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Lot Essay
There exists a very similar oil painting to this work, now in the Kunstmuseum Basel (Kylmansegg), formerly in the collection of Count Kielmansegg, Weimar.
Lissitzky's work on the Prouns (projekty utverzhdniya novogo, or projects for the affirmation of the new) must be understood as formal experiments in architectonic form, compositional preparations for future buildings. As Lissitzky stated: "The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognisable form of anything which is already finished, already made, already existent in the world - it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by way of people." (Quoted in: Exh. Cat., Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, El Lissitzky, 1990, p. 16)
Elsewhere Lissitzky formulated the genesis of the Prouns in more detail: "The painter's canvas was too limited for me. The connoisseur's range of colour harmonies was too restricted; and I created the Proun as interchange station between painting and architecture. I have treated canvas and wooden board as a building site, which placed the fewest restrictions on my constructional ideas. I have used black and white (with flashes of red) as material substance and subject matter. In this manner it is possible to create reality which is clear to all." (Quoted in: S. Lissitzky-Kppers, El Lissitzky, London/New York 1980, p. 329)
To underline the universal aspect of Lissitzky's work, and to foster a mutual exchange between Eastern and Western Europe, the artist was given the opportunity to go to Berlin in 1921. Here he appears to have taken on the role of an official cultural representative of the Soviet government. Together with the Russian writer Ilia Ehrenburg, Lissitzky set up the periodical Veshch-Gegenstand-Object, a trilingual publication in Russian, German and French, which in only two issues managed to gather contributions from significant artists, writers, film-makers and architects throughout Europe.
This publication, together with the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung (First Russian Art Exhibtion), held at the Galerie Van Diemen in 1922, gave the artists of the West the first opportunity to observe the latest artistic movements emerging from Russia's First World War isolation - and to find significant similarities in their development. Particularly the Dadaists found themselves deeply akin to the Suprematist/Constructivist works on view, leading them to famously state: "Art is dead! Long live the machine-art of Tatlin!"
The present work was bought early on, in 1926, by the Folkwang Museum in Essen. However, in 1937, when the National Socialist laws on "Degenerate Art" came to the fore, were forced to de-accession the work. After a period in storage in Niederschönhausen, Proun N 89 was acquired directly by the grandfather of the present owner.
Lissitzky's work on the Prouns (projekty utverzhdniya novogo, or projects for the affirmation of the new) must be understood as formal experiments in architectonic form, compositional preparations for future buildings. As Lissitzky stated: "The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognisable form of anything which is already finished, already made, already existent in the world - it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by way of people." (Quoted in: Exh. Cat., Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, El Lissitzky, 1990, p. 16)
Elsewhere Lissitzky formulated the genesis of the Prouns in more detail: "The painter's canvas was too limited for me. The connoisseur's range of colour harmonies was too restricted; and I created the Proun as interchange station between painting and architecture. I have treated canvas and wooden board as a building site, which placed the fewest restrictions on my constructional ideas. I have used black and white (with flashes of red) as material substance and subject matter. In this manner it is possible to create reality which is clear to all." (Quoted in: S. Lissitzky-Kppers, El Lissitzky, London/New York 1980, p. 329)
To underline the universal aspect of Lissitzky's work, and to foster a mutual exchange between Eastern and Western Europe, the artist was given the opportunity to go to Berlin in 1921. Here he appears to have taken on the role of an official cultural representative of the Soviet government. Together with the Russian writer Ilia Ehrenburg, Lissitzky set up the periodical Veshch-Gegenstand-Object, a trilingual publication in Russian, German and French, which in only two issues managed to gather contributions from significant artists, writers, film-makers and architects throughout Europe.
This publication, together with the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung (First Russian Art Exhibtion), held at the Galerie Van Diemen in 1922, gave the artists of the West the first opportunity to observe the latest artistic movements emerging from Russia's First World War isolation - and to find significant similarities in their development. Particularly the Dadaists found themselves deeply akin to the Suprematist/Constructivist works on view, leading them to famously state: "Art is dead! Long live the machine-art of Tatlin!"
The present work was bought early on, in 1926, by the Folkwang Museum in Essen. However, in 1937, when the National Socialist laws on "Degenerate Art" came to the fore, were forced to de-accession the work. After a period in storage in Niederschönhausen, Proun N 89 was acquired directly by the grandfather of the present owner.