Page 28 - Studio International - October1973

after he severed in the Prouns all links with of a better world. As it had done so often in the
visible phenomena. But as we may now begin to past, Jewish culture takes over forms and
suspect, Proun continued not only the message symbols from non-Jewish sources as a means to
of the Revolution found in Chad Gadyo and insure its own vitality and progress.42
Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, not only If we look at Lissitzky in this way we can
their formal and structural modernism, but also better understand his break with Chagall and, in
their references to Jewish art and thought. its aftermath, the close relationship with
Malevich. Chagall invited Lissitzky to teach at
II the Vitebsk art school, after the Revolution
Many factors combined to propel Lissitzky placed it under Chagall's supervision. Soon
toward the non-objectivity of Proun. In 1919 he Lissitzky joined with Malevich to have Chagall
was working closely with Malevich, who years replaced by Malevich, an action which Chagall
before had rejected recognizable subjects as bitterly considered a betrayal by one he had
unnecessary 'ballast' in a painting. During the known so well.43 But did Lissitzky reject
first years of the Revolution there was the Chagall's art of figuration and fantasy merely
pervasive belief among forward-looking artists because it did not go as far as Malevich's
in Russia that the times demanded a 'new art', Suprematism ? Or was it perhaps that Chagall
no longer bound to the theoretical hair-splitting had remained stuck in the Jewish tradition,
of the Academy. Important, too, was the wish to rather than transcending it and modernizing it
be more advanced, more revolutionary than as Lissitzky was prepared to do ? For Lissitzky,
their avant-garde colleagues in the West. But an Chagall was too old-fashioned, too timid, too
equally important motivation behind unwilling to meet the demands of the times by
Lissitzky's embrace of complete abstraction creating a new Jewish art. And in Malevich
arose from the status of Jewish art in Russia in Study for Proun L.N. 31 c.1922-24 Lissitzky found a visionary artist who although
1919 and from the basic tenets of the Jewish Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven not Jewish, professed a philosophy having
attitude toward art. several points in common with certain Jewish
By this time restrictions were being the Jewish tradition in art.38 Yes, because the mystical beliefs.44
re-imposed on the publication of Jewish books. tradition needed to be not just revived, but It seems strange to connect Lissitzky with the
Following 'the short-lived flowering of the wholly rethought in the light of the discoveries by mystical side of Malevich; as I stated at the
Hebrew book after the Revolution',33 the the avant garde and the changes brought about outset, Lissitzky saw himself as a this-worldly,
opportunities open to an illustrator of Hebrew by the Revolution. In his article 'Suprematism rational artist-engineer, doing useful things for
texts disappeared. Similar limitations were in World Reconstruction', Lissitzky concluded, society. But there can be no question that of all
placed on Jewish social and political activity as a `After the Old Testament there came the New — his Russian contemporaries, Malevich was
whole.34 This development could indeed after the New the Communist — and after the closest to Lissitzky.45 If we examine closely the
buttress those views cited at the beginning of Communist there follows the Testament of Prouns and their relationship to the Jewish
this article which argued that the Prouns were Suprematism'.39 In creating the new world, mysticism Lissitzky experienced so intimately
separate from the Jewish illustrations. In fact, Lissitzky believed, one did not reject the Old as a youth in the Pale, we may begin to
the opposite seems to be true. Lissitzky looked Testament, the New Testament, and so on, but understand more fully the reasons for his close
to Proun as an art more in accord with Jewish rather he built upon them — with the Old ties with Malevich.
tradition than his prior efforts had been. Testament the foundation stone. The growth Let us start with the coining of the word
The Commandment 'Thou shalt not make from Chad Gadyo to the Prouns, therefore, Proun. It was an acronym signifying Tor the
unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of parallels what Sartre said about Heine, that the new art', chosen for its striking aural impact as
likeness, of anything that is in the heaven above latter's 'conversion' was an effort to 'escape into its very newness exemplified the newness of this
or is in the water under the earth'35 was, of the universal . . . to escape the Jewish condition art and the times. Such acronyms were very
course, rarely obeyed in the history of Jewish not by negatively fleeing it, but by positively popular in post-Revolution Russia — we earlier
art; one need only glance through any transcending it'.40 encountered Evkom — as a means for
compendium of Jewish art to appreciate the This effort to 'transcend' the Jewish tradition dramatizing the need for efficiency and economy
Jews' willingness to work in terms of while remaining true to its principles was during this period of upheavals and privation.
recognizable imagery.36 Yet if one pauses to encouraged by the Bolshevik authorities who But acronyms also played a crucial part in
consider the dilemma confronting Lissitzky at similarly tried to re-make Jewish customs in a Jewish mysticism. The Jewish Kabbalists, for
this time — the restrictions on Jewish art, the communist mould. For example, a 'Red example, devised three principal methods of
desire to c-eate a new art — it is likely that he Haggadah' was put out which substituted the interpretation to gain knowledge: Gematria,
turned to a literal acceptance of the Second liberation from the Tsar for the liberation from Temura, and Notarikon. Notarikon is employed
Commandment as a means to define a modern the pharaoh. There were suggestions that the in two ways, both aimed at abbreviation. The
art and a modern Jewish art. This traditional greeting cards be sent not on Rosh first way involves the forming of one word by
Commandment, Abraham Heschel observed, Hashanah, but on the anniversary of the taking the initial and final letters of another word
`implies more than a prohibition of images; it Revolution. Even the loaves of khalah should or words. The second way involves taking the
implies the rejection of all visible symbols for now be baked in the form of the hammer and letters of one name as being the initial or final
God'.37 Thus the Biblical prohibition of images sickle.41 There is, to be sure, a touch of letters of each word in a sentence'.46 The
neatly coincided with the modern movement's cynicism in these efforts. Lissitzky's turn to Kabbalists attached great value to the wisdom
own rejection of imagery in order to get to the Proun, while also reflecting his desire to create to be gained from such combinations of letters.
substance of reality. a new, modern Jewish art in the service of the Even the heavens revealed a 'celestial alphabet'
Certain statements made by Lissitzky now Revolution, included no such belittling views waiting to be deciphered.47 Hence the word
begin to take on a new significance. When he toward the fundamentals of Judaism. Instead Proun signified that in these compositions lay a
met Berlewi, who had also worked on Jewish the old-fashioned nature of Chad Gadyo is glimpse into the nature of the universe. But that
themes, in 1921, Lissitzky told him that there subsumed within the modernism of the Prouns. glimpse remained fully intelligible only to those
were more important tasks than simply to revive Bei zhidov yields to Bei byelikh and the promise few, to that elite, able to interpret the

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