Wendingen

1921 (published 1923) · Print

Particulars

Accession number: 1995.77.4

Meanwhile, in the life of El Lissitzky

The whole life

May 1919
Chagall's invitation and the move to Vitebsk
In May 1919, at Marc Chagall's invitation, Lissitzky returns to Vitebsk to teach graphic arts, printing and architecture at the newly formed People's Art School, which Chagall created after being appointed Commissioner of Artistic Affairs for Vitebsk. Lissitzky designs and prints propaganda posters and illustrations for a local newspaper; he later never mentioned them, probably because he portrayed Leon Trotsky and other early revolutionaries who later became enemies of the Soviet state.
October 1919
Persuading Malevich to move to Vitebsk
In October 1919, on an errand in Moscow, Lissitzky persuades Kazimir Malevich to relocate to Vitebsk. Malevich brings a wealth of new ideas, which inspire Lissitzky but clash with the local public and professionals who favoured figurative art, and with Chagall himself.
1919–1920
Choosing Malevich and breaking with Chagall
Malevich replaces the school's classical teaching programme with his own and spreads suprematist theory school-wide; Lissitzky, still loyal to Chagall, is torn between two opposing paths but ultimately favours suprematism and breaks away from traditional Jewish art, and Chagall leaves the school shortly afterwards — he later recalled that his most zealous disciple, the moment he was appointed professor, went over to his opponents' camp. Lissitzky designs Malevich's book “On the New System in Art”, printed in 1,000 copies — an enormous number for an art book.
17 January – February 1920
Malevich and Lissitzky found Molposnovis, which becomes UNOVIS
On 17 January 1920 Malevich and Lissitzky co-found the short-lived group Molposnovis (“Young Followers of a New Art”); after a brief and stormy dispute and two rounds of renaming, it re-emerges in February as UNOVIS, the “Exponents of the New Art”. The group, disbanded in 1922, was pivotal in spreading suprematist ideology and launched Lissitzky's status as a leading figure of the avant-garde; its members signed works with a black square, while Lissitzky used a red one.

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1921

Leaving for Germany as a “cultural emissary”

In 1921, as UNOVIS declines and suprematism begins to fracture into a utopian, spiritual half and a utilitarian one, Lissitzky aligns with neither and leaves Vitebsk: he takes a job as a “cultural emissary” of Soviet Russia and moves to Weimar Berlin to establish contacts between Russian and German artists — what exactly he did in this role remains unclear. In 1921–1925 he lives in Germany and Switzerland.