"Architecture of VKhUTEMAS" – Moscow, 1927 – Cover Design by El Lissitzky

"Architecture of VKhUTEMAS" – Moscow, 1927 – Cover Design by El Lissitzky

Архитектура, работы Архитектурного факультета Вхутемаса, 1920-1927, edited by Pavel Y. Novitsky (Новицкий), with an introduction by Nikolai Dokuchaev (Докучаев). Moscow: Вхутемаса, 1927. Russian.

A booklet presenting the works of the Department of Architecture at the Higher Art and Technical Studios (VKhUTEMAS; Вхутемас) in Moscow, from 1920-1927; accompanied by 45 plates with reproductions of various buildings and architectural projects created by the institution's staff and students. Cover design by El Lissitzky.

The VKhUTEMAS design and architecture school was an educational institution established in Moscow in 1920, which became an important center of the Russian avant-garde (a Soviet equivalent of sorts of the German Bauhaus).

The institution combined innovative modernist principles and the use of new materials and construction methods, greatly influencing modern architecture in Russia. Among the prominent figures who were associated with the institution were El Lissitzky, Joseph Chaikov, Alexander Rodchenko, and others.

XIII, 45 pages. 24.5 cm. Good condition. Minor stains. Creases and tears to margins of some leaves. Tears, including open tears, and wear to cover edges. Rear cover partially detached.

MoMA 702.

El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (Лазарь Маркович "Эль" Лисицкий; 1890-1941), Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect, one of the most prominent and important members of the Russian avant-garde.

Lissitzky, an architect by training, contributed much, together with his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich, to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematism movement – the abstract art focused on geometric forms. He also designed numerous books and journals, exhibitions, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe. In his early days, Lissitzky showed much interest in the Jewish culture and many of his works integrated Jewish motifs (during the years 1915-1916, he took part in the ethnographic expedition headed by S. An-sky to various Jewish settlements). Wanting to promote Jewish culture in Russia after the revolution, he became engaged in designing and illustrating Yiddish children's books, creating several children's books which are considered pioneering masterpieces due to their graphics and typography. However, several years later, he abandoned the Jewish motifs in favor of developing a more abstract and universal artistic language.

In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals; there he also created some of his most well-known works in the field of book design, including the issues of the journal "Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet", which he founded together with the writer Ilya Ehrenburh and a volume of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Lissitzky, who perceived books as immortal artifacts, "monuments of the future" by his definition, used the medium as a tool for spreading the messages of avant-garde and his artistic perception, as indicated by the variety of books in whose design, production or illustration he took part – beginning with children's books and books of poetry and ending with catalogs, guidebooks and research books.

Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence and bring about change.