New Man

El Lissitzky had the unusual distinction of being a key member of both the Russian and Western European avant-gardes. He made significant contributions to the Jewish cultural renaissance in Russia, illustrating children's books, designing journals, and co-founding a Yiddish publishing house. He also traveled frequently to Germany, settling there for periods, and becoming well known for his masterful graphic design. His work included paintings, photographs, photo-montages, designs for exhibitions, architecture, books, and also prints - primarily lithographs. He invented imagery known as Proun (Project for the Affirmation of the New), which consisted of images of floating architectonic structures that occupied an imagined three-dimensional space through which one might move above, below, and through. The Proun style can be seen in New Man, the name of a character in the groundbreaking 1913 Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun. After seeing a 1920 production staged in Vitebsk, Lissitzky adapted the opera for a cast of mechanical puppets. His designs incorporate the geometry and limited color palette of Suprematism and the multi-dimensionality of the Proun images.