Quick Design History: El Lissitzky #ThrowbackThursday

El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941)

Russian born El Lissitzky was another one of those crazy-arsed creatives in the early parts of the 20th Century who moved between different creative disciplines like we move through ‘friends’ on Facebook. Painting, photography, graphic design, architecture, you name it—Lissitzky was into it. Frankly I don’t know how they kept their focus, but for avant-garde artists like Lissitzky it was all part of the same creative endeavour, with a consistent concept joining it all together.

Lissitzky came to prominence during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution and this greatly affected his work. Joining a large group of artists who embraced the positive ideals of the Communist Revolution while things were still heading along a ‘positive’ path. Much of his work during these years focused around propaganda pieces or work with a strong political message.

Influenced by the work and ideas of Kazimir Malevich a painter and the founder of a movement he called Suprematism, Lissitzky embraced the use of bold geometric shapes and colour in his work to communicate his ideas. Moving beyond Malevich’s ideas he introduced three dimensional depth into his work, most notibly visible in his PROUNS (an acronym for “projects for the establishment of a new art”).

For me, I’m not such a fan of his typographic work—very much a product of his time—but his painting and installation work really floats my boat. I think its probably the architectural aspect to all the work and the beautiful sense of depth and space that he creates with simple shapes and colour.

Want to see El Lissitzky’s work up close? I’m sure I’ve seen some of his works hanging in MOMA in New York City and at the Tate Modern in London, so students in those two cities definitely need to head along and check out some of his work in the ‘flesh’.

Next week for Throwback Thursday, we feature one of the most influential Swiss Designers in design history. Stay tuned!