Tuesday, November 24, 1998
Lissitzky exhibit opens at the Getty
ART: Russian master uses multidimensional style, transcending
limitations
By Erin Beatty
Daily Bruin Contributor
Suspended images serenely float amidst interested spectators.
Paintings, elaborate photographs and futuristic landscapes draw
attention while capturing the multi-dimensional artwork of El
Lissitzky.
The exhibition of the Russian artist’s work is currently on
display in "Monuments of the Future: Designs by El Lissitzky" at
the Getty Research Institute in the Getty Center. The exhibit,
which consists of 133 works spanning the artist’s career, runs
through Feb. 21, 1999.
Born in 1890, Lissitzky produced work which varies tremendously.
It moves from abstract geometric paintings, to complex letterheads
that use varied typographic designs and manipulate the arrangement
of letters, to photographic spreads for Soviet albums and
magazines.
Yet through his vast variation the artist conveys a connected
theme which unites nationalities, expressing to the common man and
reviving his own Russian Jewish culture.
Nancy Perloff, the Research Institute’s curator of manuscripts
and archives and organizer of this exhibit, explains that Lissitzky
was an artist with a mission.
"He had a mission that he assigned himself somehow early on,"
Perloff says. "And though it was never expressly articulated, I
think the mission involved developing visual language that could
communicate across cultures, across countries, across national
bounds."
The chronological arrangement of the artist’s work displays
Lissitzky’s unusual versatility. Eva Foracs, visiting UCLA
professor at the Department of Art History, who helped organize the
exhibit, explains that there were two things trying to be
communicated through the presentation of the art.
"On the one hand is this unusual versatility of this artist,"
Foracs says. "He had very different periods, where he did such very
different work. And on the other hand, we also wanted to make the
point that there still was this underlying continuity there."
The organizers achieved this by varying the textures of the
exhibit, making some designs closer than others within their
plastic casing. Sitting as the centerpiece of the foyer is a
plexi-glass case which holds some of the books and letters produced
by Lissitzky.
Personal letters, which Lissitzky wrote to his wife, are a
highlight of the exhibit. Each letterhead uniquely designed,
Lissitzky artistically arranged words to represent their
meanings.
Perloff says , "The goal from the very beginning was to find a
new way to show his books, not as works of art suspended and framed
on a wall but as active, dynamic, three-dimensional objects that
were not meant to lie flat in a display case and be looked down
on."
Lissitzky’s books, like the rest of his works, are all very much
connected to the notion of a three-dimensional treatment, even of a
flat surface. His artistry is never supposed to look flat, but
rather it moves and rotates with the eye of the viewer.
His books are another medium Lissitzky used to connect his
artwork, the common man and himself to a wide variety of
people.
"Books were a form of art which were related to community, much
more than pictures and paintings, which were individually made and,
in principle, addressed another individual," explains Foracs. "He
made this wonderful statement that the book is not like the
cathedral, where you have to go. Rather, you can take it in hand
and have it at home."
Authors would come to Lissitzky, knowing his works and what he
was trying to convey, and ask him to illustrate their literature.
Using pictures and pictorial arrangements of letters, he would
further enhance the writing, communicating meaning within the
text.
The exhibit draws entirely on the Getty’s own collections and
displays Lissitzky’s range of talent by showing personal letters he
wrote with abstract letterhead, as well as architectural designs he
created.
One of Lissitzky’s later works, produced in 1924, captures the
artist’s self-image and image of his work. In "The Constructor," a
photogram, consists of an abstract self-portrait of Lissitzky’s
seemingly transparent head, blended into a picture of a hand
holding a drawing compass.
The exhibit conveys the purpose of the artist and hopes to
promote his work throughout the west and to a wider audience.
Lissitzky’s art attempts to redefine the concept of the artist,
making the artist an engineer – sculpting information rather than
merely presenting it.
ART: "Monuments of the Future: Designs of El Lissitzky" shows at
the J. Paul Getty Research Institute through Feb. 21, 1999. For
more information, call (310) 440-7300.PATIL ARMENIAN
"Monuments of the Future: Designs by El Lissitzky" shows
at the Getty Research Institute from Nov. 21, 1998 to Feb. 21,
1999.
Photo Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust
"All-Union Printing Trades Exhibition. Bulletin 1" from the
"Monuments of the Future": Designs by El Lissitzky exhibit at the
Getty Center.
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