Artist: El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890-1941).
Title: "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge".
Medium: Original color lithograph.
Date: Composed 1919. Printed c1926.
Dimensions: Image size: 18 1/4 x 22 1/8 in. (464 x 562 mm).
Lot Note(s): Edition unknown, presumed very small. Off-white wove paper. Margins. Fine, strong impression. Overall good condition with no serious issues. Minor edge tears, not into the image. The work could be conserved easily. It has not been hinged. Literature/catalogue raisonne: Lissitzky-Kuppers 40. Comment(s): An extremely important print and arguably El Lissitzky's most famous image. Our example compares favorably with the example printed c1926 which sold for $41,400 at Swann Galleries, New York City, April 21, 2005, lot #70. In this propaganda object published during the Russian Civil War, the intrusive red wedge symbolizes the Bolsheviks, who are penetrating and defeating their opponents, the White Movement. Lazar Markovich Lissitzky was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the former Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design. [27851-5-16000] |
