ile ived oped p design Wh rian g in this e rc e el nt t ta he p ky dev oveme den utili hat tz m i w pen s t l ar nes. rate inde , Lis iona li eleb tate er c oviet s ternat ity sky c in urth S To f ew , an new he n tivism ies of c r of t stru a se Con her in s to u
proun
: y, s t i n io grav he t i t s h his t o y t c p b i u m d w nd o n nstr ” g c , u n i i t o s h p b r e kee ory be ematis s not to co p a r n r e a c p o s th y Su ure w visi y k e l s l ear itect timat a t h l n c u r o a his oriz
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After nearly a year of traveling and working in Switzerland, Lissitzky returned to Moscow for good in 1928. He spent the remainder of his life teaching, writing, working, and designing. The late 1920s and early 1930s were some of Lissitzky’s most progressive years as he experimented (and continued his expirements) with media such as typography, photography, and photomontage while he continued to produce innovative architectural designs. Having been diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1923, the pace of Lissitzky’s work gradually slowed. The illness prevented him from taking on multiple projects as had been his custom for much of his life. By 1932, Lissitzky was devoting himself almost exclusively to producing Soviet propaganda art. It is not clear whether or not Lissitzky felt conflicted in this regard, but given his declining health coupled with his longtime devotion to the Soviet cause, it is likely that near the end of his life he simply wished to continue producing art without engaging in controversy. Lissistky’s final work was a propaganda photomontage produced at the onset of the Soviet Union’s entry into World War II.
PERIOD
LATE
1941
Construction workers photomontage:
A FEW YEARS LATER, ON DECEMBER 21, 1941, HE SUCCUMBED TO HIS DISEASE AND PASSED AWAY AT HIS HOME IN SCHODNIA
The USSR in Construction no. 2, 1933
Despite his illness he became the most prominent graphic designer in Russia, creating art for a mass audience by marshaling high-tech communication technology to spectacular effect.
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WE BELIEVE THAT THE ELEMENTS IN THE CHEMICAL FORMULA OF OUR CREATIVE WORK, PROBLEM, INVENTION, AND ART, CORRESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES OF OUR AGE.
keyideas
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BELIEVED THAT ART AND LIFE COULD MESH AND THAT THE FORMER COULD
DEEPLY AFFECT THE LATTER.
HE IDENTIFIED THE GRAPHIC ARTS, PARTICULARLY POSTERS AND BOOKS, AND ARCHITECTURE AS EFFECTIVE CONDUITS FOR REACHING THE PUBLIC. CONSEQUENTLY, HIS DESIGNS WERE OFTEN
UNFILTERED POLITICAL MESSAGES.
STRIVED TO TRANSFORM SUPREMATISM FROM ITS PRIMARILY TWO-DIMENSIONAL, PRACTICAL, AND IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATION
TO THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONSIDERATIONS OF SPACE, PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO
ARCHITECTURE.
UTILIZED A PARED-DOWN PALETTE OF
PRIMARY COLORS, BLACK AND WHITE, TEXT, AND BASIC FORMS TO
TELL STORIES,
INCLUDING TRADITIONAL JEWISH
TALES, AND TO MAKE VERY POWERFUL POLITICAL STATEMENTS.
ARCHITECTURE WAS LISSITZKY’S MOST
FAVORED FORM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, YET HE HAD LITTLE SUCCESS REALIZING HIS DESIGNS, WHICH OFTEN BORDERED ON THE UTOPIAN AND IMPOSSIBLE. DREAMING OF A NON-HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURE UNLIKE THAT OF THE EMERGENT SKYSCRAPER CULTURE OF THE CAPITALIST WEST, LISSITZKY’S DESIGNS FOR
“HORIZONTAL SKYSCRAPERS”
REMAINED FOREVER IN THE REALM OF THE IMAGINED YET UNREALIZED.
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THE ARTIST CONSTRUCTS A NEW SYMBOL WITH HIS BRUSH. THIS SYMBOL IS NOT A RECOGNIZABLE FORM OF ANYTHING WHICH IS ALREADY FINISHED, ALREADY MADE, ALREADY EXISTING IN THE WORLD - IT IS A SYMBOL OF A NEW WORLD.
artworks
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W RED ITH B RED E W E WHI A W W T T H E E T D D E T E WIT S BE GE RE HE G H W AT D W WE H THE EDGE DG BEA red E T TH WHI E T E ED we S w HE WHIT E S BEAT TH E W RED WED HITES BEA GE WITH T THE W THE RED WED
BEA
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WH ITE GE S T HIT HE ES R TH ED W E BE ED A R wi ED T T GE th W H th ED E W e GE HI T WIT BEA ES H T T T WIT WHITES H H H E E W I T W w H DGE WIT ed HI
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Lithograph - Municipal Van Abbemuseum,
BEAT THE THE
One of Lissitzky’s earliest attempts at propagandistic art. The Red wedge is a representation of the Russian Revolution edge which were against the ‘white’ antirevolutionaries - Capitalists. The wedge is shown to be breaking into the white circle with shards coming off. This denotes ‘invasion’ or breaking something. In this case a, group/army of people. Even though the lithograph is in Russian, due to it’s bold visual display, it can be depicted by anyone. This was handy during the revolution due to many working class people not being able to read, they could still read the propaganda, allowing more people to understand the political meaning behind the poster itself.
E WHITES WITH E RED WEDGE (1919) The red triangle is a sign of strength, it dominates the image thus denoting the stronger side. The words on the image actually simply saying ‘beat the whites’ or ‘beat whites’ so is even simple to other classes who can read the poster. Although the words do not stand out on the poster due to the dominating strong shapes. Here Lissitzky uses his signature coded color combination of red, white and black, which reinforces the message indicated by the work’s title. Colors and shapes take on directly symbolic significance. For example, the smooth, curvilinear walls of the white circle are pierced by the sharp point of the red triangle: the Red Army has pierced the defenses of the White Army. Dramatic color contrasts also create confusion regarding space-which area is positive? Which is negative? Meanwhile, small geometric forms in the limited color scheme float like tiny projectiles through the space along with text. Here, basic forms combine with actual text: painting and typography are fused. This work is an important precursor to Lissitzky’s Prouns, when Suprematist art moved onto a three-dimensional visual plain.
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GEOMET
5 2
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futur
istic
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Lissitzky
El
About Two Squares
I have set out to formulate an elementary idea, using elementary means, so that children may find it a stimulus to active play and grown-ups enjoy it assomething to look at.
2 2 9 1ISTPICTUREBOOK
T S A D M I E K R P SU FOR
EL LIZZITSKY designed the book
The Story of Two Squares, in which the main story was a symbolic narrative ‘starring’ by a red square and a black square. When this book was first published in Berlin in 1922, about 2 [Squares] presented a radical rethinking of what a book was, demonstrating a new way of organising typography on a page and relating it to visual images. Colour application was a key element in this book, introducing the idea of colour-coding design information.
The pictograms illustrate the struggle of the red square to rebuild a new social city in defiance of a threatening black square. The red square, symbol of life and the new revolutionary order with unlimited possibilities, operates against the black square, which signifies the old order, chaos, egotism, and death. It represents a story of societal clashes—a clear reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the triumph of the Bolsheviks, the revolutionary working class of Russia.
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Illus
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for the voic e by V l May adimir akov sky
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EL LISSITZKY, who is credited as the creator of the book, provided typographic interpretations of Mayakovsky’s poems through dynamic visual compositions in which geometric elements were infused with symbolic meaning. Printed letters in red and black tones become pictorial signs, contributing to each poem’s identity.
The book constitutes a significant example to what is a seemingly impossible merger between Constructivism and Suprematism that El Lissitzky actively cultivated and applied to most of his creative investigations in design and architecture. In this book the 13 most often quoted poems in speeches from supporters of the Russian revolution (1917), were visually presented. The way the information was organised within each page, and how it was coded throughout the whole book could be considered a first step towards functional design. Each poem was synthetically visualised with an icon on the right-bottom side of the page, helping the viewer to understand which poem was coming before and after.
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1920
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EL Lissitzky and Hans Arp EL LISSITZKY and HANS ARP designed the book The Isms of designed the book The Isms of Art, composed of 8 pages with Art, composed of 8 pages with 76 illustrations, and information 76 illustrations, and information in three languages (German, in three languages (German, French and English). In it, a French and English). In it, a high amount of typographic and high amount of typographic and visual information was organised visual information was organised into a cohesive whole based on into a cohesive whole based on structural relationships, creating structural relationships, creating a clear layout. This book was a clear layout. This book was one of the first steps towards the one of the first steps towards the concept of visual programme for concept of visual programme for organising information. organising information.
EL Lissitzky and Hans Arp designed the book The Isms of Art, composed of 8 pages with 76 illustrations, and information in three languages (German, French and English). In it, a high amount of typographic and visual information was organised into a cohesive whole based on structural relationships, creating a clear layout. This book was one of the first steps towards the concept of visual programme for organising information.
The three-column horizontal The three-column horizontal grid structure used for the title grid structure used for the title page, the three-column vertical page, the three-column vertical grid structure used for text, grid structure used for text, and the two-column structure and the two-column structure of the contents page became of the contents page became an architectural framework an architectural framework for organising information. for organising information. Asymmetrical balance, and skilful Asymmetrical balance, and skilful use of white space are other use of white space are other important design considerations important design considerations of this work. In addition, he used of this work. In addition, he used large, bold san-serif numbers large, bold san-serif numbers to link the pictures to captions to link the pictures to captions listed earlier in the contents page,listed earlier in the contents page, thus these numbers became thus these numbers became compositional elements. compositional elements.
The three-column horizontal grid structure used for the title page, the three-column vertical grid structure used for text, and the two-column structure of the contents page became an architectural framework for organising information. Asymmetrical balance, and skilful use of white space are other important design considerations of this work. In addition, he used large, bold san-serif numbers to link the pictures to captions listed earlier in the contents page, thus these numbers became compositional elements.
THE “ISMS” OF ART Medium: Book, letterpress printed
Genre: Drawings and prints
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Typographical des should perform op what the speaker creates through voice and gesture of his EL
LISS
Y K Z IT
sign ptically
The printed page transcends space & time. The printed page, the infinity of the book, must be transcended.
PROUN 19D 1920 OR 1921
title page of victory over the sun 1923
HAD GADYA 1919
Other Works
by El Lissitzky SPORTSMEN 1923
four teyashim by ben zion raskin 1919
ussr russische austellung 1929
THE SUN AS THE EXPRESSION OF OLD WORLD ENERGY IS TORN DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS BY MODERN MAN, WHO BY VIRTUE OF HIS TECHNOLOGICAL SUPERIORITY CREATES HIS OWN ENERGY SOURCE.
bibliography
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.azquotes.com/author/24980-El_Lissitzky
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-lissitzky-el.htm
http://www.jameswheaton.com/El-Lissitzky-The-Book
https://www.homage-to-el-lissitzky.com/for-the-voice
https://monoskop.org/El_Lissitzky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Lissitzky
YHPARGOILBI http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lissitzky-title-page-p07137
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lissitzky-10-new-man-p07147
https://www.wikiart.org/en/el-lissitzky/beat-the-whites-with-the-red-wedge-1920
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/6758
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/88312
https://www.homage-to-el-lissitzky.com/victory-over-the-sun
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