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Lot Essay
Including: Teil der Schaumaschinerie als Titelblatt (Part of the Show Machinery as Title Page); Ansager (Announcer); Posten (Sentry); Ängstliche (Anxious Ones); Globetrotter-in der Zeit (Globetrotter in Time); Sportsmänner (Sportsmen); Zankstifter (Troublemaker); Alter-Kopf 2 Schritt hinten (Old-Man-Head Two Paces Back); Totengräber (Gravediggers); and Neuer (New Man)
An artist of tremendous creativity across a wide range of disciplines, Lazar Markovich (El) Lissitzky is recorded as having listed his activities in the following order: engineer-architect, painter, photographer and typographer. Trained first and foremost as an architect, Lissitzky found himself drawn to the design of books, newspapers and posters. It was in his book illustrations that he expressed some of his most radical design innovations as he fully exploited the possibilities offered by modern printing and photographic techniques. Devoted to what he called 'book building' El Lissitzky radically reconstructed the appearance of printed books.
From 1916-1919, he devoted himself to the cause of Russian Jewish Art and joined the circle of Marc Chagall and other Jewish graphic artist-illustrators whose works were published in the Jewish center of Kiev. His 1917 illustrations for Sichat Chullin, an adaptation of the 16th Century Legend of Prague is now considered to be one of the greatest illustrated books of the twentieth century.
Lissitzky became Professor of Architecture and Graphic Arts at the Vitebsk Popular Art Institute in 1919, under the directorship of Marc Chagall, and subsequently under Kasimir Malevich in 1919/1920. While working in Vitebsk, Lissitzky saw a performance of the Russian futurist opera Sieg über die Sonne (Victory over the Sun), which was first produced in 1913, with sets and costumes designed by Malevich. The year after the publication of his first print portfolio (Proun) in Moscow in 1921, Lissitzky was introduced by Kurt Schwitters to the Hanover gallery and publishing house Kestner Gesellschaft, which gave him his first solo exhibition. In 1923 they commissioned a portfolio and Lissitzky chose Sieg über die Sonne as his theme.
In recasting the opera as an "electromechanical" show for figurines, Lissitzky used Malevich's signature black and red squares but transformed Malevich's Suprematist shapes into figures constructed of transparent prisms and metallic rods, bending and receding in space. It represents Lissitzky's idea for characters based on a synthesis of modern art and the latest technology. The frontispiece of the portfolio and its red cover, which when closed form an impressive black 'F', are in themselves a masterpiece of typographical design and layout. The influence of the portfolio was considerable - notably on the production of print portfolios at the Bauhaus in Weimar by such artists as Archipenko, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy.
An artist of tremendous creativity across a wide range of disciplines, Lazar Markovich (El) Lissitzky is recorded as having listed his activities in the following order: engineer-architect, painter, photographer and typographer. Trained first and foremost as an architect, Lissitzky found himself drawn to the design of books, newspapers and posters. It was in his book illustrations that he expressed some of his most radical design innovations as he fully exploited the possibilities offered by modern printing and photographic techniques. Devoted to what he called 'book building' El Lissitzky radically reconstructed the appearance of printed books.
From 1916-1919, he devoted himself to the cause of Russian Jewish Art and joined the circle of Marc Chagall and other Jewish graphic artist-illustrators whose works were published in the Jewish center of Kiev. His 1917 illustrations for Sichat Chullin, an adaptation of the 16th Century Legend of Prague is now considered to be one of the greatest illustrated books of the twentieth century.
Lissitzky became Professor of Architecture and Graphic Arts at the Vitebsk Popular Art Institute in 1919, under the directorship of Marc Chagall, and subsequently under Kasimir Malevich in 1919/1920. While working in Vitebsk, Lissitzky saw a performance of the Russian futurist opera Sieg über die Sonne (Victory over the Sun), which was first produced in 1913, with sets and costumes designed by Malevich. The year after the publication of his first print portfolio (Proun) in Moscow in 1921, Lissitzky was introduced by Kurt Schwitters to the Hanover gallery and publishing house Kestner Gesellschaft, which gave him his first solo exhibition. In 1923 they commissioned a portfolio and Lissitzky chose Sieg über die Sonne as his theme.
In recasting the opera as an "electromechanical" show for figurines, Lissitzky used Malevich's signature black and red squares but transformed Malevich's Suprematist shapes into figures constructed of transparent prisms and metallic rods, bending and receding in space. It represents Lissitzky's idea for characters based on a synthesis of modern art and the latest technology. The frontispiece of the portfolio and its red cover, which when closed form an impressive black 'F', are in themselves a masterpiece of typographical design and layout. The influence of the portfolio was considerable - notably on the production of print portfolios at the Bauhaus in Weimar by such artists as Archipenko, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy.