El LISSITZKY

1890–1941

El Lissitzky

El Lissitzky

Studied at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt and traveled in France and Italy (1909-1914). Returned to Russia (1914) and worked as an architectural draftsman. Designed cover for Konstantin Bol’shakov’s book of poetry, Solntse na izlete [Spent Sun] (1916). Exhibited with World of Art in Petrograd (1917) and thereafter at many exhibitions in the Soviet Russia and abroad. Member of the IZO NKP (1918). Professor at Vitebsk Popular Art Institute (1919). Close contact with Kazimir Malevich and then Ilia Chashnik, Vera Ermolaeva, Lazar’ Khidekel, and Nikolai Suetin. Developed the idea of the Proun (Project for the Affirmation of the New). Member of Unovis. Member of Inkhuk in Moscow (1920). Professor at Vkhutemas (1920-1922).With Ilia Ehrenburg, edited journal Veshch’/Gegenstand/Objet in Berlin (1922). Worked on typographical and architectural design. Published Pro dva kvadrata [About Two Squares], Built the Proun Room for the “Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung” of 1923. Published folio of six Proun lithographs and album of figures for Victory over the Sun and designed the Berlin edition of Vladimir Maiakovsky’s Dlia golosa [For the Voice] (1923). 1925 onwards active primarily as an exhibition and typographical designer, inventing new concepts for exhibition rooms such as the Abstrakte Kabinet in Hannover (1927-1928). Joined the October group (1928). Published treatise on modern architecture, Russland: Architektur fur eine Weltrevolution (1930). Worked for the propaganda magazine USSR in Construction (1930s).

Ukrainian Artists

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