El Lissitzky

Happy Birthday El Lissitzky!! This Russian painter was born in 1890 and originally studied engineering. In 1916, he became part of a group of Jewish artists interested in establishing national Jewish art in Russia. After meeting Kasimir Malevich in 1919, Lissitzky switched his focus to Constructivism. The propaganda poster included in my blog today is titled Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. It is symbolic of the superior Communist Bolsheviks (sharp red wedge) defeating the Capitalist Whites (defenseless white circle). The color has meaning as well, the white a sign of defeat while red represents danger, power, and passion.

Constructivism-An abstract art movement desiring to create a new art for the new society the Communists were forming in the USSR. The idea was to use a simple vocabulary of geometric shapes familiar to all people to bring art into the lives of everyone.