MA-g
The Museum of Avant-garde

El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky)

Russia (1890—1941)
Prodigiously talent already at the age of 13, Lissitzsky was refused at the Art Academy in Saint Petersburg for the Jewish quota allowed in Russia. He took up Architectural Engineering in Germany, while travelling around Europe and absorbing Jugendstil and Chagall Symbolism. At the onset of WWI he was called back in Russia, where he met Chagall and Kandinsky. He started to look at Jewish art, editorial design and photomontage. Chagall asked him to teach architecture and design at his Art Academy. Here Lissitzsky met Maljevič, who already founded Suprematism. Together they founded a new artistic group – Unovis. In this period Lissitzsky defined his own style with series of artworks called Proun. He also tried to bring Suprematism into architecture. He returned to Germany working as a graphic designer, he turned to Constructivism, who was just blossoming internationally. He developed his ‘horizontal skyscrapers’. He returned to Russia in 1928 and kept working in architecture as well as in graphic design for the Russian propaganda until his death in 1941.

Part of the mechanical setting (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Announcer (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Sentry (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Self-portrait I

Original photography / Gelatin silver print / 12.5 x 17.2 cm / 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Gravediggers (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The globetrotter (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Sportsmen (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Erste russische Kunstausstellung

Book with letterpress cover / 14.4 x 20.8 cm / Berlin, 1922 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Self-portrait II

Original photography / Gelatin silver print / 15 x 315 cm / 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The sentinel (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The four basic arithmetical operations

12 silkscreen prints after original gouaches / 25 x 32.5 cm / 1928 / 1976

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Merz 6

Imitatoren watch step! / Magazine / Letterpress / 14.3 x 22.3 cm / Hannover, 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Good! An october poem (Khorosho! Oktiabr'skaia poema)

Book / Letterpress / 14.2 x 20.8 cm / Moscow / Leningrad, 1927 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Of two squares: A suprematist tale in six constructions

Illustrated book / 26.2 x 21.4 cm / The Hague, 1922 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Merz 8-9

Nasci / Magazine / Letterpress / 23.4 x 30.2 cm / Hannover, 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The new man (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Of two squares. A suprematist tale in six constructions (Pro dva kvadrata. Suprematicheskii skaz v 6-ti postroikakh)

Illustrated book / 20.4 x 26.4 cm / Berlin, 1922 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Untitled

From Proun / Original lithograph / 40 x 60 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Katalog des Sowjet-Pavillons auf der Internationalen Presse-Ausstellung

Exhibition catalogue / 14.1 x 20.3 cm / Cologne, 1928

I want a child (Photo seines Sohnes)

Original photography / Gelatin silver print / 25.7 x 17.4 cm / 1931 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Anxious ones (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Portrait of Kurt Schwitters I

Original photography / Gelatin silver print / 13.5 x 18.7 cm / 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Kunstismus, 1914-1924

Illustrated book / Letterpress / 20.3 x 26.5 cm / Zürich / Munich / Leipzig, 1925 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Projet du décor commémoratif des ateliers du comité de la lutte contre le chomage

96.6 x 25.4 / n.d.

An old man, his head two paces behind (Figurinen, die plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau Sieg über die Sonne)

From Figurines: the three-dimensional design of the electro-mechanical show victory over the sun / Original lithograph / 45.4 x 53.3 cm / 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Merz 7

Tapsheft / Magazine / Letterpress / 23.6 x 31.3 cm / Hannover, 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Foto-auge

76 Fotos der Zeit / Photographic book with letterpress cover by El Lissitzky / Heliogravure / 20.6 x 29.2 cm / Stuttgart, 1929 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Unovis Nº1

Almanac / 25.3 x 35.4 cm / Vitebsk, 1920

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Portrait of Kurt Schwitters II

Original photography / Gelatin silver print / 19.8 x 22.1 cm / 1924 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

For the voice (Dlia golosa)

Illustrated book / 75 letterpress illustrations / 13.3 x 18.8 cm / Moscow / Berlin, 1923 / © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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