Self-Portrait

1921–1925

In Berlin: Schwitters, Moholy-Nagy, van Doesburg

In Berlin Lissitzky meets and befriends Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy and Theo van Doesburg. Together with Schwitters and van Doesburg he presents the idea of an international artistic movement under the guidelines of constructivism, and works with Schwitters on the issue “Nasci” (“Nature”) of the periodical Merz; he also joins the Dutch group De Stijl.

1922

First solo exhibition in Hanover

The year after the publication of his first Proun series in 1921, Kurt Schwitters introduces Lissitzky to the Hanover gallery Kestnergesellschaft, where he holds his first solo exhibition. The second Proun series, printed in Hanover in 1923, is a success.

1922

The magazine “Veshch” with Ehrenburg

In 1922 in Berlin Lissitzky and Ilya Ehrenburg launch the short-lived magazine “Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet”, published in Russian, German and French to show contemporary Russian art to Western Europe; in the first of its two issues he declares the triumph of the constructive method — art's task is not to adorn life but to organize it. The first issue also carries articles by Blaise Cendrars, Le Corbusier, van Doesburg, Viking Eggeling, Carl Einstein, Fernand Léger, Lajos Kassák and Ljubomir Micić.

1923

The Proun Room at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition

In 1923, for the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, Lissitzky transforms a small room (about 3 by 3 by 2.5 m) into a single work of art, the Proun Room, which lets viewers “walk into an image” and become active participants. He violates the unwritten rule of rejecting the commercialization of art by putting price tags on three elements of the room; the price tags, together with his “half-dance” during the demonstration of the room, alienate his friend Theo van Doesburg.

1923–1924

Tuberculosis and a Swiss hospital

In 1923–1924 Lissitzky is severely ill with tuberculosis and stays in a Swiss hospital; at this time he is reported even to have considered suicide. He will die of tuberculosis in 1941.

1925

Return to the USSR

Lissitzky's years in Germany and Switzerland run from 1921 to 1925; it appears that in 1925 he returns to the Soviet Union.