"The Theater Unbound" by Alexander Tairov – Potsdam, 1927 – Designed by El Lissitzky

"The Theater Unbound" by Alexander Tairov – Potsdam, 1927 – Designed by El Lissitzky

Das entfesselte Theater [The Theater Unbound]. Potsdam: Gustav Keipenheuer, 1927. German. Second edition (the book was originally printed in Russian in 1921).

An essay on avant-garde theatre by Alexander Tairov (Александр Яковлевич Таиров; 1885-1950), theatre theoretician, founder and director of the Chamber Theatre in Moscow.

Binding and book designed by El Lissitzky. The book contains numerous illustrations and a dozen plates with reproductions of photographs and costume designs for the theatre.

[8], 112 pages + [12] plates. 24.5 cm. Good condition. Signature on the endpaper from 1935. Minor stains and creases. Stains to binding; tear to spine.

MoMA 477.

El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (Лазарь Маркович "Эль" Лисицкий; 1890-1941), Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect, one of the most prominent and important members of the Russian avant-garde.

Lissitzky, an architect by training, contributed much, together with his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich, to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematism movement – the abstract art focused on geometric forms. He also designed numerous books and journals, exhibitions, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe. In his early days, Lissitzky showed much interest in the Jewish culture and many of his works integrated Jewish motifs (during the years 1915-1916, he took part in the ethnographic expedition headed by S. An-sky to various Jewish settlements). Wanting to promote Jewish culture in Russia after the revolution, he became engaged in designing and illustrating Yiddish children's books, creating several children's books which are considered pioneering masterpieces due to their graphics and typography. However, several years later, he abandoned the Jewish motifs in favor of developing a more abstract and universal artistic language.

In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals; there he also created some of his most well-known works in the field of book design, including the issues of the journal "Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet", which he founded together with the writer Ilya Ehrenburh and a volume of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Lissitzky, who perceived books as immortal artifacts, "monuments of the future" by his definition, used the medium as a tool for spreading the messages of avant-garde and his artistic perception, as indicated by the variety of books in whose design, production or illustration he took part – beginning with children's books and books of poetry and ending with catalogs, guidebooks and research books.

Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence and bring about change.