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Untitled
ca. 1919-20
Oil on canvas
79.6 x 49.6 cm
76.2553 PG 43 |
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This painting reveals the principles of Suprematism
that El
Lissitzky absorbed under the influence of
Kazimir
Malevich in 1919–20. Trained as an
engineer and possessing a pragmatic temperament, Lissitzky
soon became one of the leading exponents of Constructivism
. In the 1920s, while living in Germany, he became an
important influence on both the De Stijl group and the
artists of the Bauhaus.
Like Malevich, he believed in a new art that rejected
traditional pictorial structure, centralized compositional
organization, mimesis, and perspectival consistency.
In this work the ladder of vividly colored forms seems
to be floating through indeterminate space. Spatial
relationships are complicated by the veil of white color
that divides these forms from the major gray diagonal.
The linkage of elements is not attributable to a mysterious
magnetic pull, but is indicated in a literal way by
the device of a connecting threadlike line. The winding
line changes color as it passes through the various
rectangles that may serve as metaphors for different
cosmic planes.
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