Page 32 - Studio International - October 1966

El Lissitzky as Jewish illustrator and typographer

At the turn of the century in Russia there was a revival
of interest among Jews in their folk arts. A group of
intellectuals under the direction of the historian Simon
Dubnow and the Russian Jewish writer S. An-Ski
(Rapoport) founded the Jewish Ethnographic Society,
which carried on in the press and through meetings a
campaign to encourage the collecting of Jewish objects of
art and the founding of a Jewish museum in Petrograd.
In addition, it gave material encouragement to young
artists such as Chagall, Natan Altman, Isochor Ber
Ryback, and El Lissitzky.
Because of Lissitzky's knowledge of architecture, he was
sent to examine old synagogues in Byelorussia and the
Ukraine, where many synagogues had painted Arks and
carvings depicting scenes of Jewish life. He spent nearly
two years on this task, collecting material on primitive
Jewish art and making over 200 rubbings—the majority
of which are now in Russia, though some are in the
possession of the artist Boris Aronson in New York.
Lissitzky recorded his impressions of this work in an
interesting article in the Hebrew-Yiddish art journal
Rimon Milgroim in 1922.
The study of synagogues attracted Lissitzky to the
Hebrew alphabet. Fascinated by the way ancient Jewish
scribes had used letters of the alphabet for ornamenta-
tion both in synagogues and in manuscripts and printed
books, he began to experiment with decorating Hebrew
letters in Yiddish and introducing new architectural
elements in book design. He was perhaps the first pioneer
in modern times to see the possibilities of adapting an old
traditional craft to avant-garde ideas.
Between 1917 and 1922 he devoted a great deal of time
to illustrating Yiddish books for children and designing
A note on Lissitzky's early life title pages for Yiddish books. To an extent these five
El Lissitzky was born in Polschinok, a small town near Smolensk, years are isolated from the rest of his artistic achieve-
on November 23,1890, the son of a Jewish artisan and grandson of ment but they are of interest in the light of his search for
a wood-carver. He inherited his grandfather's talent and early new forms and styles. Many of his illustrations are remini-
showed a talent for drawing. In 1909 he left Smolensk high school,
and because of restrictions on Jews entering higher technical scent of the style then used by Chagall. This comes out
schools or universities went to Darmstadt in Germany to study clearly in lithographs for the Jewish Passover story Chad
architecture. He travelled widely across Europe, visited Paris, Cadya (The Story of a Goat, Kiev 1919). Although pro-
and walked across Italy—returning also by foot. duced under Chagall's influence, however, there were
He graduated in 1912 as an architectural engineer, and in the already signs that he was veering away from Chagall's
same year took part in the first exhibition in the St Petersburg
sentimentality and romanticism, adopting a more
Artists' Union. On the eve of the First World War he returned to
Russia, but was not called up owing to poor health. In 1915 he sardonic style, and introducing elements of architectural
received the Moscow diploma of architecture. design in the spacing of letters and the structure of the
During 1916-17 Lissitzky took part in the exhibitions arranged by characters. He was also abandoning Chagall's influence
Mir lsskusstwo (The World of Art), the movement initiated by
by going back to medieval Hebrew manuscripts, as in the
Diaghilev, and Bubowi Valet (The Doll's Game).
illustrations to a story for children Sichas Chulin (An Un-
holy Story, Moscow 1917) by the Yiddish writer Moshe
Broderson. He not only illustrated the book; he also wrote