“Imagine a moment when artists are asked to invent a new language of Art to convey a new way of being in this modern world.”
This challenge is posed by the press release for the new El Lissitzky exhibit at U.Va’s Art Museum. Located on Rugby Road, an art museum might not be the first thing you’d expect to find on that infamous stretch of asphalt, nor an exhibit from one of the progenitors of a style of art combining the geometry of space with movement. Until Dec. 28, however, that’s exactly what you’ll find there. Lissitzky’s exhibit will be hosted on the first floor of the museum and will house two complete portfolios of his art, Proun and Victory Over the Sun.
Lissitzky, born in Russia in 1890, was rejected from the Russian Art Academy (despite his qualifications) because of restrictions against Jews. As a result, he received architecture and engineering training in Germany, where he graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt (now known by the less exciting name Darmstadt University of Technology). His journey as a Russian artist began in 1917, when the fall of the czar coincided with the lifting of restrictions against Jews. Lissitzky returned to Russia and worked as a designer of books and in an art academy before he joined the Suprematism art movement.
“He was so far above any other artist of his time,” co-curator Beth Turner said, “because he had solved the question that all modern artists had wanted to do, and that was this idea of creating this space that incorporated movement, and not just one movement but several different kinds of movement ... A kind of movement that could defy gravity, visual gravity.”
Using the basic geometric figures and squares that characterize the Suprematism art form, Lissitzky combined simple shapes to great effect. Circles and squares have been used to create representations of human forms and characters in the colorful form of mechanical puppets from the play Victory Over the Sun and dizzying dimensions that seem to move on the paper in his monotone Proun portfolio.
The exhibit, however, is more than just Lissitzky’s art on the walls. According to Turner, it is a dialogue — one that got its start in Washington, D.C.
“The show originated at The Phillips Collection,” Turner said. “And it originated with the happy circumstance that a board member of the Phillips owned both portfolios that El Lissitzky had made in 1923 for the Kestner Society in Hanover, Germany.”
Standing outside the room, only the outlines of the rectangular prints are visible. More visually prominent are the painted walls, mirroring Lissitzky’s style, that dominate the space so the portraits look small in comparison. Once inside the room, however, the painted walls do not hinder the dramatic effect of Lissitky’s art. Rather, they heighten it.
This wall art was crafted by artist Hideyo Okamura, who strove to create a “dialogue” between the past (Lissitzky) and the present (himself). The exhibit room was painted white in preparation for this dialogue, which has been hosted three times before in three vastly different spaces, including at The Phillips Collection. A dialogue like this engages the whole body of the viewer — not just his gaze or mind. To Turner, this is the chief aim of all art.
“In addressing the whole person like that,” she said, “that’s what the arts are meant to do.”
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