El Lissitzky

El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941) was born Lazar Markovich Lisitskii in 1890 in Pochinok, in the Russian province of Smolensk, and grew up in Vitebsk. He pursued architectural studies at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany, from 1909 to 1914, when the outbreak of World War 1 precipitated his return to Russia. In 1916, he received a diploma in engineering and architecture from the Riga Technological University.

Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich were invited by Marc Chagall to join the faculty of the Vitebsk Popular Art School in 1919; there Lissitzky taught architecture and graphics. That same year, he executed his first Proun (an acronym in Russian for “project for the affirmation of the new”) and formed part of the Unovis group. In 1920, he became a member of Inkhuk (Institute for Artistic Culture) in Moscow and designed his book Pro dva kvadrata. The following year, he taught at Vkhutemas with Vladimir Tatlin and joined the Constructivist group. The Constructivists exhibited at the Erste russische Kunstausstellung designed by Lissitzky at the Galerie van Diemen in Berlin in 1922. During this period he collaborated with Ilya Ehrenburg on the journal Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet.

In 1923, the artist experimented with new typographic design for a book by Vladimir Mayakovski, Dlya golosa, and visited Hannover, where his work was shown under the auspices of the Kestner-Gesellschaft. Also in 1923, Lissitzky created his Proun environment for the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung and executed his lithographic suites Proun and Victory over the Sun (illustrating the opera by Alexei Kruchenykh and Mikhail Matiushin), before traveling to Switzerland for medical treatment. In 1924, he worked with Kurt Schwitters on the issue of the periodical Merz called “Nasci,” and with Arp on the book Die Kunstismen. The next year, he returned to Moscow to teach at Vkhutemas-Vkhutein, which he continued to do until 1930. During the mid-1920s, Lissitzky stopped painting in order to concentrate on the design of typography and exhibitions. He created a room for the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Dresden in 1926 and another at the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover in 1927. He died in 1941 in Moscow.

'For the voice' by Vladimir Mayakovsky

'For the voice' by Vladimir Mayakovsky

1919 Proun 1 C 
oil on panel 68 x 68 cm

1920 Beat All the Scattered

1920 Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge

1920 Book cover for 'Suprematic tale about two squares'

1920 Cover to 'For the voice' by Vladimir Mayakovsky

1920 Do not read, grab bars, paper, pieces of wood, fold, paint, build

1920 Lenin Tribune

1920 Preliminary sketch for a poster

c1920 Proun 4 B. 
oil on canvas 70 x 56 cm

c1920 Untitled 
oil on canvas 80 x 50 cm

1922 Cover of the avant guard periodical 'Vyeshch'

1922 Proun 19 D

1922 Proun

1923 1o Kestnermappe Proun 
lithograph 60 x 44 cm

1923 Globetrotter (in Time) from 'Victory Over the Sun' portfolio
 lithograph 51 x 43 cm

1923 Gravediggers from 'Victory Over the Sun' portfolio
 lithograph 51 x 43.1 cm

1923 New Man

1923 Old Man (Head 2 Steps behind) from 'Victory Over the Son' portfolio 
lithograph 51 x 43 cm

1923 Proun 2

1923 Proun G 7 
tempera and varnish on canvas 77 x  62 cm

1923 Proun poster

1923 Sentry from 'Victory Over the Sun' portfolio 
lithograph 53.3 x 45.7 cm

1924 Proun 99 
129 x 99 cm

1925 Proun N 89 
collage, tempera 50 x 65 cm

1928 Basic Calculus

Proun 30

Proun 43

Proun 8

R. B. Kitaj - part 4

This is part 4 of a 4-part post on the works of American artist R. B. Kitaj (1932-2007). For biographical notes see part 1. For more works see parts 1, 2 & 3. This last part takes a look at two series of prints made in the 1960s.

Kitaj was a self-professed bibliomaniac. In 1969 his love of books provided the inspiration for "In Our Time: Covers for a Small Library After the Life for the Most Part" - a portfolio of 50 screenprints depicting the covers of select books from the his library. Made from enlarged photographic facsimiles of the actual covers, the prints replicate evidence of each book’s handling and use, such as torn bookjackets, stained pages, and worn bindings. Kitaj’s selections include books of significance to the artist (like Ezra Pound’s "How to Read"), as well as apparently random books or leaflets (like the city of Burbank’s annual budget for 1968–69) that reflect the idiosyncratic nature of Kitaj’s book collection, and of book collections in general. The portfolio also speaks to connections between the visual arts and literature, as well as Kitaj’s and other artists’ perception of book as object.

This is a selection from the edition:

City of Burbank Annual Budget

Edward Hopper

Ezra Pound, How to Read

George Gissing, Workers in the Dawn

Industrial Camouflage Manual

Intelligence Bulletin

London by Night

Mark Rothko

Max and the White Phagocytes

Maxim Gorky, Articles and Pamphlets

James Agee, Permit me Voyage

Damon Runyon, Short Takes

Robert W. Service, Songs of a Sourdough

Wyndham Lewis, The Caliph's Design

Vachel Lindsay, The Congo and Other Poems

Leon Trotsky, The Defence of Terrorism

W. B. Yeats, The Tower

The Wording of Police Charges

Kenneth Burke, Towards a Better Life

Carl Th. Dreyer, Vampyr

Howard Marshall, With Scott to the Pole

"Struggle in the West - the bombing of London (horizon/blitz)" : A set of seven screenprints and 1 title page (1967-69) Edition: edition of 70 in linen covered box made by Rudolf Rieser, Cologne.

 Set piece 1

Horizon / Blitz (Prologue)

Safeguarding of Life

Set piece 3

Bullets