Maker/Artist

Lissitzky, El

Russian artist and architect, 1890-1941, active in Germany and Russia

From 1909-1914, Lissitzky attended the Technical High School in Darmstadt, Germany, after which he returned to Moscow. In 1917, he qualified as an architect in that city and two years later, he taught at the Fine Arts Academy in Witebsk, later moving to the Fine Arts Academy in Moscow in 1921. In 1922, Lissitzky worked out of Berlin where he made contact with Bauhaus artists. Here, he first experimented with photography, creating posters and book covers. From 1922 to 1924 Lissitzky worked in Hanover, Germany and began producing photograms, becoming the first artist to use photograms for publicity purposes. Along with Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy, Lissitsky one of those who refined the use of the photogram. Lissitzky moved to Switzerland in 1924 to receive treatment for tuberculosis. One year later he returned to Moscow and was named a professor at the School of Interior Architecture and continued to produce photographic experiments and collages. From 1932 to 1940, Lissitzky worked for the magazine "USSR in Construction". He worked in a freelance capacity for the magazine which worked to promote the idea of Soviet industrialization.

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