Page 18 - Studio International - March 1972

our architecture belong to this social Revolution, economic status this city is designed'. The plan Correspondence
and not to the technical one', and 'architecture betrays a total lack of practicability, and
thus will become the expression of social Lissitzky derisively terms it a gorod v nigdye, or
conditions'. `city in nowhere'. In conclusion, western
As we read further through the text, however, architects can teach Russians useful information
we can detect Lissitzky reverting to his earlier on the handling of new materials, but their
views. In the chapter 'Rekonstruktion des approach to architecture is crippled by the
Industriebaues', for example, Lissitzky confusion and errors Lissitzky observes
emphasizes the need for the architect to pervading the work of someone like Le
recognize the influence of form and composition Corbusier.
on the people using the building, and he thus In 'Idols and Idolaters' Lissitzky comes across
affirms his adherence to a functionalist, rather as well in agreement with the most vituperative
than a utilitarian concept of architecture. Or, as social realists. He now appears as an artist
Lissitzky stated in a letter to his friend J. J. P. moving from the lofty idealism of the 192os to a
Oud, one wants 'an architecture that contains decision to go along with new government
something convincing and supra-utilitarian, policies on art in the thirties. It is the time for
what one would signify with the impoverished his work on exhibition designs, on the journal
word Art'. In the chapter `Zukunft und Utopie' USSR in Construction, but the ideal vision of the
Lissitzky envisions that idealistic, anti- Prouns and of the essays of the preceding
gravitational architecture distinctly recalling his decade is over. 'His tragedy', Chimen
vision in 'Der Suprematismus des Weltaufbaus'. Abramsky has written, 'was that once the
Russland may be seen, therefore, as a Revolution was set on a conservative course the
transitional work in Lissitzky's theoretical ruling society frowned on his art, and forced
development, which responds to pressures from him, more or less, to abandon his daring and
governmental policies at the beginning but later challenging experiments'.20
evokes the idealism and vision of the Prouns. In
this respect Russland, published in Vienna and
chiefly influential among western architects,
greatly differs from articles Lissitzky wrote for 1 The most recent allusion to Lissitzky as a 'bridge'
between Suprematism and Constructivism occurs
Soviet journals at the end of the 1920s. in John Elderfield's 'On Constructivism', Artforum,
In the November-December 1928 issue of Vol. 9, No. 9, May 1971, p 61, though Elderfield
Stroitelnaya Promishlennost appeared Lissitzky's criticizes this term since it tends to obscure
Lissitzky's original contribution.
brief article, 'Idola i idolopoklonniki', or 'Idols 2 All Lissitzky's essays discussed in this article, unless
and Idolaters', which apparently has remained otherwise noted, may be found in Sophie
Lissitzky-Küppers's El Lissitzky, Greenwich, Connecticut,
unknown to scholars focusing on Lissitzky. He 1968.
begins the article with rather dogmatic 3 H. L. C, Jaffe, De Stijl 1917-1931, The Dutch
assertions about building socialism and the Contribution to Modern Art, Amsterdam, 1956, pp
necessity for developing an appropriate 128 ff.
4 Lissitzky, 'Proun'.
architecture. This idea is not very different from 5 Troels Andersen, Moderne Russisk Kunst 1910-1930.
analogous statements found earlier in Lissitzky's Copenhagen, 1967,p 112.
6 Joost Baljeu, 'The Content of the Contemporary
writings, but it does signify a changing attitude Construction', Structure, 3rd series, No. 2, 1961, p 41.
when we consider the much harsher and more 7 Lissitzky, `Bauhauz v Dessau', Stroitelnaya
critical approach by which Lissitzky discusses Promishlennost, Vol. 5, No. I, January 1927, p 54.
the development of architecture in the West. He 8 "For the New Art" : El Lissitzky's Prouns',
Artforum, Vol. 8, No. 2, October 1969, p 66.
singles out Le Corbusier as the principal 9 Lissitzky, Russland, Architektur far eine
representative of the west in modern Weltrevolution, Frankfurt, 1965, pp 10-11.
10 Lissitzky, 'New Russian Art'.
architecture. The real genius behind Le
11 Ibid., and 'Ausstellungen in Berlin'.
Corbusier, Lissitzky maintains, is the tradition 12 Lissitzky, 'Das Lebensfilm von El bis 1926'.
of engineering structures of the nineteenth 13 Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, 'Constructivism from Kasimir
Malevich to Laszlo Moholy-Nagy', Arts and
century with which we are all familiar, as was
Architecture, Vol. 83, No. 5, June 1966, pp 24-25.
Lissitzky, through the studies of Siegfried For a good discussion of the non-Euclidian geometry
Giedion. This great French tradition then of Lobachevsky, and Riemann, see John Adkins
Richardson, Modern Art and Scientific Thought,
entered a period of decline after 1890 with the
Urbana, Illinois, 1971, chapter 3, `Cézanne and the
growing 'exhaustion' of the bourgeoisie. Le Dissolution of A Priori Space', pp 33-56.
Corbusier reveals this exhaustion in his 14 Baljeu, 'The Problem of Reality with Suprematism,
withdrawal inward, in his dealing now only Constructivism, Proun, Neoplasticism, and
Elementarism', The Lugano Review, Vol. t, No. 1,
with his own individual expression while 1965, pp 112-113.
becoming increasingly tied to the wealthy 15 Higgens, 'Art and Politics in the Russian
classes. All this is condemned by Lissitzky with Revolution', Studio International, Vol. 18o, No. 927,
November 1970, pp 164-167.
the most severe statements of anathema, well in 16 Lissitzky, 'Arkitektura zhileznoi i zhilezobetoni
accord with the general evolution of Social rami', Stroitelnaya Promishlennost, Vol. 4, No. 1,
January 1926, p 63.
Realism. 17 Lissitzky, 'New Russian Art'.
But then comes the kind of criticism we 18 Lissitzky, 'Unser Buch'. The great exhibition Saturday night
would hardly expect from Lissitzky. 19 Vieri Quilici, L'architettura del costruttivismo, struggle
Discussing Le Corbusier's plan for a city of the Bari, 1969, P 394. In the British art magazines in the last few
2° Chimen Abramsky, 'Does Art Relate to Revolution ?
future, Lissitzky complains that 'once again, we The Russian Experience', Art and Artists, Vol. 4, No. months, there has been considerable space given
do not know for what society, for what class of 5, August 1969, p 3o. to the question of selection of artists for large
92