Main entry:

Johnson, Samuel, 1982- author.

Title & Author:

El Lissitzky on paper : print culture, architecture, politics, 1919-1933 / Samuel Johnson.

Publication:

Chicago, IL ; London : The University of Chicago Press, [2024]
©2024

Description:

viii, 240 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), plans ; 27 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction -- UNOVIS : utopian or scientific? -- The international set -- Still movements -- Typographical architecture -- Toward an agitation-environment -- The image complex -- Afterword.

Summary:

"The artist and architect El Lissitzky (1890-1941) is celebrated for his contributions to painting, architecture, photography, and graphic design, and for his role in disseminating Russian and Soviet avant-garde art in Europe during the 1920s. Though he worked in a diversity of media, Lissitzky nonetheless produced the majority of his work on paper in the form of innovative photomontages, architectural drawings, lithographs, typography, books, and photo magazines. This monograph--the first career-spanning archival study of Lissitzky since 1968--reveals that the artist's multiple pursuits arose from his deep commitment to print as the premier medium of public exchange in the young and turbulent twentieth century. Samuel Johnson demonstrates that paper and print media were preoccupations that shaped Lissitzky's worldview, values, politics, and production in ways that have never been fully appreciated. Probing Lissitzky's stance on the problems of distribution and reception, this book offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of Lissitzky as experimenter, visionary designer, technocrat, and propagandist-the very prototype of the twentieth-century artist, with a legacy that remains largely on paper"-- Provided by publisher.
"An examination of the importance of paper in the work of Soviet artist, designer, and architect El Lissitzky. Russian artist El Lissitzky's work spans painting, photography, theatrical and exhibition design, architecture, graphic design, typography, and literature. He was active in the Jewish cultural renaissance, formed an artists' collective with Kazimir Malevich, was a key figure in the dissemination of early Soviet art in Western Europe, and designed propaganda for the Stalin regime. With such a varied history and body of work, scholars have often struggled to identify the core principles that tied his diverse oeuvre together. In El Lissitzky on Paper, Samuel Johnson argues that Lissitzky's commitment to creating works on paper is a constant that unites his endeavors. Paper played a key role in the utopian projects that informed Lissitzky's work, and the artist held a commitment to print as the premier medium of immediate public exchange. Johnson analyzes and contextualizes this idea against the USSR's strict management of this essential resource and the growth of new media communications, including the telephone, telegraph, and film. With this book, Johnson presents a significant contribution to scholarship on this major artist, revealing new connections between Lissitzky's work in architecture and visual art and bringing to light sources from largely unstudied Russian archives. "-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780226524238 hardcover
022652423X hardcover
electronic book
9780226524375

Subject:

Lissitzky, El, 1890-1941.
Design Soviet Union History.
Art, Soviet.
Architecture Soviet Union History.
Graphic arts Soviet Union History.
Avant-garde (Aesthetics) Soviet Union History.
Design URSS Histoire.
Art soviétique.
Architecture URSS Histoire.
Arts graphiques URSS Histoire.
ART / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945)
ARCHITECTURE / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945)
Design.
History.
Architecture.
Graphic arts.
Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Soviet Union.

Added entries:

Lissitzky, El, 1890-1941.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 319663
Call No.: 319663
Copy: 1
Status: External loan